I took a ride and fished Defiance today. I didn't know it opened at 8 so I headed back to McD's for some breakfast and did some reading.
Got to the gate when it was opening and headed to the lake. Good thing I had my cart with because never having been here I didn't know that the dock is about 300 feet from the parking lot.
I launched and turned on my electronics and headed to a spot that I seen on the map that I thought would hold fish. My suspicions were right and I caught a small 13 inch bass right away. It was a bit windy so I had to anchor and fish. I really don't like doing that but it was the only way to avoid sailing across the lake. I ended up getting one more bass about the same size and then I pulled up anchor and tried a frog in the pads.
No action there so it was back to fishing the deeper weed edges. I had a few small taps on a senko but no fish.
After awhile I decided to stop fishing and just paddle the lake and look at my locator and the map and try to learn something about the lake. It seemed that the weed edge was in about 12-14 feet of water and I found some spots that were 20 feet deep with some very large humps on them. I marked fish relating to that deep weed edge and suspended 10 feet or so over 18-20 feet of water.
I threw on a deep diving crankbait and tried trolling it but it continually got fouled on weeds.
I went back to that 12 foot weed edge and anchored and started to cast. When my crank bait would get down to its running depth it still was getting caught in the weeds so I decided to change to a shallower running bait. I tied on an old school yellow/orange wiggle wart. On the first cast the lure started to tick the weeds and got slammed. I landed a nice 30 1/4 inch pike. I was able to land it after a pretty good battle and got a measurement. It was real hard to get a good photo of it but here are a few.
I left after my battle with the pike but I will most certainly come back to this lake. I did see a rather large bass follow my spinnerbait and even though I didn't get any action on the frog I would guess there are bass under those pads.
~JOE~
Got to the gate when it was opening and headed to the lake. Good thing I had my cart with because never having been here I didn't know that the dock is about 300 feet from the parking lot.
I launched and turned on my electronics and headed to a spot that I seen on the map that I thought would hold fish. My suspicions were right and I caught a small 13 inch bass right away. It was a bit windy so I had to anchor and fish. I really don't like doing that but it was the only way to avoid sailing across the lake. I ended up getting one more bass about the same size and then I pulled up anchor and tried a frog in the pads.
No action there so it was back to fishing the deeper weed edges. I had a few small taps on a senko but no fish.
After awhile I decided to stop fishing and just paddle the lake and look at my locator and the map and try to learn something about the lake. It seemed that the weed edge was in about 12-14 feet of water and I found some spots that were 20 feet deep with some very large humps on them. I marked fish relating to that deep weed edge and suspended 10 feet or so over 18-20 feet of water.
I threw on a deep diving crankbait and tried trolling it but it continually got fouled on weeds.
I went back to that 12 foot weed edge and anchored and started to cast. When my crank bait would get down to its running depth it still was getting caught in the weeds so I decided to change to a shallower running bait. I tied on an old school yellow/orange wiggle wart. On the first cast the lure started to tick the weeds and got slammed. I landed a nice 30 1/4 inch pike. I was able to land it after a pretty good battle and got a measurement. It was real hard to get a good photo of it but here are a few.
I left after my battle with the pike but I will most certainly come back to this lake. I did see a rather large bass follow my spinnerbait and even though I didn't get any action on the frog I would guess there are bass under those pads.
~JOE~
