by Jeff Little » Tue Jun 07, 2011 8:36 pm
Day two:
They are still shallow, or more accurately, the big ones are still regularly visiting shallow. I scrambled to get one of the video cameras into its waterproof housing when I saw three largemouth (two of them were in the 6 lb range) cruising shallow where the carp were mucking up an area and the bluegill were on beds. The demeanor of the big bass was that of a pack of middle school bullies cutting through an elementary school playground. Every panfish shuffled out of the way, not altogether disappearing, but got tight to whatever cover they could find. I did not get the camera set up together in time, but I did film some smallmouth in the 16 inch range hanging back from the cloud of muck kicked up from the feeding carp.
Big fish of the day was a 17 inch smallmouth that hit a Little Tube in riverbottom. I fished that most of the day, catching crazy numbers. The rock bass were impressive. The longest one of those went 11 inches and was really fat. I am putting that lure down tomorrow and sticking with the worm, or other larger offerings. It is supposed to be really hot the next two days, so fishing deep may finally take center stage. The big largemouth I spotted in several areas all seemed to be relating to large laydowns, especially on the deep end.