Sunday August 8th

[Ca_Bass]

Fished for about two hours before the wife was bored and my son was asleep. Caught 4 , 1 small tuc and 3 small largemouths with softplastic jerkbaits and small hard jerkbaits in the grass. My son cried when I let the first fish go, that was the first fish he's seen caught. I saw a whole bunch of LGMB about 6 to 7 inches no tags. Looks like the bass actually spawned this year. I left for deployment in April and it seemed that earlier this year it was abnormally cold for hawaii. I wonder if the cooler water helped the bass spawn. I know most LGM's spawn when the water reaches about 60 degrees. Not 100% on this but I don't think the lake usually get that low ever. Does anyone remember the water temps from the begining of the year?

I saw a few spawning tucs but not many, and some isolated busting around Boy Scout Island area to morgans point. Most of the busts seemed to be smaller fish but did see a few larger busts near the grassy areas

[adpetree]

dont think the water temps reached into the 60's this year. good report. with the way the lake levels are dropping, you gotta get down on that grass bite while its still there. im a little worried whats gonna happen to the smaller and fingerling bass once the grass goes away.....

[Ca_Bass]

Although I like the water levels up, it seems with them being down as long as they were let the grass spread much further down the banks. Last week was the first time I had fished the lake in about a year. When I went down around BSI I was amazed at the. grass to the right side of the island. I hope the water levels go up and cover that grass by a couple feet, I would love to throw a topwater over it and watch the fish explode.

[roadwarriorsvt]

I got out to BBP for a couple of hours this evening. Ended up with 12 Tucs (live bait only).

[fish4fun]

Went out from 10-2 w/my brother. Fished around BSI with no luck and then caught about 10 tucs around Miki Flats. Mostly 1#s, but my bro caught a 5# Cat, and 1 tuc that was close to 3#s. All on live bait. I thought the fishing was decent considering we were fishing midday.
Did see a group of 3 shore fisherman pull in nice 2-3# tuc as we passed, unfortunately when i looked back, I saw them put it on their stringer. Oh well, I figure the reality is that taking a few really won't do much to the population.
actually I was thinking that a slot limit of 2 tucs between 10 and 15" might be a good thing for the larger fish. Seems like u end up going thru a lot that size to get to a bigger one. On the other hand I don't know anyone personally that would actually eat them.
Btw I'm the guy that bought Larrys boat. Got to say I am enjoying the upgrade (I was fishing a 10' plastic boat prior). After feeling the midday heat today, I went home and installed a bimini. Hopefully the added comfort will encourage the wife and kids to join me. Which means More lake time

[Ca_Bass]

I thought that was larrys boat but didn't see larry , I was in the other tracker on the lake. I wish they would have a slot on the lake as well. I think it would make bigger tucs and also help out the largmouth which are less aggresive. I don't eat fish....I'm allergic to them. Like you I don't get too upset with people who take a few except they're breaking the law. I do have wonder if the slot limit would even matter though, since people already take fish what would make them adhear to a slot. Maybe some signs threatening heafty fines. I wonder if there have been any thoughts about a limit by the DLNR?

[Stan Wright]

In April I again started keeping records of all my trips...
First part of the month the HIGH water temperature was 68.
I'm sure it was lower than than that at night... I remember seeing
65 degrees at the ramp as we started out in the morning.

3rd week of April it hit 75 degrees and I recorded an 82 on April 30th.
I tried to take the HIGH temperatures of the day.

In Jan and Feb or 2004 the water temperature was 70 to 74 degrees.
Pretty much the same in 2005.

[BASSTRACKER]

you missed the grassbeds just under the surface, man they looked soooooooooo invitng and perfect. threw frogs, buzzed buzzbaits,poppers,floating worms.......... nada no fish in the grass!!! several weeks of trying but they wernt there. took a long time for the fry to occupy the grass and get to catchable 4-6in size.hopefully next year a repeat of the water level and BAMMMM topwater action baby!

[roadwarriorsvt]

Yep. Hopefully when they fix the flood gates, they will keep the water at a more constant level. Seems the level is falling by the day....

[Ca_Bass]

Thanks Stan, I know the lakes I grew up fishing in Ca, the bass would generally start to spawn at 64 degrees and was usually in April as well. The last 5 years I've been fishing Wilson I've never ever seen a largemouth on a bed. I'm no bioligist(maybe when I grow up ) but I would have to think the water temp inducing spawning had a big part to do with all the LGM fingerling, or maybe the water levels being down exposed the rocky/sandy bottoms LGM prefer to spawn on to the prefered depths. I dunno but I'm glad to see it.

Basstracker, wish I could of been here for it. I would have pouded it for hours maybe days it would have been too inviting not to Hopefully I won't be deployed next time the water levels go up. Well I'm sure they'll go up sometime in the next few months but I want to hit it with water levels up and clarity levels up as well. The biggest factor I've noticed at wilson when it comes to the amont of fish I catch is clarity.

I didn't know there was a mechanical issue with the flood gates. I thought there was some sort of reasoning behind it.