Big Lake.....7-3-14

[Gerald]

Got up early and was on the water a little before daylight.

Water only had a little ripple from the 3-6 mph winds from a northerly direction.

Water was ok [6" to 10" visibility] but had a stained brown color. Water temp. was 86-88 F.

At my first stop there was many schools of bait fish and some trout hitting the bait. I caught 5 or 6 trout but all were under size. I did hook one nice fish on a mirrowdine but the fight only lasted 10 seconds before it got off.

By the time the sun came up, seagulls were feeding all over the Northern part of the lake. Again I caught a bunch of small trout, but had a few good blow ups using topwater.

By 9 AM, I still had not put any fish in the ice chest and my wife has said that she though we should have a fish fry on the 4 th, so I was planning to bring home some fresh fish.

I made one throw with my cast net, and caught 200+ shad. I headed down the east bank to see if I could change my luck. Since the bait was a little small, I was putting 2 on at a time. I caught a few more small trout and a couple of hardheads before I finally caught a big 12.5" trout when I only had 1 shad on the hook.

I started using only 1 shad for bait, and caught a coupe more 12"+ trout and a 14" & 17" trout. I had 6 trout in the boat....enough for a fish fry, so I left this spot to try another place.

I tried a few more spots, but only caught small trout. I called it a day early to get out of the hot sun.

There was quite a few boats out on the water for a Wednesday.