Unfortunately, the rest of the day Sunday, July 3rd did not go quite as well on one of my favorite lakes. I started on a smaller lake early in the day since I hadn't been fishing since June 18. Needed to try out my temporary trailer spindle repairs (still questionable unfortunately so no long drives for me right now). Caught a bunch of small pike and small bass - maybe only 1 keeper - so I decided to give Ovid my first try of the year.
Yeah, another strange thing about this year - first time I've been to Ovid not until July 3rd?!? Very weird but that's how it has happened. bob o's frog tournament should be real interesting since Ovid has about 80 or more acres of slop right now! I'm hoping Sunday was an off day - I think it was. Something just wasn't right.
I caught an almost keeper on a horny toad on that 7th cast - this was about 1pm or so. Then about 50 casts later I had one blow up threw the crud and I think I actually waited too long. I was pretty hot by then (the redhead thing) and felt like I had a serious delayed reaction. So I pulled after the bass had let go.
I lost half a leg on that one. For some reason, I always loose horny toad leg parts on that same stretch?? I actually saw several decent bass ripping stuff way up in the slop and wasn't getting strikes in those areas. I did try one color change from light to dark. Shortly after that, all the activity I was seeing in the slop faded to nothing or almost nothing, and was very sparse the rest of the day.
Other than a couple dinks on the inside weedline I actually saw eat my frogs (I didn't set on them - less than 10 inches is too small to rip another horny toad on) and swim around a few second with 'frog parts' sticking out. BTW, when I frog fish, I usually use 80 lbs test P-Line Spectrex and a Grandt Rods All American 7 1/2 foot Flipping Stick. Seems to work well, cast well, handle well and once hooked, I'm going to get the bass in!
After the topwater shift was obviously over, I started varying my attempts at cracking the Sunday, July 3rd 2011 Lake Ovid code. I caught another small bass in the middle of a ditch on a Texas-rigged worm. Had a few bites I couldn't hook. Tried crankbaits a little. Anything was challenging because so much of the weeds is coated in algae slime right now! I tried my Carolina-rigged creature baits and pitching Xtreme Bass Tackle creatures.
I tried in the weeds. Outside the weeds. In the deeper wood. The bridge. Some channel ledges. Nothing. The lake seemed dead. The only thing was tons of nervous bait out over open water that kept scaring itself and flaring like they were being busted. Except I never saw a definite bass or muskie doing the scaring, even when they flared right near me.
I tried what has worked in the past real well a few times in these conditions - a good-sized suspending, deeper jerkbait. Nothing! I tried some topwater and crankbaits including Red Eyes through, around, over and under them and more nothing.
Once I realized I hadn't seen one single muskie, I knew it was one of those days. Of course, it might be my fault because I had a Brunner Runner tied on my new Grandt Rods C14 I got just for such creatures. I did enjoy using it - works way better than my old homemade flipping stick I used last year - but I sure wanted a muskie to smash it!!
I only saw 3 little bass caught by others, and it was fairly crowded out there, though mostly again panfishers who were catching lots of little panfish. Maybe I should have broken out my panfish rods?
Well, I was on a mission. I just never really accomplished the mission. Thank goodness I popped quite a few bass and pike at the other lake though mostly on Texas-rigged Power worms only and one small frog bass there (I missed a couple there too - still blaming the heat making my reactions slower ;D ).
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It was an interesting day. I got to watch a big ole algae-covered snapping turtle at Ovid work over a dead catfish like crazy. I could get real close trying to get some video. Even when the creature spooked, it would come back within less than 2 minutes to go at it again. He wanted that catfish bad!!
Wow! When it wanted to open up a new chunk in the catfish, the strike was very impressive! Wop! I see how they got the 'snapping' name!
Thanks for the entertaining report. Haven't had a chance to fish Ovid in a couple years, but was thinking of heading there on a day off next week for some frogging. However, with a lake like Ovid, I'm wondering if the hot summer has maybe depleted the oxygen enough in the slop areas to drive the fish to deeper areas...
Someone reported recently that they started off pretty good but tapered off later in the morning if I remember right. I probably won't make it back out until bob o's frog tournament. Last summer, when I went out this time of year, I had a couple pretty good days for quality bass in and along the edges of the slop so I hope it repeats next time I go out! Until the weeds really start to die off, they should hold a fair amount of slightly cooler, more oxygenated water - usually.