Good to see so many posting their results. Thanks guys it's very helpful. Sounds like we had similar results numbers wise.
We rent a boat yesterday and today. Headed right out to main lake in the 14ft. aluminum yesterday. It was basically flat, with little wind. Almost too little wind most of the day. We went as far as the cribs but never too far off shore. Caught close to 50 on the day, with 40 smallies. Mostly jerk baits on the main lake. Nothing over 2 pounds I don't think, maybe a few just over 2. Not sure where those big 3-5s are?! I should have headed out to find deep water, but I only have a Navionics App no depth finder. Headed into the Bay early evening and caught some more. Had a ton of 1-2# smallies chasing spinner baits, but many wouldn't bite.
Today was tougher condition-wise. Spent 2 hours in the Bay, we only had 3 fish to show. Tons of boats stacked up around us, but not much activity at that point. So we hit the main lake again. Only 1ft. or less, it was very comfortable for a while. Got about a dozen each fishing plastics. No jerk bait bass, but one big hybrid or white bass on the jerk - we got a lot of these little guys, anyone know what they are for sure?
Even grabbed a nice 11" perch in 8' of water. Felt like we were getting a lot of perch type bites.
Headed back into the Bay around 2 and it was MUCH rougher than the main lake; 1-2 ft. waves with high wind and deep swells - could barely stand on the boat! Maybe we should have stayed on the main lake. But we caught another 8 or so apiece, including some 2-2.5s on spinner baits. So maybe around 40 total on the day. Not bad, but not like the Erie I remember in the late 90s! Still had a great time, so much better than about 10-12 days ago when I was up.
So how long until those big females get their post spawn feed on? How long will they stay in the Bay if they did just finish spawning a week ago? Should I just stick to main lake (if it's safe) when I go back in 2 weeks? I appreciate any advice!