The May 11th flood wiped out our grass beds, particularly the fine bladed grass that normally rings the lake by June. Coontail made a valiant effort to fill the void, but its growth was hampered by falling water levels. The result was a mass movement of the bass to the timber. Most of our big bass are caught from the grass in normal years; as a result I had forgotten the agony of trying to winch fish out of the brush. Big fish have eluded capture all summer as the fish remained glued to the wood. During an evening fish I had one stretch where 4 out of 6 fish I caught were tangled in some type of wood.

Yesterday I went out for an hour of fishing, mostly to check on guests. The fish were still tight to the cover, but since temperatures have cooled the grass beds have returned with a vengeance. I was continually feeling and dragging back bright green grass in areas that had been void of any of plant life just 10 days previous. The bass are actually responding to the jig better than the plastic worm right now, a switch coincident with the new plant life?

We received 7+” of rain last week and the lake level is now back to 4″ above full and steady. Runoff was minimal and the water has its normal algae stain. Looking forward to the bass migrating back to the grass for the fall. Still have plenty of openings for late Sept and all of October. Hope you can squeeze in one last outing before the snow flies!