July 16th, 2010

Fishing continues to improve on the southside. I hit the lake twice this week and fished mostly from Flat Creek down to the dam. All the guides are catching fish on shallow bottoms, maybe 40-60 ft to start the day, but then note the fish move out to deeper water as the day wears on. I prefer the deep fish as these tend to be bigger so I've been fishing mid morning on through the day. This yielded fish in the 80 ft + water which I've been able to troll effectively. However, I'm not seeing any big schools yet so jigging has not been productive. Besides one fish Rick got on a sideways cast spoon out over the channel, there hasn't been much jigging to do. Hopefully that will change shortly.

The good news is jigs trolled 9-10 colors out mid day around the main channel is producing. We got 9 fish Wednesday up and down the lake ranging from 8-11 lbs with the big one coming in front of Big Creek over deep water in front of a mid channel hump. That's definitely the pattern right now. If I drag the jigs over these large humps which stick out like fingers into deep water, I can usually find a fish or two on either side. I'm not sure if they're coming up from the trees or sitting out in open water tight to the structure. Regardless, they do bite and for now you have to take what the lake yields. Here's a pic of Rick doing what he likes to do best; reel in a fish