I think I’ve gotten out every day this week, at least for a few hours each day and it was a polar opposite of the week before. Last week we were enjoying the lower temps and some overcast days with wind to help the bite and this week we were greeted by sweltering heat, beating sun and glassed over surfaces on the lake. The topwater bite is good if you’re in the right place at the right time but it’s been kinda hard for me to call them up. A few weeks back, I wrote about the difference between the fish feeding up and the fish pushing bait up. This week was another week where the fish are pushing bait to the surface and quickly retreating back down to the depths. Not uncommon for our lake, especially in the summer months when the thermocline is setting up. There isn’t a lot of oxygen at the surface right now so when the fish does surface, he’s taking care of business quickly and is generally focused on one bait. If I was lucky enough, I could make a cast to the fish while he’s still up or within a few seconds of the fish going back down and connect.

It’s hard to fish topwater with any kind of hope of success when the fish just aren’t coming up when you call them so the next best thing for me this week was the spybait. The spybait bite was good this week and it was a good way to fill my time while waiting on surfacing fish. It was very important that I had my topwater bait handy and ready to cast if a fish or a small wolfpack of bass came up within casting distance. That’s how I caught the majority of my topwater fish this week including the big striper pictured above when a massive school of stripers and bass started blowing up all around me at 2:30 in the afternoon, in the sweltering heat on a main lake hump. I gotta brag on my little topwater bait this week and once again the little Azuma Z dog got it done for about 90% of my topwater needs this week. In the movie Titanic, one of my favorite villain actors, Billy Zane said, “I believe in making my own luck” and with the Z dog I had to make my own luck to call them up this week. Back in Oct. of 21 I wrote a report called “Shake and Bake in the Chop” and I explained the technique I used to make the Z dog work for me in tough times for topwater bites. I explained that instead of a traditional “walk the dog” fashion I increased the speed of the bait to a quick skipping across the surface and just slowing it briefly. The reason being that I didn’t want to give the fish a good look at the bait, and I wanted to make it look like a fleeing bait in distress much like the bluebacks I see every day skipping across the surface while being chased down by a bass. The predatory mentality of a bass, however small, reminds me of the predatory mentality of a cat. The bass are also very competitive and if they see a bait being chased down or a quick moving bait, they are drawn to it. All I had to do was speed up the cadence with the Z dog, so it turned into a reaction strike. If you’re not familiar with the Z dog Here’s a picture of the Z dog I’ve been using for a few years now and it continues to put them in the boat.

About the only other topwater baits I used with success this week was the little chrome chug bug, a chrome Livingston walking bait and a chrome Whopper Plopper. I used the chrome Whopper Plopper with some success very early in the morning but any other time I tried it, it didn’t work for me this week.

Spybaiting was good but the fish were a bit more finicky to the spybait this week. I had to change colors mid-week but I was still able to do well. I will say this about the importance of line size and even line type. I bought a spool of 6lb Inviz x and I spooled both of my spybait rods with it and I was rocking along just fine but experiencing some break-off here and there. Probably more break-offs than I’d like since the baits are 13 bucks a pop so I decided to up the line size to 8lb Inviz x since that’s what I’ve been using lately for my topwater leader. I used the 8lb Inviz x Wednesday afternoon and yesterday morning and the whole time I didn’t get one fish to even sniff the spybait with the heavier line on it. It just didn’t work at all for me, and I was losing 20 feet in distance on every cast. Distance is very important when spybaiting. I dug around my shop and found some Tatsu 6lb and spooled it up at lunch yesterday and within five minutes of going back out to try the Tatsu I was back in business with the spybait. Moral of the story is that I highly recommend the 6lb or even 8lb Tatsu for the best success with the little G-fix 80 spybaits. Technique is everything with spybaiting and there are all kinds of different spybaits out there now. I’ve used every size of the Duo Realis spybaits and I’ve caught fish on every size spybait by Duo Realis. They are a lot of fun during the summer months and if the fish aren’t coming up the spybait and drop shot combo is a great duo. I posted this a while back in a report, but I thought I’d put it out here again to explain the spybait technique in a little more detail. Here’s a video I made of the spybait breakdown.

