Anchored in the deeper grass and caught them on wacky rigs. Had to fish them really slow. As you saw I lost a couple and caught a couple earlier on T-Rig w/big worm. Wacky worked best and they ate them good enough that even I couldn't lose them.

Me and a buddy went out last tuesday and the bass were schooling and hitting the top most of the day. I caught two early in a school on top water, but after that had a tough time get them to bite. We used rattle traps, umbrella rigs, flutes, crank baits, spinnerbaits.... We had a hard time chasing the schools, we were in a bass boat, so we went to fishing the edges of grass. Couple of other kayakers were there and had success in the schools. We were just off that day.

I went out today and dedicated the whole day to drop shotting out of my fishing canoe in relatively deeper water. Slow in the morning, then I found them over by the farthest most pavilion where a bank fisherman can go way back in the mouth of that cove. I was off the point there by about 40 or so yards, got one on, lost it, but when I cast it back out, I hooked up again immediately and boated the fish. My guess is I found a little school sitting there but I had drifted away from the spot after a few fish.

Anyway, with all of that vegetation, even out in fairly deep water, I think a drop shot seems the way to go if you can get the bait floating just above the vegetation. My sinker was about 12" down, wish I had experimented with a few different settings there. Maybe having the hook and bait up another foot or so would have worked even better.

I saw Bill Wilcox's boat but didn't realize it was him until Dave at the gate mentioned it. He said Bill was catching them on top waters.

Just a note that I used the KVD (and others) version of a nose hook where I took the 1/0 hook and sunk it "under the chin" of my bait (robo worm) but left the point embedded in the plastic. It does seem to keep it relatively weedless and a reel hookset works just fine.

Brad

Go Froggin, that was me in the 8' pond boat leaving the northwest cove as you were going in, and you mentioned wanting to catch some frog bass at Wheeler Branch. I ended up with 2 and lost one. The first one hit a PBJ Ned Rig; I hooked the second one on a Rattletrap as soon as I moved it after a backlash, and the one I lost looked when it jumped to be between 3 and 4 pounds. It hit a minnow-imitating swim bait, but broke me off in the weeds (ultralight tackle). Both that bass and the one that hit the Ned Rig were just off the drop into 15' of water about 50 yards north of the island. I saw no schooling fish, but I stopped fishing around 4:00. I don't know how Wilcox ended up, but I did see him catch one small bass on topwater.

Phototex and I got to fish that cove beyond the last walkable pavilion. I hooked up and lost a fish on a bait he gave me for my "drop shot" day. It wasn't in the brush but sort of out in the middle of the cove. And, that was where I think Phototex let that rattletrap settle to the bottom while working his line issues out and then pulled out a pretty nice fish!

Go Froggin, Wacky, huh? Gosh, I should have rigged up my drop shot wacky style but all I did, all day, was use the nose hook technique where the point of the hook actually stays embedded in the plastic but near the surface for a quick hook set once a fish hits it. I'll give the wacky style a go next time! I know sometimes they just want to see one particular way.

Hmm? My first fish of the day got off my line, I was floating around in a fishing canoe not able to hold my ground all that well in the current and wind, but I did cast out and caught my first fish on my very next cast, then another a few casts later after I paddled back over to regain my position. That makes me think I was likely sitting on a school of LMBs all sitting out there off the point in water farther out than one could cast from the bank, maybe 18 to 20 feet in depth.

I have a Scotty anchor lock that I need to slightly alter but then run it off the square stern end of my canoe so I can more easily and quickly deploy an anchor while sitting in the mid-ship seat in my canoe and letting out or taking up line as needed. That should help me get on spots and hold them a bit better, and quicker. I also use a brush anchor when there is something to grab on to above water and they work great.

Wheeler is great, tough fishing lately, but so much fun trying to solve the puzzle and work on techniques.

Brad