A few weeks ago, I went back to my Ortho surgeon’s office to see if I could get another shot in my knee, but the doc said unfortunately it’s time to replace it. He wouldn’t give me another shot because I would need to wait three months after the shot to have my knee replaced, and the knee needed to be replaced very soon. The plan is to do knee replacement surgery on the nineth of July unless something comes open earlier but in the interim the doc said he wanted me to work the knee as much as possible, so it doesn’t stiffen up before the replacement surgery. Running and gunning the lake with nothing but topwater is just what the doctor ordered and so this week, I’ve just been following doctors’ orders.

This week was another week of nothing but topwater. We had some decent wind just about every day this week and I’m still working on 2 major bite periods with one being early in the morning, the other being in the afternoon/evening. As far as my bait of choice this week, it’s been pretty simple, it started out on Monday and Tuesday with the chrome Spook jr over and around brush and as of this morning, I’ve switched back to the chrome 95 Gunfish. It seemed to me that the Spook jr was more effective in the heavier chop because of the louder rattles but the Gunfish that I’m using has better flash. I’ve just about wore all the chrome of my only Spook jr and I’ve appropriately named it Jonah. It’s a long story but the name is fitting because of what this Spook jr has been through over the last 2 weeks.

A few weeks ago, I saw a little chrome Spook jr in a box of unused tackle down in the man cave, so I carried it down to the boat. It sat in my boat for a few days but a couple weeks ago I discovered that these afternoon fish were really responding to chrome so one afternoon I broke out the little chrome Spook jr and put it to work. It didn’t take long till I had my first fish on the Spook jr and I could tell from looking at my Livescope that the fish were very interested in the bait. I think it was the sound of the rattles that got their attention. It was definitely a different sound than my Gunfish and the fact that it was chrome really sealed the deal in the chop. After using it for a while and several fish later that day, I broke a fish off, which is kind of unusual, but it happens so I stayed around the area a while and I was finally able to retrieve my Spook after the fish shook it out. I noticed that the line broke right at my knot. It wasn’t till it happened a second time that I realized that the Spook had no slip ring at the tie point and so the flex point from constantly walking the dog was right at the knot. I use nothing but fluorocarbon on Lanier and the stiff fluorocarbon would break down after a period of time, right at the flex point. Twice the Spook had been taken by a fish and ultimately shaken or spit back out and I got the lure back. It reminded me of the old Biblical story of Jonah and the whale so I appropriately name the little chrome spook jr, “Jonah”. On Wednesday morning I took a buddy out in my boat and Jonah was working early while my buddy was getting some action on a chrome Ima Skimmer. The skimmer wasn’t working as well as the Spook jr so finally I told my buddy to tie on my Spook jr and I was going back to the chrome Gunfish 95. I had a brand-new chrome Gunfish, and the sun was popping out through the clouds by late morning. Wouldn’t you know it, my buddy never caught a fish on Jonah after he tied it on, but the little Gunfish put on a clinic for the next hour or so. I dropped my buddy off at lunchtime and came back out for a couple hours before the rain ran me off the lake on Wednesday. I decided to retire little Jonah in favor of the Gunfish and it paid off with some good numbers in the afternoon.

Yesterday I decided to head up lake and check out some of the offshore humps and a few choice points to see if the fish were there. I was pretty impressed with the population of fish offshore already. I’m kinda hoping that this summer turns out to be one of those summers where we have a topwater bite all summer long but that will depend on the bait and water temps. It’s pretty tough to sit in the sweltering heat with a drop shot or slowly cranking a spybait to get bit. I’d much rather spend my summer running and gunning with topwater and a big Igloo jug of ice water than watching paint dry with a fairy wand, but that’s just me. We’ll see how that all plays out, but it really won’t matter in a month anyway because recovery from my knee surgery will put me out of commission through the hottest part of the summer.

I started early yesterday morning, and the fish were really getting with it on the surface. I saw small groups of bluebacks creating wakes as they swam just below the surface, and I saw bass chasing those wakes down and creating some great topwater blow-ups. This week it was more about being in the right place at the right time early in the morning. If I could find where the fish were feeding, I could usually just quietly ease up to the area and wait for the fish to surface chasing the small groups of bluebacks. I could usually pick one or two off with a quick cast of the Gunfish if the fish were on the surface or had gone back down within a few seconds. You need patience for this but waiting for the fish to surface and show themselves can sometimes be a better plan than blind casting or trying to scope and cast to fish when they’re chasing bait, especially if there isn’t much wind very early in the morning. It’s been hard for me to call them up early so sometimes I’ve just been hanging out in an area and waiting.

Running up north yesterday paid off and I put a pretty nice sack together out on the main lake. It was all on the 95 Gunfish in chrome and once the sun came out, it was on with the Gunfish. Sometimes I could call them up and sometimes they would surface near the boat, and I could make a quick cast and snag one or two. Most of the fish were either coming from brush or just roaming around the brush on the ends of points and out on humps. I really didn’t rely on Livescope very much and just using mapping and waypoints as my target areas. By 4 pm yesterday I had put a pretty good sack together again and called it a day.

Today I needed to trailer the boat for maintenance, cleaning and putting a few decals on it. It’s had a pretty good run over the past few months so time for some pampering. I did fish a couple hours before trailering at lunch today and it was shaping up to be another good afternoon with topwater. I caught a few nice fish on the Gunfish again this morning before the traffic started getting bad, so I called it a week.

My two baits that I used this week was a chrome 95 Gunfish and the first half of the week’s success belonged to Jonah the chrome Spook jr. I think that the tempo or cadence that I was using made a lot of difference. I was using a pretty quick “walking the dog” pace with occasionally stopping the bait for a few seconds. Stopping it would trigger a strike if the fish were schooling under the bait. If a fish would miss the bait, I would quicken my retrieve and usually the fish would chase it down and ultimately get hooked. Other times I could kill the bait if they missed it and they would come back and get it. I’m using both baits on a 7ft St Croix Triumph spinning rod with a Shimano Stradic 2500 spinning reel loaded with 20lb Cast Co. Braid and an 8ft leader of 8lb Seagar red label fluorocarbon. Here’s a picture of the chrome Gunfish and Jonah the worn out Spook jr.

The lake started out with surface temps around 77-78 to start the week and today it was just hitting 80 when I came off the lake. The lake is a little above full pool, and I would suspect the corps is generating for a while in late afternoons and evenings. Here’s a few of my memorable fish from this week.