Here’s another good spybait video with some cast to catch and technique stuff.

I haven’t broken out the drop shot rig yet but it’s coming very soon. I’ve seen all kinds of fish hanging out in and around brush for the past few weeks and if the topwater bite kinda fizzles this summer there’s always the spybait and drop shot bite to pass the time. A few things to keep in mind this summer out in the heat is to stay covered, stay hydrated and keep moving. I don’t spend very long in one spot in the heat of the summer, and I’ve always got plenty of water. I highly recommend a good buff and it never hurts to wet it every so often to help keep you cool.

Before I forget, I wanted to give an update on Chigger and our little Wren in the fern, Caroline. Chigger is plugging along and he’s slowly getting it together. We heard him barking for the first time in weeks today and he seems to get a little more excited when we come back from being gone. His eyesight is getting bad, but he can still see squirrels in the trees and stray cats in the driveway, so he isn’t exactly blind. He’s gotten back to eating a little more every day and it looks like his back legs are working better. We’re just taking it day by day with Chigger but he seems to have a little more pep in his step this week. On another note, our little Wren momma Caroline, who lives at the front door added another egg to her clutch for a total of 5. I’ve been leaving her alone with her eggs but hopefully I’ll get a picture of some little Wren chicks soon. I finally was able to snap a quick pic of Caroline this week.

Back to the fishing, I had it narrowed down to just 2 baits this week with a couple others that get honorable mention. First off, when it came to topwater it was lights out Z dog time with a little shake and bake action on the Z dog, a close second was the Duo Realis G-fix spybait in American shad. The two are pictured below. Thos two baits accounted for about 95% of my fish with the chrome chug bug, a chrome Livingston walking bait and a chrome whopper plopper getting honorable mention.

The corps is only generating an hour or two a day right now and the lake is about a foot and a half below full pool. Water temps are hovering around 80 degrees. Here’s a few of the memorable fish from my week.

What a treat this week has been. Normally, late June has a habit of bringing in some of the hottest temperatures of the year but this year the temps have been mild, and I’ve actually been wondering if I’m under-dressed rather than cooking off in the brutal humid heat. Yesterday the weatherman said that the average temps are around 90 for this time of year and from looking back in my logbook, he is correct. Early this week we saw a big upper-level low pressure system drop down into our area and it just sat over us spinning and drawing in moisture. One of the benefits to a low-pressure system is the drop in barometric pressure and the effect it has on fishing. My rule of thumb has always been that low pressure brings the fish up and high pressure pushes the fish down. It’s that simple. This week we had low pressure and with the mild temps and constant cloud cover it meant no pressure fishing. Just a few baits on the deck got it done this week.

Monday seems like a decade away, but I did make a quick lap around the creek and found a nice chop and some cloud cover about mid-morning. I’ve been looking for the Choppo bite to pick up and with the cloud cover and choppy surface, slinging a bone 105 Choppo around was a no brainer. As soon as I ran that thing across the crown of an offshore hump, I found what I was looking for in a topwater explosion. Even though conditions were right for topwater I decided to start throwing the spybait around brush out on the ends of points and on humps and put the topwater away. I kept my topwater rod handy just in case there was some surface activity within casting distance, but I found it was best to approach the area in a stealthier mode and start out with the spybait rather than throwing the topwater. Reason being is that when I would start out throwing topwater in an area, it scattered the fish after a few casts. Maybe a few would come up and hit the topwater but chances were that the fish would follow the topwater but not commit to it and when they would see the boat, they would go straight down to the bottom. After a few casts of this happening with the topwater the fish would be scattered and non-committal and by the time I started throwing the spybait, the bites were scarce. Starting with the spybait and forgoing the topwater netted me a lot more fish this week. Don’t get me wrong though, if the fish were chasing bluebacks on the surface where I was fishing, I would definitely throw the topwater. If I was approaching an area where there was no visible surface activity, I would start with the spybait. Here’s a couple nice fish from my quick trip on Monday.

