Round Lake 5th of July

[djkimmel]

Once again I visit Round Lake for some r & r - a break from the regular work week.

This time I wait until the holiday weekend is over, but just over to head out early on the morning of the 5th of July. No fireworks but a nice day for fishing for sure with great weather - hot, hot, hot!


I start out fishing slow because the water is hot, has been pounded for a few days by anglers and boaters, and it doesn't take much to pound an 80 acre lake. I catch one right away in the morning from one of the points on the lightly rigged Power Worm. Small but fun.


I'm seeing a little topwater activity though nothing like last year so I break things up to throw a buzzbait for awhile. I catch this little guy along with several pike and a dogfish - the Round Lake trifecta


Things are slow because I mostly catch dinks but I head back out towards the deep water and catch this really nice keeper on the Power Worm just off the drop off. Things are looking up.

I try to get positioned out in the deep water like I was on the 17th but the weeds feel different so I'm off to the side or in shallower maybe. Hard to tell without a good waypoint or fishfinders. I forgot to get my handheld GPS out on the 17th to take a waypoint. You would think on a tiny lake like this you wouldn't need it but when you're far enough from shore to not have exact lineups 50 feet this way or 100 feet that way may make a lot of difference.


The story ends a little well this time. I keep adjusting my position a cast at a time until the weeds feel sparser and then I get a bite deep below the boat. It lets go. Now, I've been bit off twice and caught a couple dinks but I pick up my Bullet Craw and basically toss it off the side of the boat. It's almost deep flipping as I feel a bite and set the hook almost straight up and down to catch this big bass over 4 pounds. It was a tired looking, beat up bass but a big bass nonetheless.

So maybe I'm really close to what the bigger bass are doing and they are used to seeing lures now. I think I just need to work them over from now on slow and persistently to get a few to bite. My days end here this time but I'll be back...