Dog Days of Summer return to Round Lake 8-20-2017

[djkimmel]

I unwisely risk another weekend shot at Round Lake just north of Lansing on a weekend Sunday, August 20, 2017 and get a dose of the 'dog days' and some more crazy boaters!


Once again I have a fairly fun start to the morning by getting their before dawn and getting my topwater on! Though not as productive as many other mornings. I lost a 13-incher at the boat but got a better bite from this small keeper minutes later around 6am.


Started with the black buzzbait for the silhouette before dawn but switched to white after a slow down in strikes once the sun rose above the trees. About 7 am with the white buzzbait - I think an ancient Lunker Lure? - I get a solid whack from a bigger keeper over deeper water. The surface has been alive but fading fast! This bass was near a very nervous school of minnows that had wandered away from the break.

Weird morning with weird bites. Pretty sure I heard the chupacabra before dawn again (single, strange unknown scream??)... Plus I had what can only be described as a large eel on my buzzbait!?! Some thick snaky ropy squiggly looking creature swam up behind my buzzbait and grabbed it without much fanfare. I failed to connect, possibly because I was staring at the scene with my mouth open thinking, 'what the?!?' No idea for sure what it was...?


God bless the weekend warriors... I was working a school of deep bass less than halfway out the big point on the west drop but had to move on because 2 of the 3 others boats that have come out since I got here 1st just apparently really, really, really had to fish the same spot. I was moving with the trolling motor and they came in right behind me to the same edge and started fishing. 84 acres of lake and 3 out of 4 boats are in the same half acre... So much for efficiently trying to follow the school of bass I was on...

At least the one other angler is aware there are fish in other spots... He's in the back corner of the lake all by his lonesome...

A slow, hot day today... haven't landed any big ones. SAW lots of bass for half the day. Getting them to bite was another story... Actually had a bunch of bites I didn't hook or land. Who knows how the day might have gone if I or the bass had committed better??


Did put a bunch of time into working on my drop shot and spybait skills off the breaks where you think the majority of the bass would be late in the summer on a hot sunny day. This small keeper fell to a drop shot fluke-like bait - slightly after 1pm when this picture occured.


Ohhh... Came so close to pitching a 'no-hitter' today but in the bottom of the 9th this big gator slammed my bluegill Spinbait 90! No bite offs and no other pike for the day though I do suspect several near misses. For most of the day it was like all the pike were gone!! If only that were true...

Meanwhile... looking at the side of this big pike, it sure looks like something even bigger had a hold of it and tried to eat it?? How BIG was that fish??


Seems like a sad day of bass fishing when I'm taking pictures of these little squeakers... but this small fatty was nice enough to jump all over my drop shot fluke at the end of the day! Entertaining - the lake was swarming with schools of 1-2 inch bass chasing everything that looked like food! That could mean better bass fishing in a few seasons if enough of them fatten up and make it through the winter.