After my discovery on Monday, I was back out Tuesday morning and I had two things in mind, topwater and spybait, but mainly spybait. I have a ton of confidence in the spybait right now and I feel like I can get bit at every stop. I want to explain the spybait technique with a little more detail and the importance of details when you’re learning the spybait technique. First off, the difference between success and failure in spybaiting is often found in the details. It’s important to have the right equipment for using the spybait, just like it is important to have the right tool for the job. I highly recommend the following gear to spybait. First is a medium rod. I’m using a 7’3″ KastKing medium Speed Demon spinning rod. There are a lot of good reels out there and the most important thing about the reel is the drag system. Get a good reel with a dependable drag system. You’re going to need it. I like 6lb fluorocarbon line and you’re going to want to use a small diameter line to help with the action on the spybait. The heavier the line, the less action you’ll have on the spybait. If you want to bump up the line strength, I recommend 8lb Tatsu because it has the diameter of most 6lb fluorocarbon lines out there. The 8lb Tatsu is pretty durable and dependable also. I just load my spool with straight fluorocarbon, no braid with a leader but straight 6lb fluorocarbon. Setting the drag for 6lb test is very important because these bigger bass can make hash out of 6lb test if your drag is too tight. If your drag is too loose, they can take you down to the brush.

I like to make a long cast with the spybait and the medium rod can really whip it out there. After I make my cast, I immediately bring in all the slack line and then let the bait fall. It’s important to bring in the slack right away because if you don’t, the bait can run over the slack line and foul itself as it’s falling. I generally give it a 10-15 count on the drop and then I use a slow and steady retrieve back to the boat. The bait drops at a rate of a little under a foot per second and I keep my rod tip low to the water’s surface, so with the right speed the spybait should be running horizontally. If your retrieve is too slow the bait will drop and snag the brush and to fast, the bait will rise. The two propellers on the spybait help to slow and stabilize the bait as its running through the water and if you have the right speed the bait should rock back and forth coming through the water. The rocking action is what triggers the strike. If the bait is running too fast, you won’t get the rocking action and if your line diameter is too large you won’t get the right rocking action. If I hook a fish, I immediately raise my rod tip to keep the fishes head up and keep him from swimming down to the brush. Another little trick the bass will do after keeping his head up, is he will shoot straight up and jump to try and shake the spybait out of his mouth. Generally, the bigger fish use the two tactics to evade being caught. Having the drag set right is very important because one of the last moves the bigger bass make is a pile driving run straight down after they see the boat. That’s usually the drag burning run and if your drag is to tight, it can’t keep up with the speed and the line will snap so it’s very important to have the drag set right. One other tip is to check your line often. Just a little nick can cause a break. Be sure and check out my YouTube page for spybait videos. I think I have several spybaiting videos that can help you.

Tuesday I was back out early in the morning, and I went right to work with the spybait and I think the little spybait saw action at just about every stop. Sometimes I’d pick off a 10-inch fish and in the next cast I’d catch a 3lber. It was really hard to say whether it was going to be a big fish with the spybait or a small fish but you can definitely tell the big ones from the small ones when they hit. I really boated a bunch of fish on Tuesday, and I had some very nice fish as well as quite a few smaller fish. Here were a few of the better ones from my morning.

Wednesday the weather was a little rough and we had rain off and on. I did get out briefly and caught a few fish on topwater and spybait but I broke my trolling motor lanyard and came back in early. I did have a few nice fish but there was a lot of rain and drizzle, so I left the phone covered up. Yesterday was more of the same and I started shaking off a lot of my fish on the spybait. Most of the fish were barely hooked and shaking them off at the boat was pretty easy. I did run into my buddy Matt O’Connell in the creek, and I got a chance to chat with him a bit about his 2nd place finish in the All-American and pick his brain about Forward facing sonar. I’ve known Matt for about 6 years now and have fished with him a few times. I’m always learning from Matt and spending a few minutes chatting with him is always an educating experience. Here’s a good one that I caught on the spybait while out yesterday.

