Met my buddy BJ out at the 'Coon for a little practice time yesterday. It had been several years since I bass fished out there, most of my time being spent chasing crappie the times I have gone this past year. After today I might have to rethink that approach.
We fished from 8:30-2:30, neither of us being much of a morning type person. Kind of scary what might have happened if we had shown up at 5:30 a.m. like most bassers do. Then again, we had a good layer of heavy cloud cover hanging around for most all of the day which acted like an extension of a morning bite, so it didn't really hurt us too much. Loads of traffic out on that lake being a holiday weekend, especially since everything got rained out Saturday and moved to Sunday, including the fireworks.
We ended the day with 11 keepers and about half a dozen shorts. Spent a lot of time mixing it up and covering water and just trying to figure out some stuff. Caught fish on both topwaters and underwaters ;~) When the boat traffic picked up along with a good breeze, we were able to catch several on spinnerbait also. Never really slowed down enough to toss slow baits as that wasn't the primary game plan. Ended up finding four good areas with concentrations of bass, enough to be able to move around in the morning and yet still be able to set down later if conditions dictate. No giants today, but absolutely nothing wrong with a double limit like the chunks below:
I have maybe fished Raccoon a dozen times over they years, and I know very little about the lake but the one thing I do know is that picture is one of my favorite places on the lake! That place and about 3 or 4 others will be my spots for Saturday. I think you already know one of them, which usually gives up at least 2 fish first thing in the morning then you guys are parked in my second place! I cant let BJ give me a solid ass whippin, Ive worked to damned hard for the lead to this point!!!!
Posted by: Josh McDermott | July 06, 2009 at 07:13 PM
LOL, I don't think you'll have any problem holding your own on that lake. It is set up pretty good for your style of fishing. Glad I'm on the outside just looking in this year. Fun to only have to catch fish on practice days. I think this tourney and your next on Cataract are going to quickly seperate the men from the boys in the club.
Posted by: Big Indiana Bass | July 06, 2009 at 07:55 PM
Are these tough lakes to fish? Or is this a seasonal separation from the pack.
Posted by: Paul Roberts | July 07, 2009 at 10:27 AM
A little of both Paul. Raccoon, and especially Cataract have very little shoreline cover and not a ton of underwater cover. No vegetation on either lake. Combined with summer boating traffic and seasonal bass locations, plus a 16" limit on Raccoon and you have the potential for some pretty light weigh-ins. Guys who figure something out can really pad some weight to their yearly totals over others who will struggle.
Oh, and Josh, thanks for the heads up on that being a favorite spot. I'll have to remember that ;) That picture was taken at 2:30 pm and was about the only place we could find that was out of path of holiday traffic where we could get a good picture. That lake gets downright rough from all those pleasure boaters - I'd get killed in my little tin machine out there. I know the game well enough to know that you don't post pics on the Internet of recognizable places where you whacked some bass. Beside, you can still see one of the culling rings still attached to the bass from earlier that morning as BJ was running a mock tourney situation to get a good idea of what to expect weigh-wise. Rest assured those fish were released shortly after the pic was taken, but they were put back on the actual banks where they were caught from on the way back in to the ramp.
Posted by: Big Indiana Bass | July 07, 2009 at 11:03 AM