Yellowwood Lake 5/12/2012
This weekend saw another wonderful couple of days for fishing. The weather was clear. Some rain systems moved north and south of Bloomington and the greater area, more or less. We saw some wind and clouds which is always good for fishing (in the right amounts of course). Saturday was a probably the best day for fishing. There were variable winds and it was overcast for the majority of the day.
At around 9am on Saturday, my mother and I set out for Yellowwood Lake. After getting through town (We have to drive directly through Bloomington to get to Highway 46) we made our way through Belmont and got to Yellowwood by around 10. Traffic and road construction are the bane of my existence driving around or through town. I want to point out as well that out near Belmont, there was someone running for some sort of office with the name of "Catfish" Platter. I have to say...that is one of the best nick names I have ever come across. So cheers to you sir, assuming you won.
Anyway, Yellowwood has re-paved, or re-graveled, their main road through the park so there's not as many horrid pot-holes strewn along its length. Kudos to the DNR for that! The fishing itself was a little slow. Given fishing during the generally lower-activity hours is also hard, we did have some success. I brought live bait to better my chances of catching fish. Plenty of sunfish were caught. Unfortunately, I think only two were probably keepers. They were smaller than I'd like themselves, but had I caught enough of that size I wouldn't have been picky.
Ma was catching bass on rubber worms off a point we have had lots of success with. Two weeks ago we managed to catch 18 bass off of that spot in about three hours. This day was a lot slower than that I'd say. We still had our chances at plenty of bass though. She caught a handful of bass. One (which is pictured below) was a 16 inch female that we took home and filleted. She was a pig! I have to say, that was probably the biggest bass I've ever held. I catch plenty of fish, but they're not usually that big. I can think of possibly two off the top of my head that were comparable that I have caught.
Personally I don't think the picture does the fish justice. She was a good sized fish. Its all the more impressive considering Yellowwood was being dredged the past couple of years and well below normal pool. Makes me very optimistic about the fish in the lake. All the bass we've been catching have been between 12 and 14 inches fairly regularly and I have seen a few in the shallows that were probably about the size of this female.
Unfortunately for me, any bass that I got to bite managed to throw my hook. I was using various lures too. The rubber worms were not setting (I had this problem a couple weeks ago too) and my crank baits were getting thrown when the bass jumped from the water. It is sort of disappointing when these kinds of things happen. I have to say though, there is some consolation somewhere in losing the fish. I like watching the fish jump out of the water. It is great fun. Takes me back to the first bass I caught when I was younger. I was using a top-water lure even though my uncle told me not to. What I got was a little bass that hit it and lept out of the water.
Anyway, it is getting late. I have class in the morning and more things to hypothesize about regarding fishing. I'd like to work with top-waters and spinner-baits more, but with success. May have to watch some videos and see what I can come up with.
-William
At around 9am on Saturday, my mother and I set out for Yellowwood Lake. After getting through town (We have to drive directly through Bloomington to get to Highway 46) we made our way through Belmont and got to Yellowwood by around 10. Traffic and road construction are the bane of my existence driving around or through town. I want to point out as well that out near Belmont, there was someone running for some sort of office with the name of "Catfish" Platter. I have to say...that is one of the best nick names I have ever come across. So cheers to you sir, assuming you won.
Anyway, Yellowwood has re-paved, or re-graveled, their main road through the park so there's not as many horrid pot-holes strewn along its length. Kudos to the DNR for that! The fishing itself was a little slow. Given fishing during the generally lower-activity hours is also hard, we did have some success. I brought live bait to better my chances of catching fish. Plenty of sunfish were caught. Unfortunately, I think only two were probably keepers. They were smaller than I'd like themselves, but had I caught enough of that size I wouldn't have been picky.
Ma was catching bass on rubber worms off a point we have had lots of success with. Two weeks ago we managed to catch 18 bass off of that spot in about three hours. This day was a lot slower than that I'd say. We still had our chances at plenty of bass though. She caught a handful of bass. One (which is pictured below) was a 16 inch female that we took home and filleted. She was a pig! I have to say, that was probably the biggest bass I've ever held. I catch plenty of fish, but they're not usually that big. I can think of possibly two off the top of my head that were comparable that I have caught.
Personally I don't think the picture does the fish justice. She was a good sized fish. Its all the more impressive considering Yellowwood was being dredged the past couple of years and well below normal pool. Makes me very optimistic about the fish in the lake. All the bass we've been catching have been between 12 and 14 inches fairly regularly and I have seen a few in the shallows that were probably about the size of this female.
Unfortunately for me, any bass that I got to bite managed to throw my hook. I was using various lures too. The rubber worms were not setting (I had this problem a couple weeks ago too) and my crank baits were getting thrown when the bass jumped from the water. It is sort of disappointing when these kinds of things happen. I have to say though, there is some consolation somewhere in losing the fish. I like watching the fish jump out of the water. It is great fun. Takes me back to the first bass I caught when I was younger. I was using a top-water lure even though my uncle told me not to. What I got was a little bass that hit it and lept out of the water.
Anyway, it is getting late. I have class in the morning and more things to hypothesize about regarding fishing. I'd like to work with top-waters and spinner-baits more, but with success. May have to watch some videos and see what I can come up with.
-William
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