Today I fished from about 8-1pm and lost count again on the spybait fish. I did have a few topwater fish including a nice striper this morning on the Zdog in the Casper shad pattern. I had to head back to the house around 1pm but I had a good morning and caught fish on the spybait again at just about every stop. Here’s a pic of my last fish this week. This was a great way to end the week! Water temps are mid to upper 70’s right now and the lake is less than two feet below full pool. The corps is only generating an hour or two a day this week.

Recently I had a discussion with a friend about some issues with our early summer topwater bite. As is the case sometimes, we are stymied by a lack of interest in our topwater offerings in early summer and the frustration can be maddening. Even when fish are busting all around the boat, you just can’t seem to connect no matter what you pull out of the tackle box. It’s been a problem of mine over the years, and I’ve spent hours just trying to figure it out. Today was no different but understanding why it happens and making the proper adjustments can be the key to success when all seems lost. I know it’s happened to you because it happens to me very frequently, especially throwing topwater early in the morning and late in the evening. I see a fish come up and I immediately throw my bait right where the fish surfaced but the fish is gone and not coming back. It could also be a group of fish blowing up but not even touching your topwater bait, even if you throw it right on top of them. Here’s my top two reasons this happens:

First being the “match the hatch” theory. Right now, we are early in the summer and a lot of the bait that is out there right now is small. I probably saw it at least half a dozen times today alone; the baits that the fish were chasing measured about1-2 inches in length. The little bait would be skipping across the water with a nice sized bass hot on its tail. Early in the morning and late in the evening the threadfin shad schools tend to come closer to the surface and right now the shad are still small. That big ole 4–5-inch topwater bait or swimbait I’m throwing looks nothing like the 1–2-inch threadfin shad that are scattering everywhere and being chased by the bass. Usually, it takes me a hot minute to figure it out but recently I’ve been combating the “match the hatch” problem with my little Duo Realis G-fix 80 spybait. Another suggestion would be a 1/8-1/4-ounce bucktail but I don’t tie or use them like I use to. I just run the spybait around the area the fish are coming up and usually it doesn’t take long to feel my little spinning rig load up. When a big fish hits the little spybait, the rod feels like the bait just hit a brick, then the brick pulls back. It’s a great feeling and a good early morning option when the bass are chasing threadfin shad early and late. Here’s a picture of my first two bass early Tuesday morning using the little G-fix spybait.

The second theory I have about why the fish aren’t coming back or coming up to hit your topwater is my looking up vs pushing up theory. There’s a difference between the fish looking up to get their meals and a fish pushing up a bait to the surface to eat it. A lot of times the fish get hyper focused on one baitfish and it’s hard to distract them. This happens a lot when there isn’t sufficient oxygen at the surface and the fish does not intend to stay up on the surface any longer than he has to. The bass has pushed a specific bait to the surface, and he intends to eat that bait a get back down to the more oxygenated water column as soon as possible. Sometimes, when there is sufficient oxygen at the surface the bass know that the bait will be up above, so the bass tend to look up for their meals. Generally, this happens during the afternoon when the bass are out searching for the larger variety blueback herring or hanging around a brush pile waiting on bluebacks to drift over the brush pile. Wake making baits, popping baits and splashing baits are good choices when the fish are looking up for a meal.

