Matt's Fishing Journal | Herrick Lake

This morning I woke up, and it struck me with irony. I had to proctor the ACT test at my school, and the weather finally looked like it was going to be present. Thus far this spring, it seems like I only have free time to fish when the weather is atrocious.

I was out of ACT testing around 1:00. I went out to see what my fishing bud Todd was doing and he had to coach a double header. I once again, why, I don’t know, went out to Mayslake. I parked near the church by Trinity Lake, where I immediately saw fisherman. I worked my way towards Mayslake and began casting the whole arsenal at a brush pile and some timber. I even found some weed edges to work, but they proved pointless. I headed over to the Northeast side of the lake, where the sun was baking the water. The water was already clearing up since last night.

I sat back and thought about the situation. It was about 48 F and very sunny. This was not warm, but warmer than it’s been. The sun was beating down hot. Maybe the fish were shallow and bathing in the bright light. Clear water means smaller, natural baits. Cold water means slow down the retrieve. I have been working on the reaction bite for the last few weeks and nothing. I decided to work a jig-n-pig, rigged with a Paca craw. There was some heavy cover, so I put on a heavier jig. There were a few times were I thought I had a nibble, but I couldn’t be sure.

I then decided to down-size the jig head to 1/4 ounce. This is the first year I have used a jig with trailer in this manner of fishing, so I am still very low on the learning curve. I tried slow bobbing retrieves. I than picked up the pace with a faster “swoop” and a long pause. There were two times where the line went quickly slack. It was probably a fish picking it up, but I missed them. I was waiting for a tug. After a few hours there, I packed up my stuff and went to Herrick Lake. I started off in the North end near the parking lot. By now, the winds were dying down, and were almost not even felt with the protecting trees. I worked both a jig with Paca craw and a rattle trap. Neither produced. I made my way over to the West Lagoon and worked some areas, nothing.

I did see a big snapping turtle feeding on something underwater. I tried to take its picture, but this is the best I could do:

I eventually worked my way over to the Southeast corner of the lake. There is a little creek that exits the lake and a medium sized muddy flat. With polarized glasses, I was able to see a few small bass sunning, and a lot of bait fish. I worked the whole east side, seeing the same thing. Whenever someone walked down the path, it would spook the fish and I would move. I decided that getting a small bass would be better than getting no bass. I quickly switched to a brown Berkley 4-inch power grub. On the first cast I got this little 10 incher.

I continued to work the shore until about 7:15 pm. I had a few bites, but the fish were still sluggish. Once the sun started to dip down, the fish moved away from shore, and I decided to call it. I took a few more pictures before I headed out.