I visited my local pond today. I haven't had a chance to go out in two week so I was not quite sure what to expect in terms of vegetation, so I prepared for lots and lots of lilypads. What I found was a bit different - some lilypads, yes, but most of the pond was one huge mat of weeds. Sure there were spots of clean water, but there was not one spot in that place where you could throw even something as relatively weedless as chatterbait. So I resorted to what worked for me in May - soft swimbait on a weighed hook. Even though my last visit was pre-spawn with chilly and somewhat murky water, and now it's very warm and crystal clear. Nevertheless 5 minutes in I took the skunk off with a solid fish. May be a 14-incher? It took a bit of time to unhook him and I did not want to keep him out of the water any longer so i did not break out the scale.
![Plant Grass Terrestrial plant Fish Fisherman]()
Moved around, caught a couple of dinks - one on senko!, which somehow stopped working for me last year. Then lost a sizable fish due to salad, and drag being too loose. Moved around some more and landed the fish of the day - a 2 lb 7 oz that gave me a decent fight, then finished it off with another dink - that one felt like a 4 pounder with all the weeds hanging off of it. Not a bad outing all in all.
![Plant Vertebrate Botany Fish Terrestrial plant]()
Moved around, caught a couple of dinks - one on senko!, which somehow stopped working for me last year. Then lost a sizable fish due to salad, and drag being too loose. Moved around some more and landed the fish of the day - a 2 lb 7 oz that gave me a decent fight, then finished it off with another dink - that one felt like a 4 pounder with all the weeds hanging off of it. Not a bad outing all in all.
