Fished a club tourney on Pataganset Lake on Saturday, 5-14-16
Air Temp: 55 - 70
Water Temp: 59 - 64
Skies: Clear
Wind: 3-10 MPH SSW
Depth: 1-4 FOW
Lures: 5 inch worm, 3 inch grub
Fish were moving onto beds or staging just outside of spawning areas.
I started out fishing an area with some pretty good pads and other slop. Had a giant bass inhale a soft body hollow frog in the first 10 minutes. Sounded like a toilet flushing when it hit
I set the hook and only had it on for a second or two and it came unbuttoned
Onward. Caught fish #1 on a 5 inch worm in the vicinity of a dock. A nice 3 lber. or a bit better.
Whew.. skunk eliminated pretty quickly
Continued to work shallow weedy areas with no other action. As the sun started getting above the treetops I started keeping a close eye on shoreline areas with good sun exposure. Sure enough, there were bass on beds.
Ended up catching 2 or 3 from beds using a 3 inch grub in Silk Chartreuse color, fished on a 1/8 oz. leadhead.
Caught a nice one over 4 lbs. from some scattered lily pads on a flat that lead out to deeper water.
Moved around a bit and ended up with my limit, then caught one more in the last hour to cull up a bit.
Total weight for best 5 was 13.79 lb.
Kicker fish weighed 4.14 lbs.
Good for first place and tourney lunker