After my morning fun on Tuesday with the spybait I went to work on the topwater and found it to be hit or miss till about 9am and then I would hit a grind. The spybait and topwater would slow to a crawl till about 1pm and when the herring chasers would show up for some awesome topwater explosions. I only used 1 bait for topwater this week and that was the little chug bug. I tried a few other baits but I had the most confidence with the little chugger so I just rolled with it. The main lake humps are starting to produce for me and when the creek isn’t too busy I can call them up there too in the afternoons. Here’s a few more from Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday afternoon Lisa text me and told me that our little Rat Terrier “Chigger” had a stroke or a heart attack and she thought he was dying. I rushed home and Chigger looked bad. He could barely walk and his breathing was very labored. Lisa had to go out for a while and I sat with Chigger as he slept. It wasn’t long till he stood up, fell over and locked up, yelping and having a bad seizure. He finally passed out and I thought he was dead for a second but then he started breathing again and opened his eyes. He kinda regained his senses but then it happened again about an hour later and all I could do was hold him until it was over. Chigger is 17 years old and is nearing the end of his quality of life. We were told by our vet that Chigger could live 2 weeks or two months, but his liver was failing, and he was near the end. That was 4 years ago and up until 2 days ago he was still chasing cats and barking at squirrels through the window.

Right now, Chigger is still trying to get it back together. I had scheduled to have him euthanized at 3pm yesterday because I just didn’t want to see him go through anymore seizures and he could barely walk. His eyes glazed over, and he was just staggering around, very confused. He quit eating and drinking after the episodes but yesterday morning he ate and drank enough to convince us to cancel the euthanasia. He slept last night and finally drank some water and ate more food this evening. As long as he’s comfortable, not in any pain and eating we’re going to just keep an eye on him and see what happens.

With the dog being sick, I spent a little more time at home this week, but I did get out a few times and I threw the chug bug a lot. I mixed it up with a little spybait and shaky head but yesterday and today the big-ticket bass came on the chug bug over brush and out on points in the afternoon. It’s by no means on fire with the topwater and chug bug right now but being in the right place at the right time is key to catching some nice topwater fish. Another key is patience, not every brush pile is going to produce but if you run a few you’re going to connect and if you get lucky enough to call one up in the afternoon, chances are it’s going to be a good one. I also saw some good schooling this afternoon and sometimes multiple fish would get after my little topwater bait. That’s always a lot of fun to see multiple bass fighting over your bait and then connecting with a big one.

I’m not much help this week and I didn’t get to spend a lot of time on the water, but I did have a good time with the chug bug this week. Water temps are in the mid 70’s and the lake is a little over 2 feet below full pool. The corps is only generating a few hours in the afternoon. Here’s a few bigger fish from yesterday and today.

As a kid growing up in the 60’s and 70’s I developed an interest in all sports. A friend of my father was giving me his used weekly (back when it was weekly) Sports Illustrated magazines every Tuesday, so I’d ride my bike into town and pick them up from a little wooden stand that stood in the foyer just inside his front door. I wore all those magazines out soaking up all the information. Back then I got to read about the greats like Pete Rose and the Big Red Machine. I got to read about, and watch “Wilt the Stilt” play in his prime, as well as “Kareem” and the sky hook. I watched Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier go at it and I’ll never forget the lightning speed of Sugar Ray and Julio Ceasar Chavez. I went and watched Lou Brock in his final year and got a Birthday cake for a drunk Bill Russell, from the LA Dodgers, at a grocery store I worked at in 1978. My heroes were multi-sport athletes like Babe Dedrickson and Jim Thorpe (there’s 2 names you don’t hear about anymore). How about Bo Jackson, Neon Deon and Michael Jordon, three of the most talented players to every play. I really took an interest in golf after watching some of the greats from back then and my dad bought me my first set of golf clubs in 1972. It was a left-handed Tom Weiskopf starter set from Northwestern and I wore those things out in our little 5-acre pasture pretending I was in the final round-dead heat with Arnold or Jack, at the Master’s when they were in their prime. Although I played many sports I really took to golf, and I’ve played off and on for over 50 years now. Golf is the only sport I’ve found in which you compete against your own mistakes, and it is a fierce competitor. I bought my dad his first set of clubs when he was around 45-50 years old, and he eventually got good enough to beat the brakes off of me in some epic matches at his home course in south Texas before his passing. After that it was hard for me to find a reason to keep that handicap low, so I pretty much put away the clubs. This year I have made a vow to kick-start the bad habits of my golf game and try and play a little more golf in the infancy of my retirement. This week was the start of that so I’m spending a little more time on the course and less on the lake.

