Okay, I will post now that the action has cooled slightly. I made 3 trips over the last 2 weeks to my favorite bass lake. In reviewing my past journal entries I saw that there were definite windows where action was hot. I figured it was still early for any topwater. I was surprised by how high the lake is despite the dry winter. My first trip yielded 4 bass after 1 pm, the largest 16" but very healthy. I used a sink tip line, casting tight to the shore and stripping back immediately. I christned my Phillipson 9' Power Pakt rod - it did well with the bass taper line, but a full day of casting did the cork grip no favors. I got it out of my system and went to plastic for the next 2 trips. Oh, I did get one on topwater - a brown Baby-doll cast deep into a mess of tree branches where one was noodling. The second trip was epic. Went with my buddy Rod who had been a week earlier also. We caught several in the morning up to 18", but killed in the late afternoon. Rod was using smaller flies, 12-14 Prince nymphs and the like, I had continued luck with the crystal buggers (black plastic bead-chain eyes) pictured above. Chartreuse/black the first day, the brown was magic the second day. Working the shoreline in the afternoon, we'd cast to any shadowed area (rocky areas produced best). An intermediate sinking line did better than the sink tip. I scored 3 over 20" and most were very fat & healthy. We also caught a couple of chunky bluegills (10-12"!). The just seemed to migrate to the shorelines as the sun was setting. There was a stretch where every second cast yielded a fish. I was borrowing Rods plastic 8 weight (some Sage RP-something and it took me longer to working in the larger fish as I didn't know if it would explode) - I have to admit it cast well and let me punch my casts out quickly. I also didn't experience "Popeye arm" at the end of the day. My trip this week was more consistent throughout the day, a larger range in size (10 to 18") but no spurt at the end of the day. Color changes seemed to be in order - chartreuse then olive then brown and back to olive. I only got into bass once last year and they seem much healthier this year. I could tell the plant growth was coming up, I pulled in clusters several times where I was weed free last week. I did see a little top water activity. It will be a couple of weeks before I have a chance to return, but I'm hoping I'll find them on top or chasing the fry in the shallows then.
