Midwest Finesse Fishing: April 2023

Bear Brundrett of Valley View, Texas, with one of the 25 largemouth bass that he and Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, caught on April 6.

 

April 3

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 3 outing at one of northeastern Kansas' many community reservoirs. This 83-year-old reservoir is heavily fished, and it has been ill-treated with many applications of herbicides, stockings of grass crap, and a variety of other transgressions.

Here is an edited version of his log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 52 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 77 degrees. The wind was calm at 5:53 p.m.; it was variable at 2:53 p.m.; at other times, it angled out of the south, southeast, east, and northeast at 3 to 13 mph. The conditions of the sky fluctuated from being fair to mostly cloudy to overcast to partly cloudy. The barometric pressure was 29.65 at 12:53 a.m., 29.64 at 5:53 a.m., 29.62 at 11:53 a.m., and 29.58 at 2:53 p.m.

The water level looked to be a few inches above normal. The surface temperature ranged from 53 to 55 degrees. The water exhibited from four to almost six feet of clarity. All of this reservoir's massive patches of coontail have been destroyed. Now many of the shallow-water flats and shorelines are becoming cluttered with burgeoning wads of filamentous algae, and a few largemouth bass are abiding in and around these wads.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 9:11 a.m. to 11:11 a.m., 9:32 p.m. to 11:32 p.m., and 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.

I made my first cast at 12:10 p.m. and my last one at 3:10 p.m.

For many years, our average hourly catch rate has been around 10 black bass an hour. But during the first 93 days of 2023, we achieved that mark only once, which occurred on March 29, and again we failed to reach it on this April 3 outing.

On this outing, it was a struggle to catch an average of seven largemouth bass an hour. One of the 21 largemouth bass was caught on a Z-Man's coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. The other twenty were caught on a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. I garnered nine strikes that I failed to hook. Three of the 21 largemouth bass that I caught had to strike the Drew's craw rig twice before I hooked them, and one followed that rig all the way to the boat before I hooked it. I failed to garner a strike on a 3 ½-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin GrubZ affixed to a red 3/32-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead and a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead.

I spent the first hour in the lower and middle portions of this reservoir.

Along about a 150-yard stretch of a main-lake shoreline, I caught three largemouth bass. The underwater terrain of this shoreline consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders. The water's edge is lined with several concrete retaining walls, a few patches of winter dead American water willows, nine docks, and several tertiary points. One largemouth mouth bass was caught on the coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ rig with a drag-and-shake presentation adjacent to one of the docks in about six feet of water. The other two were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig with a drag-and-shake presentation in five to six feet of water.

Around a main-lake point and along its main-lake shoreline in the lower section of the reservoir, I failed to elicit a strike.

I spent the final two hours fishing along two massive main-lake shorelines in the upper half of this reservoir.

I caught a dozen largemouth bass along about a 3,000-foot stretch of one of these main-lake shorelines. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders; a lot of burgeoning wads of filamentous algae are clinging to this underwater terrain. This shoreline possesses a 25- to 60-degree slope. The water's edge consists of four concrete retaining walls, 10 docks, one small rock bridge, two main-lake points, a few laydowns, several piles of brush, some patches of winter-dead American water willows, and a few overhanging trees. The twelve largemouth bass were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig. The steeper sections of this shoreline yielded four largemouth bass, which were caught on a drag-and-shake presentation in seven to eight feet of water and about five to 12 feet from the water's edge. One was caught adjacent to one of the docks. The flatter sections of this shoreline yielded eight largemouth bass, which were caught on a relatively fast swim-glide-and-shake presentation in four to six feet of water and from about 10 to 20 feet from the water's edge.

Along about a 3,500-foot stretch of the other main-lake shoreline. I caught six largemouth bass. Its underground terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders; portions of this submerged terrain are coated with wads of filamentous algae. The water's edge is cluttered with 25 docks; it is also endowed with one massive laydown, some piles of brush, several tertiary points, and a few overhanging trees. These largemouth bass were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ; two were caught on the initial drop in about three to four feet of water; the others were caught on a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to seven feet of water.

