SW.

Shitty weather. Still cold, still raining. Will be like this for days. Did not even bother tonight.  Was actually raining pretty hard and it would not even be possible.

Doesn't look like its going to warm up in the next couple of days. If it doesn't, I have an idea to get at some bass, but it would require more effort than I am apt to put into the endeavor. I'm kind of not relishing Horne or Depot. I'm looking to try elsewhere in the near future. Should probably get on the property and do Dunlop. Canoe about and see whats up. Maybe go hunting something new, somewhere else. Who knows.

I'm spending a fair amount of time in my shop, working on lures. Working on different painting schemes, and improving technique mostly. My poppers and chuggers are pretty solid in design and function. I am going to try to start incorporating more intricate design elements now. There are also other lure types I am going to have to make in order to give the fish some different looks.

R.I.P. Yellow Submarine.

.............dang, I liked this lure.

Yellow Submarine was the name I had started to call one of my poppers. I had caught a decent number of fish with it over its short life, and some good ones. It seemed to have a gift for enticing larger fish. Today, one of those larger fish made of with it. Snapping me off within feet of the shore. First cast too.

...........little guy that ate a wacky worm.

I had just arrived, and heaved it out to a rough vicinity where I had hooked fish previously. Did not take long. A couple who were not to far away witnessed the scrap via some nice aerials by the fish, later asked how big. I told them 3lbs, but I'm betting it would have beaten that mark fairly easily.

another Depot beauty.

The rest of the night was alright. Alright in that I hooked some good fish. Nearly all of them managed to beat me in battle, throwing hooks. Certainly more activity than on previous nights.

After my initial scouring of the surface with topwater baits, I put on a wacky worm. Three casts, three hook ups. It was odd. Even odder was that after those three hookups, I could get no interest. T'was odd.

.......

Depot Lake sunset this evening.

So, headed out to Depot to cast a little at dusk. Was hoping to get some hook ups on the popper. I did manage to bring one fish up but he missed and I couldn`t convince him to follow up. I tried a craw plastic and got no interest. I tried a Texas Rigged Worm next. That got me into a better than average bass. That fish I managed to lose after a tussle that should have gone my way. Very acrobatic fish.

Dunno whats up lately, but whenever I hit Depot in the evening I manage to get two fish interested, and thats it. Not one, not three, but two. Been that way for a bit. I actually stayed a bit longer than I had planned waiting for the second fish. Weird that. Personally, I`m pretty happy that I can get anything interested from shore.

Spoiled Rotten.

So, I went out tonight in the pontoon to Horne Lake. Far from a spectacular day. Caught perch....lots of perch. Some on the fly, some on plastics. Caught a few bass. None larger than 12", and likely less than a pound. Tried a lot of different looks, to no avail. If I remember correctly, they all came on `bug`type plastics. A first for me. Never used them before today.

A little odd. I seem to be doing better in short little stints from shore than the tooner. I think I may not to abandon Horne for a bit. Try another lake, or maybe hunt down other species. I dunno. or some reason, I just wasn't feeling it today. In all honesty, I was kind of preoccupied the entire night with thoughts about some tools I had to set for my lure making. My back is still singing sad songs of sorrow which is never overly enjoyable.


We shall see what tomorrow brings. I have to go out to our property tomorrow to meet with a potential builder.

Oh, so the title? You know, I really should not be disappointing by an outing like this, but I was. I just expect big bass now. I do not get them, and apparently I sulk. Not sure I like this side of me.

Couple of more.

Two more poppers ready to due battle with some bass. KVD Elite trebles underside with a #6 trailer. Looking great. The fish have been more and more likely to take topwater in my last few outings. Hoping to get into some fish with these two soon enough. I've used this colour configuration a few times and really like it.

Those were pretty much my last two poppers for awhile. I have a couple of other designs I want to turn out. I had turned a bunch of bodies and had been making my way through them. Now they are through and its back to the lathe.

Why a single hook trailer? Simple, I'm not sure how great trebles really are. Seems to me that I have lost less fish on single hooks than trebles. This is an experiment. I like the way things go and I might produce all my lures with a single trailer.

Addendum: I went out to Depot Lake with the dog again. It was way to windy for pontooning tonight.
It was even to windy to cast with any efficiency. Still, in the 15 minutes or so I tried, I did manage a bass. Not a small one, not a big one, but an alright kind of smallie. He hammered one of the above poppers in the chopped surface. Nice of him to do that. Packed it up soon after as the wind was making things less than pleasant, and I could claim some small victory at that point. The trailers tied on size 6 streamer hook looked great in the water. It's simply marabou tied in close to the eye with a red hackle, and some red crystal flash highlights. It is to this that the bass was pegged.

No rest for the..........

So much for that idea. Instead of sitting at home to further rest, I went out with the dog for a bit of a stroll at Depot Lake. Of course, if I was going to be by water.............

......the second fish to pop the popper.

I took my spinning rod with me. I wanted to see how I could do with a popper from shore, so thats all I took. I was happy to find a couple of bass that were interested in giving me a tussle. God knows I love to take fish on the surface, and I was suitably rewarded.

The popper I used had seen the water a couple of times previous. All it produced then were Rock Bass. Smallmouth weren't in the mood for top water fare. This seems to be changing. Which is a good thing in my mind.