Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

Manxfishing invited me out to fish Lake Chemung on 8/26/2016. I don't think I've ever been there or it was so long ago I don't recall. I like new lakes and adventure so I said sure, why not! An interesting lake with lots of shallow water, a pretty steep break and then the depths! And hardly any weeds of quality anywhere although again some lily pads.

The lake appears to get bombed by weed treatment that has killed almost everything except piles of filamentous algae, the predominant cover left in the lake, and not the best 'weed' to provide cover for bass and minnows.

We started early fishing around docks and on the shallow flats.

(http://glb.glwimg.com/images/small-topwater-lake-chemung-bass20160826_073416_HDR.jpg)
I decided to take the dog for a walk first because the water was fairly clear with sparse cover. On one of my first few casts next to a dock the Lucky Craft topwater got eaten fairly well by this dink. That would be the story of my whole day - dinks!!

Manxfishing was throwing a number of presentations and lures but his best was pretty much a wacky-rigged stick worm. I caught a couple more and missed several - all small - on the topwater. After Manxfishing lost a small keeper near the boat ramp shallow on the wacky rig I switched over to the Stevie Rig - a drop shot with a Case Plastics drop shot finesse walleye worm on it. I went with green pumpkin gold flake because the water was pretty clear but darker.

I caught a bass on my first cast with the rig but it was another one of the many 10 to 12 inchers I would catch all day.

(http://glb.glwimg.com/images/manxfishing-small-lake-chemung-bass20160826_084832.jpg)
Manxfishing caught a bunch of dink bass too all day on various lures and presentations. We tried quite a few from a couple feet of water down to 15+ feet of water off many shorelines, points and the big hump in the middle where I missed another topwater bite.

(http://glb.glwimg.com/images/stevie-rig-dink-bass-dan-kimmel-lake-chemung20160826_102346.jpg)
The majority of the bass I actually caught - all about 12 inches or less - came on the 'Stevie' Rig drop shot. I was using a heavier weight at times because we fished a lot of water over 10 feet deep trying to find some keepers. They were eating it good shallow and deep though mostly along the edge of the drop. I just couldn't find any keepers though I've seen the rig catch plenty of keepers for dartag!

We fished for quite a while until about 1:30pm before calling it a day on Chemung pulling the boat to look for 'greener' pastures! You know what they say about leaving fish to find fish!

We pulled the boat and ran down the road a few miles to Woodland Lake with hope in our hearts only to find a mudhole that has obvious been weed bombed hard this year! We fished all over Woodland for several hours from a couple feet deep, and lily pads to 10+ feet deep in a few holes.

I caught another dink on a shallow running KVD 2.5 crankbait that hit as soon as I started to turn the reel handle. I didn't take a picture though I guess I should have just to prove I caught one!

Out off a deeper break near the island I got bit off clean and hard on a Texas-rigged Power Worm I was dragging through sparse weeds that we couldn't see but feel.

Later not too far from the boat ramp Manxfishing has a small pike attack his lure as he was pulling it from the water and then I saw a keeper bass hit my KVD 2.5 crankbait twice not getting a hook though it aggressively followed the lure 10 or more feet before zooming away. And that was the end of our day of dinks. Better luck next time I guess.