According to the National Weather Service, the wind will howl up to 45 mph on April 4 and up to 35 mph on April 5, and that will keep this old codger at bay.

April 4

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 4 outing with Bear Brundrett of Valley View, Texas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

From 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Bear Brundrett and I ventured to one of several U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reservoirs in north-central Texas.

During this outing, we opted to seek shelter from the blustery wind and fished inside five feeder-creek arms in the reservoir's southwest tributary arm.

The sky was overcast all day. The morning's low temperature was 68 degrees. The afternoon's high reached 82 degrees. The wind was troublesome and angled out of the south and southwest at 17 to 25 mph. The barometric pressure measured 29.59 at 10:00 a.m. and 29.50 at 4:00 p.m.

The water level was at its normal level. The water clarity ranged from 12 to 14 inches. Typically, we don't get excited about early-spring black bass fishing in the Corps' reservoirs in north-central Texas until the water temperature reaches 58 degrees. And we were delighted to discover that the surface temperature ranged from 61 to 69 degrees.

According to In-Fisherman's solunar table, the most productive fishing periods would occur from 3:47 a.m. to 5:47 a.m., 9:57 a.m. to 11:57 a.m., and 3:47 p.m. to 5:47 p.m. It also noted that fishing would be good.

Inside these five feeder-creek arms, we fished from the upper ends or back sections of the creek arms to their mouths. We focused on clay and pea-gravel flats, small protected coves in the upper and midsections of the creek arms, steep and rocky shorelines, rock- and boulder-laden secondary points, portions of a submerged roadbed, the areas around two boat ramps, and a main-lake point at the entrance to one of the feeder-creek arms. We fished in water as shallow as two feet and as deep as 10 feet, and most of these locales were fruitless.

Inside the first feeder-creek arm, which is located on the south side of the tributary arm, we caught eight largemouth bass, five spotted bass, and one white bass along a 50-yard section of a flat clay-and-pea-gravel shoreline. This shoreline is located on the west side of a small cove and adjacent to the boat ramp where we launched the boat. They were abiding in four to six feet of water and 10 to 15 feet from the water's edge.

We then dissected several rocky secondary points, portions of three rocky shorelines, and a portion of a submerged roadbed that is lined with flooded buck brush, and we failed to generate a strike.

Inside the second feeder-creek arm, which is located about a mile east of the first creek arm, we probed two concrete boat ramps, three steep and rocky shorelines, several rocky secondary points, a clay-and-gravel ledge near the mouth of the creek arm, and one large cove on the northeast end of the creek arm. Ultimately, we caught two largemouth bass in four to six feet of water from two rock-laden and steeply-sloped shorelines in the back end of the creek arm; one spotted bass in four feet of water from one of the two concrete boat ramps on the west side of the creek arm; and one largemouth bass in three feet of water from the vicinity of a patch of buck brush on a clay-and-gravel flat in the northeast corner of the creek arm.

After that, we ventured to the north side of the tributary arm, where we fished inside the third, fourth, and fifth feeder-creek arms.

The third feeder creek wasn't too productive. We fished hard and caught three largemouth bass. Two were caught in two to three feet of water from one side of a small ditch in the back of a small cove, and the third one was caught from the side of a rocky secondary point. These two areas are situated in the upper end of the creek arm.

Inside the third and fourth feeder-creek arms, we found several humongous schools of threadfin shad. We fished around, under, and over the top of them with a variety of Midwest finesse rigs, and we were flabbergasted when we failed to elicit any strikes.

Inside a small cove in the upper end of the fifth creek arm, we probed several rocky secondary points and a couple of rocky shorelines, and we crossed paths with only one white bass that was caught in eight feet of water from a minor creek channel in the middle of the cove.

Overall, it was an above-average outing at this Corps' reservoir. We fished for six hours and caught 20 black bass. Fourteen of them were largemouth bass and six were spotted bass. We also inadvertently caught three white bass.

