Josh Rouse holds his first rock bass, caught on a Strike King Coffee Tube. (Photos by Josh Rouse)
I took some time off from work last week to relax after a busy month on the copy desk, which gave me the perfect opportunity to get some fishing in and try out some new things.
Josh Rouse caught his first warmouth off a bridge at Lake Shawnee
I started out the week dock fishing at my uncle’s pond during a gorgeous, partly cloudy day that offered a brief reprieve from the hellish heat we’ve been enjoying this month. I began my day fishing a bait that I’m not super familiar with, a buzzbait. Every angler has their own style when bass fishing, and as of late I’ve become a finesse guy who occasionally dabbles with crankbaits and topwater poppers. Buzzbaits and spinner baits are a bit foreign to me, though I’ve used them before with minimal success.
However, this go around I tied on a Terminator T-1 buzzbait and had no trouble coaxing fish out from their cover under the weeds. I quickly picked up four bass before my baitcaster got tangled up and I switched poles. I made the switch to a TTG Lures swimming worm on a dropshot — again, not exactly my forte, but I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended) — and soon caught a few with that setup.
I again ran into tangles after a bad attempt at a hookset, despite fishing in my comfort zone with a spinning reel, and made a switch to my crappie rod. I cleaned up nicely on big slabs using Fle-Fly’s feather jigs and Crappie Kickers and B&P Jighead’s Crappie Carrot rigged under a float. The jig and bobber has quickly become one of my go-to setups for just about any species, but crappie in particular.
After a solid day of fishing, I decided to test my luck the following morning at Jeffrey Energy Center near St. Marys. The huge, puffy cumulus clouds I’d enjoyed the day before turned into a gray sheet of nimbus as drizzle fell throughout the morning near the plant. I had a few bites early on the buzzbait at the main lake near where the water comes in, but they were small fish and I couldn’t get anything to stick. I tried fishing the docks with spinners and crankbaits, where I saw big wipers breaching the choppy surface, but they weren’t interested in what I offered. The day was a complete bust, save for a fish grilling basket I picked up at a church garage sale in Silver Lake on the way back home — and a cassette version of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”
However, this go around I tied on a Terminator T-1 buzzbait and had no trouble coaxing fish out from their cover under the weeds. I quickly picked up four bass before my baitcaster got tangled up and I switched poles. I made the switch to a TTG Lures swimming worm on a dropshot — again, not exactly my forte, but I decided to give it a shot (no pun intended) — and soon caught a few with that setup.
I again ran into tangles after a bad attempt at a hookset, despite fishing in my comfort zone with a spinning reel, and made a switch to my crappie rod. I cleaned up nicely on big slabs using Fle-Fly’s feather jigs and Crappie Kickers and B&P Jighead’s Crappie Carrot rigged under a float. The jig and bobber has quickly become one of my go-to setups for just about any species, but crappie in particular.
After a solid day of fishing, I decided to test my luck the following morning at Jeffrey Energy Center near St. Marys. The huge, puffy cumulus clouds I’d enjoyed the day before turned into a gray sheet of nimbus as drizzle fell throughout the morning near the plant. I had a few bites early on the buzzbait at the main lake near where the water comes in, but they were small fish and I couldn’t get anything to stick. I tried fishing the docks with spinners and crankbaits, where I saw big wipers breaching the choppy surface, but they weren’t interested in what I offered. The day was a complete bust, save for a fish grilling basket I picked up at a church garage sale in Silver Lake on the way back home — and a cassette version of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”
The next day I headed to the Shawnee State Fishing Lake near Silver Lake with my buddy, Brendan Handy, and the weather again changed as the muggy air, lack of wind and direct sunlight made fishing in 89-degree weather feel like 99-degree weather. I started off fishing frog lures near the lily pads but only drew one blowup, during which the bass completely missed the lure near a thick mat of pads. We moved to a rocky point, switched to nightcrawlers and small jigs tipped with wax worms and sat in the truck with the AC blasting, watching our bobbers.
We had been sitting in the vehicle listening to a Big and Rich CD for about 10 minutes when my bobber suddenly disappeared. I jumped out and ran to the rod and saw the line going out, completely rigid. I gave Handy a big thumbs up and yanked back to set the hook. I felt an unexpectedly heavy pull on the line and soon realized I had somehow hooked my first walleye of the season during a bright, clear, blisteringly hot day. I saw a nice flash of silver from the 15-plus-inch fish near the rocks before it dove again right at the bank. I didn’t want to snap the 6-pound line, so I let him run with it, though I admittedly should have eased the tension knob on my rod a bit. My heart sank as he scraped the taut line up against a rock and snapped free as I watched my slip bobber re-emerge from the depths and float freely, completely detached from the line now.
We had been sitting in the vehicle listening to a Big and Rich CD for about 10 minutes when my bobber suddenly disappeared. I jumped out and ran to the rod and saw the line going out, completely rigid. I gave Handy a big thumbs up and yanked back to set the hook. I felt an unexpectedly heavy pull on the line and soon realized I had somehow hooked my first walleye of the season during a bright, clear, blisteringly hot day. I saw a nice flash of silver from the 15-plus-inch fish near the rocks before it dove again right at the bank. I didn’t want to snap the 6-pound line, so I let him run with it, though I admittedly should have eased the tension knob on my rod a bit. My heart sank as he scraped the taut line up against a rock and snapped free as I watched my slip bobber re-emerge from the depths and float freely, completely detached from the line now.
I cussed myself in frustration that I let the nice walleye get away, and went about setting up my rig again. As the sun began to set, the fishing quickly picked up, and I soon started hauling in bluegills, small channel cats and even a couple crappies. Handy caught a pounder catfish on his pole but wasn’t having much luck. He said he wanted a big catfish, so I set up my baitcaster for him with a circle hook using one of my bluegills as live bait, but they weren’t having it.
After fishing in the heat for eight hours that day, I didn’t feel like doing much fishing the rest of my vacation as the heat jumped up close to the 100s, but I did make a couple one-hour trips to Lake Shawnee in the early morning where I ended up catching two new species — a rock bass and a warmouth. Both of them were good-sized panfish, too.
After fishing in the heat for eight hours that day, I didn’t feel like doing much fishing the rest of my vacation as the heat jumped up close to the 100s, but I did make a couple one-hour trips to Lake Shawnee in the early morning where I ended up catching two new species — a rock bass and a warmouth. Both of them were good-sized panfish, too.
I was fishing in a rocky area near a bridge with a Strike King Coffee Tube on a dropshot when I hooked the rock bass right off the bank in some grass. Despite being a pretty big tube, the hungry rock bass swallowed the lure whole. I actually caught the warmouth from on top of the bridge the following day when I dropped a crappie jig tipped with wax worm under a slip float and coaxed the big panfish from its hiding place in the shadow of the bridge.
Now, if only I could get the smallmouth I’ve been targeting out there.
Now, if only I could get the smallmouth I’ve been targeting out there.
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