Acton 9/22

Fishing was marginally better yesterday. We've had a stationary high sitting on us for a week and I think the fish are starting to adjust. Air temp started in the 50's and rose to the mid-80's. Water temp was low 70's.

We caught a number of crappie, a few in our keeper size range of 9+ inches. I picked up three while we trolled looking for likely spots. Successful lures ran the gamut: glo-in-the-dark crappie slider, a paddletail shad (a big lure that I normally throw for bass), YUM micro grub tipped with a minnow, bright green triple ripple/minnow and a silver/firetail stinger tube tipped with nibbles. Doug also caught a couple on a deadlined minnow. Most significant was that we were having a lot of quick hits like we get early in the season. They don't stay with it, but at least they're showing interest.

We worked the edge of the drop off along the west side of the lake from the beach to 1/4 mi. south of the lodge. Everything was in 14 feet of water, but they were at all depths - also a good sign.

We also found a cluster of baby channel cats all around the end of the fishing pier in 12 - 16 feet of water. I had dropped my crappie jig over the side while I messed with something else and when I pulled it up, there was an itty bitty cat sucking on the minnow. It wasn't much bigger than our bass tubes.

We're going to head out tomorrow (Friday) before the next cold front approaches. - Roberta