Ten of the black bass and one white bass were allured by a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation with a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ matched with a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. Four black bass and one white bass were enticed by a Z-Man's green-pumpkin TRD TicklerZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. Three black bass and one white bass were caught on a swimming retrieve with a three-inch Z-Man's space guppy Slim SwimZ attached to a chartreuse 3/32-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. Another two largemouth bass were caught on a slow swim-glide-and-shake retrieve with a Z-Man's coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ affixed on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. And one largemouth bass was enticed into engulfing a Z-Man's pearl Baby Goat rigged on a blue 3/32-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead and a steady-swimming retrieve.

We found it interesting that we caught only three largemouth bass inside the three feeder-creek arms on the north side of the tributary arm where the surface temperature ranged from 66 to 69 degrees. The other 17 black bass were caught in the two creek arms on the south side of the tributary, and the surface temperature ranged from 61 to 62 degrees in them.

April 6

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his outing with his grandson Brady Cayton of Lawrence, Kansas, on April 6 at a 91-year-old and heavily fished state reservoir in northeastern Kansas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 22 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 62 degrees. The wind was calm at times, and when it stirred, it was either variable or angled out of the northwest, northeast, north, and east at 3 to 12 mph; there were several wind gusts that reached 17 to 22 mph between 10:52 a.m. to 11:52 a.m. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.31 at 12:52 a.m., 30.39 at 5:52 a.m., 30.47 at 11:52 a.m., and 30.42 at 2:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be a few inches above normal. The surface temperature ranged from 52 to 55 degrees. Our secchi stick is nine feet long, and the water exhibited more than nine feet of visibility, which is an incredible feat in northeastern Kansas. This reservoir's shallow-water flats and shorelines are endowed with uncountable patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, which are interlaced with some patches of coontail. Moreover, there are scores of manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees embellishing this reservoir's underwater terrain.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 11:11 a.m. to 1:11 p.m., 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., and 5:22 p.m. to 7:22 p.m. The calendar also noted that the fishing would be excellent, and it was.

We wrote these two sentences in our April 3 log: "For many years, our hourly catch rate has been around 10 black bass an hour. But during the first 93 days of 2023, we achieved that mark only once, which occurred on March 29, and again we failed to reach it on this April 3 outing." But on this excellent April 6 outing, Brady and I achieved our perpetual and difficult-to-achieve goal of catching an hourly average of 25 largemouth bass.

We made our first casts at noon, and we caught 25 largemouth bass at 12:59 p.m. And at 1:59 p.m., we caught largemouth bass number 50. We fished until we caught largemouth bass number 51, which occurred at 2:10 p.m.

We must note, however, that none of these largemouth bass would impress a lunker hunter or a tournament angler, or a producer of a fishing show on television or the internet. But we are merely diehard recreational anglers who prefer to catch black bass of any size at a hand-over-fist pace rather than catching just one or two lunker-sized black bass per hour.

We spent the first 59 minutes of this outing inside one of this reservoir's primary feeder-creek arms. We fished along about a 500-yard stretch of one of the shorelines and across a small shallow-water flat that lies adjacent to a segment of this shoreline. Another angler was fishing ahead of us. The shoreline possesses a 25- to 50-degree slope. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, and much of it is quilted with patches of curly-leaf pondweeds and coontail. The water's edge is lined with many patches of winter-dead American water willows and a few laydowns. This area yielded 25 largemouth bass. Two were caught on a Z-Man's green-pumpkin-goby Finesse TRD affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. Six of the 25 were caught on a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. Seventeen of the 25 largemouth bass were caught on a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. These largemouth bass were caught in water as shallow as five feet and as deep as 12 feet, and they were caught from as close as five feet from the outside edges of the patches of winter-dead American waters willows to as far as 25 feet from the outside edges of those patches. Most of them were caught near submerged patches of curly-leaf pondweeds Two were caught on the initial drop of our rigs. The others were caught while we employed a drag-shake-and-pause presentation along the steeper sections or a swim-glide-and-shake presentation on the flatter and shallower sections.

We spent about eight minutes fishing around a main-lake point and a short section of its main-lake shoreline. It possesses a 45- to 75-degree slope. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders; some of the boulders are gargantuan. The water's edge is lined with patches of winter-dead American water willows and a few laydowns. The point yielded one largemouth bass that was caught on the Finesse TRD rig while strolling and employing a drag-shake-and-pause presentation in 10 to 13 feet of water.

