Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

I returned to Round Lake and the inexpensive leaky rental rowboats Saturday, August 1st (2015) for a few hours of fishing. I had all the topwater lures ready for the morning bite. But the bass had other ideas and they let me know pretty fast.

It was very breezy, to put it nicely. I think this had the topwater bite messed up bigtime. I had a couple half-hearted bites that missed my poppers completely. I could still see this early (~7am-7:30am start) where some of the bass were busting minnows and mostly small gills. I even saw a few good ones that I really wanted to catch so I got the Nemesis Baits Bullet Craw (black blue) back out.

I tossed it out under a school of bait that I could tell was also being fed on by crappie (that bubbling action on the surface is a giveaway).

(http://glb.glwimg.com/images/nice-crappie-on-bullet-craw-c2222.jpg)
Tap-tap-tap I set the hook and my first fish of the day is a respectable crappie again like an earlier trip where I caught one on topwater.

I was kind of surprised to catch a crappie off the bottom on this type of lure but they have to eat too. I also had a few slap at my poppers when I threw near them though I didn't hook any.

(http://glb.glwimg.com/images/1st-round-lake-keeper-bullet-craw-c2223.jpg)
It didn't take long at all before I caught a small keeper on the Bullet Craw.

I continued to toss the Bullet Craw to weed edges, openings in the weeds and directly under schools of bait. I was catching a few small bass and small keepers but the action was more sporadic since the bass were coming up more scattered and not staying up in the area for as long as they have in past trips. So I decided to move over to the big point to try that because I could see lots of very nervous panfish and some actual bass hitting even up on top real shallow.

Because the wind was blowing hard enough there were actual waves on little Round Lake I decided to try anchoring the little rowboat near the edge of the sand drop to keep the my little portable trolling motor from running so hard and noisy.

(http://glb.glwimg.com/images/big-bass-round-lake-bullet-craw-c2224.jpg)
I lucked out and anchored near a small patch of weeds on the break. Water was actually almost coming over the back of my boat it was blowing so hard. I just started tossing the Bullet Craw out near the weeds sometimes only pitching 10 to 15 feet from the boat. My little spot appeared to be a small funnel because I caught this solid keeper bass and 2 more like it and a bunch of short bass in just a few minutes.

After the bite slowed down there I moved around and down the point. I would catch a few bass on top when I saw them busting panfish. I tried the topwater off and on but they weren't hitting it good so I missed and lost a few, and caught a few small ones.

(http://glb.glwimg.com/images/big-largemouth-round-lake-wacky-rig-c2227.jpg)
I anchored again when I found a huge school of small panfish hanging right on the break. There was a weed patch out from the break so I started tossing a Kustom Kicker Jigs weighted wacky rig hook with double o-rings on a green pumpkin stick worm. BAM! I had just let it flutter to the bottom when this biggest bass of the day about 3 pounds nailed it hard. Put up a fun, fun fight.

I kept tossing the wacky rig out and every few minutes with 30 feet of the boat or less it would get nailed again. To keep them honest I tossed out the Bullet Craw too and caught a few short ones and one small keeper on that. I ended up in a short day of fishing with 9 keepers out of 23 landed bass so near my Round Lake average though I lost and missed more bass than normal. I blame that on the howling wind.

I did make one more trip to open water and had a bass completely miss a fast worked Sammy though it wasn't walking the dog in a good rhythm probably due to the waves banging it. Rarely see actual real waves on Round Lake.

I went back to the Bullet Craw and missed a hard strike in a hole in a weed bed that could have been a dogfish. I caught a couple dinks pitching it out but once again the lake was starting to get busy with pontoon boats and an actual skier and loud swimmers so I decided it was time to head home and get some other work done.

One other thing I had fun with was tossing a 1/2 oz Kustom Kicker Jigs Depo$it Swim Jig (blue white chartreuse) with an Angling A.I. swimbait (white pearl or smoke pepper blue flake to look like bluegills) body on it. I was fishing it just like a spinnerbait and it would usually get thumped when it came though an opening in the weeds or bumped off of a weed clump.

(https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/11813372_10203482371620260_9026485044706527804_n.jpg?oh=1390ed41297d18f953c24d254fd3fd40&oe=56411143)
I landed 3 or 4 small bass and 2 pike on it but I had 2 nice keepers on it and both times while I had them in the water beside the boat fishing out my phone to take pictures they jumped and threw the jig because I wasn't paying proper attention. It was fun though and I would have got those 2 more keepers in if I wasn't messing around with the phone. Really love this swim jig! Going to be throwing it again this week though maybe give black and blue a try next.

Your having a heck of a summer .

Yeah you are doing real good.  What's happened tonyour ranger?

I had to get a new axle on my trailer and I haven't paid for it yet. Wrecked a spindle and went with a new axle instead of risking welding a new spindle on the old axle. Plus my truck brakes are out so I need to fix that first before I can go get my boat... I'm not much for brake lines but I'm going to take crack at it soon. Did get new batteries finally for the truck and boat. Needed those too.