lake murray - my new nemesis

if i had a nemesis lake, it'd be murray. hands down, with out a question, this lake has frustrated me to no end. i used to live maybe 10 minutes away from this lake, and have tried my luck here before. every single time, probably 4 or 5 outings now, i have come out of that place smelling like skunk. i've thrown my whole tackle box out there, spinners/worms/cranks/topwater/etc. with nothign to show for.

now, seeing that the boards have been flooded, and i mean flooded with new personal bests from murray, i had to give it another try. so, off i went with my gf.

started off tossing some worms out into some of the lakes nearby arms. bleh, the lake was just breaming with weeds, EVERYWHERE. the bait could not settle down, unless you found a pocket in that huge mess. i decided to move on to different waters, looking for some tules or open water. i made my way to the power lines, and spotted a few tules. started flipping my weightless senko right into or near the tules. did the same to some other bunches of tules, until i made it just past the power lines. threw in my senko once again to slack line. this time tho, once my line dropped in, it kept dropping. there was no way the water was more than 2 ft deep, but it seemed like my line kept on dropping. at that instant, and started reeling, and what do you know, fish on!

so thats why they say to watch your line for anything "different".

well, murray's still my nemesis lake, but i've got 1 fish out fo here! stoked, and can't wait to get back out there.

Sutherland - 6/15

Sutherlands been kind of my 2nd go to lake in SD county. Just after Miramar. Mainly because shore access is limitless. You can literally walk the entire lakes perimeter, if you've got the time. And, the fishings usually been pretty decent. My last outing on 5/31, we nailed a bunch of nice crappie and at my usual spot, i caught a couple bass. Pics from previous sutherland days.

Decided to hit up Sutherland Saturday morning, but got there pretty late. arrived around 10:30 am to a slight wind, but otherwise nice day. picked off a nice bass early on in the usual spot near the big rock on a crank bait.

we also soaked for some carp with a hair rig, using corn as bait. pbag pulled in a nice carp while we were fishing for crappie.

unfortunately, thats all we caught. no bites for crappie, no other bass, just nothing else. we walked around the lake, hit up a bunch of different spots, and ended up on the docks with still no biters. everyone we've talked to also didn't catch much. we heard from the boaters that most of the crappie were out in deeper water, and much of the bass being caught were near the dam. 

left at closing, as the bite actually turned on once the sun started setting.

PB in the Fresh!!! - 6/6

i had written up a long report, sprawled with my epic story of catching this beast. but, decided to cut it out, as most people only like looking at pictures. and i also started rambling off topic....

well without further adieu, my personal best LMB caught in our fine SD lakes!

caught on a brown 4.5" roboworm using my 7'6" ML/MF shimano compre on 6lb test! finesse style ftw! i was trying out some new rigs and decided to throw this finesse rig, and started jigging it around some points. hooked up to a smaller one at first, and thought, man this thing works! then after a few more cast, thought i got stuck on some rocks. gave it a tug, and it started tugging back! started reeling it in a bit, and it surfaced and jumped out of the water! once i saw it out of the water, MAN! my heart started pumpin! i fought her real nice and slow, knowing that i only had 6lb test line on. she kept giving some good hard runs, almost like my PB hali (33 incher). what got me more afraid was when she buried herself in some grass. on my ML setup, i thought for sure she was a gonner...but she came out and i surfaced her and eased her in. lipped and landed her! i took the hook out with ease, and damn lucky she didn't do another aerial show as for sure she wouldve shooken the hook out. took a few pics and set her free. she splashed her way back and swam away strong. man, she was a beast!!! i could literally fit my whole fist in her mouth.