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The Sunday Morning Bass Series kicked off on Sunday May 6 and will be held every Sunday all the way through Sunday September 30. These 5 hour event have become very popular over the past few years.
Entry fee is $100 per boat (including big fish) and has an 80% payback with an extended payout of a reverse 1 in 3 boats.
There is also a Fall Classic that will be held in October and will be a 100% payback event. All you have to do to be eligible for the classic is fish one regular season event.
Contact: Chris Craft or Dave Fauntleroy 540-895-5900 ext5
As of May 27, we are averaging 21 boats per event.
BASS- The best top water bite of the year is upon us, the spawn is over and the females have recovered and are hungry. From first light until the sun gets high, you can chase shady pockets with buzz baits, poppers, walking baits and wake baits, catching fish the entire time. On overcast days it can last all day long.
After the early morning feed is over, look for fish to seek out their own shade under boat docks, inside of the willow grass, around bridge pilings and deep water. A shakey head rigged with a straight tail worm is one of the best choices you can make for fishing around and under boat docks. A wacky rigged stick bait would be my second choice.
If venturing up lake, fish the willow grass along the shoreline. Typically, the thicker the grass the better. Make long casts with hollow body frogs and buzz baits, make sure you have some sort of soft plastic bait to throw in if and when the fish misses your bait on top. You can also flip/pitch jigs and creature baits to the grass and around docks.
Towards the end of the month, the top water bite will slow down drastically and the deep bite will turn on. Deep diving crankbaits, large Texas rigged worms will become a major player once this happens. You are going to want to fish these deeper baits around deep docks, brush piles, rock piles and bridge pilings.
CRAPPIE- The crappie have finished their spawn and are back out in deep water around bridge pilings, brush piles and just following bait around the lake.
First thing of a morning, you can find them chasing bait to the surface. A broken back redfin is my favorite bait to entice explosive and violent strikes from aggressive line sides! A walking bait is fun to fish, but the hook up percentage is drastically lowered, due to the just slapping at the bait. The redfin is sub-surface, so you still get the top water strike, without the heartache of the fish missing the bait.
Once the morning surface feed is over, you can either troll them up or drop spoons to them. If trolling, Chart/Blue or Sexy Shad DD-22’s and Chrome/Blue or Chrome/Black deep diving redfins are both great choices. If using a redfin, tie a four to six foot leader off of the center split ring and put a 1/4oz buck tail behind it. Look for the from the power plant to just up lake from the splits.
DIKE 3- 80 Degrees CLEAR