The Lagoons 4/20
It had been 2 years since our last excursion into the lagoons and expectations were high for bass and pike. We had our yaks on the water by 6 a.m. and the weather was promising. Our last trip resulted in all of the fish caught with topwater baits,mostly rapala. This was the bite we expected but it only worked well early for one fella in our group of three. He landed 7 bass in under an hour and then the fish shut off. Dave and I managed 1 each in the same amount of time.
Water levels were low and clear this trip which caused us to eventually move off the pads and fish the open areas harder. The fish seemed to favor the thick submerged weeds for hiding this time. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea of pulling fish from less than 3 foot of water but it worked well for us once the pattern evolved.
Weightless Texas-rigged soft plastics allowed me to take the lead and capture the title of most caught. My buddies struggled initially with the technique but eventually started hauling fish as well. Dave managed the biggest bass. Slightly over 16 inches which allowed him to collect the 30 dollar pot. We were teased by a few pike throughout the day but none were hooked. They just lazily watched our baits drift by them. The carp were everywhere as we watched them launch vertically then commit to the ultimate carp flop back into the water. BIG snappers and beaver all visited throughout the day as well.
The biggest nuisance were the gaggle of angry fighting geese. Noisy bird they are. We only saw a few other fisherman throughout the entire day so it was nice to have the entire area to ourselves. Exhausted and sunburnt we busted out at sunset, weary but quite satisfied with the day given to us. Cant wait to do it again.
Steelys