Air temp: 30-45 degrees
Weather: Mostly Cloudy
Water temp: 44-47 degrees
Water Clarity: 1 foot to 5ft in some areas
Winds 10-14mph
Lake level: Down about 45ft from full
Saturday February 23rd I had the pleasure of fishing with the local El Dorado Bass club. This is a great club to check out to meet some good people and fish a more relaxed small tournament setting. It’s about learning and making friends in this group more than a stressful competition.
I was paired with my buddy Patrick for this event and we had an idea of what may get them in the cold water and current conditions. We started at safe light and there was a 10-14 mph wind blowing across the lake. Quite cold!
Using my graphs I located rock piles with immediate drop offs on the main lake where the water seemed to be the warmest. First cast with a Brown and Purple Canopy Grenades Jig I hooked into my first keeper. About 20 more minutes and no other fish came off this spot so I looked for a similar area and began casting at the next rock pile. This one didn’t produce so I moved to the next. About 5 casts in and I had boated 2 more small keepers off the next rock pile. After this the bite slowed significantly. Following the same pattern for a few hours nothing else seemed to want the jig. I had noticed fish on my side imaging and on my sonar when we made another pass over the main lake rock piles and knowing the jig bite was unlikely, at this point I switched to a ned rig. I fished the ned just like I would the jig and got lucky with my last 2 keepers and that was it for the day. Weighed just over 10lbs and got the win. The bite was extremely slow, I had tried fast and medium retrieves but the fish wanted it sitting still and barely moving. All of the fish were in 15 to 20 feet that were landed and my side scan picked some fish up as shallow as 5 feet but I couldn’t get those to go. A few good sunny days and it will be fun out there when the females move up to warm themselves.
Thanks for reading and good luck out there!