Monday was Memorial Day this week and it’s really a very distant memory at this point but if I remember correctly Lisa and I got out for a bit before the traffic got bad. We cycled through the usual stuff for this time of year and I was able to capitalize on a surfacing fish with my little Azuma Zdog topwater walking bait. We were mostly checking brush out on the ends of points before the traffic started going over these areas. There’s something that I’ve been noticing from the start of the week and even going much further back than that and that is that a lot of the fish are relating to the bottom right now when the sun gets up about mid to late morning. Early, the fish are doing their thing and chasing bait around the brush but around late morning they start to chill, and I’d hit a dead spot. During the early morning hours, I could convince a few to come to the surface or pop a few by backing off the brush and throwing the spybait around the area of the brush. The little G-fix 80 from Duo Realis is the only spybait I use, and the American Shad pattern can be deadly in the early morning hours or when it’s overcast. My rule of thumb for spybaiting is light solid colors in low light and translucent colors on sunny days. Here’s 4 of our biggest from Monday and Tuesday using the topwater/spybait pattern.

When I got up Wednesday morning the wind was out of the east, and it was getting it pretty good. The skies were overcast and to me it looked like it was setting up to be one of those awesome topwater days. I’m not advocating for anyone to get out on the main lake when the water is white capping and you’re the only poor soul out there looking for big spotted bass, because there is an element of danger and help may be hard to find on rough days. I’ve just come to the realization that fish are less cautious when the chop is beefy. That’s where I headed on Wednesday, into the beefy chop with my white pearl walker and the chrome Sexy Dawg. I spent the first 2 hours of the morning fending off stripers and the occasional big Blue Heron or Osprey from my walking baits, to try and connect with bass. You really had to stay on your toes with the stripers. Those suckers would wait till the bass started school under the bait and then they would come out of nowhere to steal the prize. You had to be quick with that little white pearl walking bait. I found that the stripers were a little more reluctant to hit the chrome Sexy Dawg, so I mainly stuck with chrome after fending off stripers for a while. I was back at my dock by lunch and had a nice morning of topwater in the chop under cloudy skies. Here’s some of my fish from Wednesday.

I’ve been hitting a few golf balls in the evenings at a nearby driving range so Thursday I finally played a round of golf with a good friend, Jeff Williams, after finding out he plays golf. Jeff’s like me, a passionate competitor and I’ve always had fun fishing with Jeff with that competitive spirit. I found out very quickly that he was very good at golf and just what I needed as a goal to improve my game. I had a blast getting a thorough beatdown from Jeff and after these aching muscles heal, I’ll be back on the range to make some adjustments.

I’m saving the best for last, and I’ll put my week together in a nutshell. The absolute best bait we had this week was the shaky head and if you’ve been following my reports, you should know exactly what we’re using for the shaky head. Lisa and I would go out in the evenings after work, and we wore them out during the generation periods this week. From about 5:30 till 8:30 we targeted the brush in 15-25 feet on the ends of points and humps in the creek and we had a blast. It’s a very good idea to hit the bottom with the baits during generation right now. Yesterday I went out into the creek before the generation period just after lunch to see if the shaky head bite was going well before they started generation and just as I had thought that worm bite is much better during generation. So, in summation, my best pattern this week has been the topwater walking baits during low light and windy/choppy conditions with the occasional spybait mixed in if they aren’t coming up but after the sun gets up, there starts to be a transition to spybait/underspin type stuff for the suspended herring eaters. Then in late afternoon when the boat traffic kicks up, the best thing we did was go to the bottom with the shaky head or drop shot. Here is a picture of my last fish yesterday, a nice shaky head fish from a brush pile in early afternoon before calling it a week. I couldn’t have scripted the weeks end any better and thank the man upstairs for another great week. Water temps are in the mid 70’s and the lake level is more than 2 feet below full pool and dropping fast.