Thread: Who says you can't learn bout a lake you've fished for 30 years ? !

Actually there are two lakes I had no idea I could learn more about and especially locating fish. I've always been a structure fishing kinda guy and if the bottom is too flat or deep, I don't bother casting until I find an edge or a change in depth. Maybe it was the hurricane that moved through recently, but I've been catching fish in the weirdest locations. All I can say is, thank God for fish finders!

So, after 6" of rain I figured the change in depth may change where fish are catchable, meaning closer to shore. But guess what, the only thing that changed was were the water was up on the shore - not much depth change anywhere except now fish were further out on the shallow flats than before. Plus fish were scattered in deeper water (7') and catchable with casts all around the boat to locate small schools. (Of course keeping track of locations fish were caught using shoreline landmarks was a must.)
82 fish -a small % of decent crappie, perch and sunfish mixed with the usual tykes, kept my interest.

The other lake that really blew me away has never been a favorite and the bottom seemed too uniform to bother with. But on the 8th, that changed forever! I caught a bunch of pygmy sunfish, bass and crappie in water less than 4', holding off fishing deeper water due to the 15 mph wind. But I figured I better try those deeper areas adjacent to the shore before giving up and it's a good thing I did.

Some shorelines dropped fast into deeper water while others had flat that came pretty far out (20') and 40' long. Fish were caught in both areas and the quality went up big time. Other than 8 - 11.5" crappie, I caught a big warmouth sunfish, green sunfish, pumpkinseed and bass. The strikes were as hard as I've ever experienced! 77 fish in 6 hrs. kept me busy and thankful I hadn't given up on the lake I swam in when I was a kid. Here are a few caught in many different locations:
Warmouth:


One of many fish caught on the Mojo Grub:


about a dozen of these 8"ers:


and this chubby pumpkinseed:


and some nice crappie to boot! :


I have a feeling the rainfall made a difference in both lakes along with the front that was rapidly approaching. Can't wait to fish both again!

thats a rock bass my friend , you can often see the tiger bar camo on them ,warmouth don't color up that way

I'm confused:
There are 10 dorsal spines on a warmouth (pictured); rock bass have 11-13.

But, this fish has more than 3 anal fin spines and no stripes radiating from the eye as seen in warmouth. Plus the pectoral fin, if bent forward, will not even reach the posterior edge of the eye but this one does.

note: Warmouths have been known to hybridize with bluegills and green sunfish, as they are all in the sunfish family and frequent similar habitats. Rock bass are less likely to hybridize, potentially owing to their frequent and faster-moving bodies of water. Maybe a hybrid?

Looks more like a rock bass I agree.