We spent the rest of this outing inside another primary feeder-creek arm, where we fished along about a 300-yard stretch of one of this feeder creek's shorelines, across a portion of two shallow-water flats that lie adjacent to this shoreline and around three secondary points. The shoreline possesses a 30- to 40-degree slope. The water's edge is laced with patches of winter-dead American water willows, some laydowns, and a few overhanging trees. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rock, and boulders, and much of this terrain is adorned with patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, which have overwhelmed most of the coontail patches. (It needs to be noted that the curly-leaf pondweeds will dominate the coontail patches until the middle of June, which is when the curly-leaf pondweeds wilt and disappear until it reappears again in November and December.)

This area yielded 25 largemouth bass. Each secondary point yielded one largemouth bass. We caught three largemouth bass across one of the shallow-water flats and five largemouth bass on the second shallow-water flat. The shoreline yielded 14 largemouth bass.

The 25 largemouth bass were caught on our Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rigs. Three were caught on the initial drop. The others were caught as we employed a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to about 10 feet of water. All of them were caught in the vicinity of patches of curly-leaf pondweeds.

We didn't have the time to fish for another two hours. And if we did, we suspected that it was unlikely that we would have reached our most cherished Midwest finesse goal of catching 101 black bass in four hours. This much-lauded goal has become extremely difficult to achieve during the past five years.

April 6

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 6 outing with Bear Brundrett of Valley View, Texas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

Bear Brundrett and I journeyed to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' hill-land reservoir in north-central Texas; it was a different one than the Corps' reservoir we fished on April 2.

According to In-Fisherman's solunar calendar, the prime fishing periods would most likely occur from 5:38 a.m. to 7:38 a.m., 11:29 a.m. to 1:29 p.m., and 6:08 p.m. to 8:08 p.m. It also noted that the fishing would be good.

The morning's low temperature of 46 degrees was a bit chilly for this time of year. The afternoon's high temperature struggled to reach 61 degrees. (The average low temperature for this area on April 6 is 53 degrees and the average high temperature is 75 degrees.) The wind quartered out of the northeast at 17 to 28 mph. The barometric pressure measured 30.30 at 10:00 a.m. and dropped slightly to 30.23 by 4:00 p.m. The sky was overcast.

The reservoir's water level was at full capacity. The water exhibited between 18 to 30 inches of clarity. The surface temperature ranged from 57 to 59 degrees.

This reservoir's underwater terrain consists primarily of red clay, pea gravel, rocks of all shapes and sizes, and quite a number of large boulders. At the north end of the reservoir, there are many acres of thick stands of flooded timber, laydowns, stumps, brush piles, and buck brush.

We had the reservoir to ourselves; we saw only one other bass boat during this outing. And though the weather was miserable, the fishing was pretty good. We fished from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and we caught 25 largemouth bass. These are the first ones we have caught at this Corps' reservoir in 2023. It is also the most fruitful outing we have had at a federal or state impoundment this year.

We had plans to fish a variety of locales in the east and west tributary arms, but the peppy wind forced us to seek shelter inside three feeder-creek arms in the west tributary arm.

The first creek arm, which is the largest of the three and situated on the south side of the tributary, yielded 15 largemouth bass. The second creek arm, which is located on the north side of the tributary arm, relinquished 10 largemouth bass, and the third creek arm, which is situated about a mile west of the second one, failed to yield a largemouth bass or a strike.

These 25 largemouth bass were scattered hither and yon, and there was no location pattern to speak of. What we can report is that we caught all of them in two to four feet of water and five to 25 feet from the water's edge.

They were caught from a variety of locations dispersed throughout the two productive feeder-creek arms, such as flat clay-and-gravel shorelines, one steep clay-and-gravel shoreline, the remnants of a stock-pond dam, along several steep and chunk-rock shorelines and their adjoining secondary points, around a couple of laydowns inside a small cove, and around burgeoning patches of Eurasian milfoil inside three small coves.

Seventeen of them were allured by a three-inch Z-Man's Space Guppy Slim SwimZ matched with a chartreuse 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig, and eight were caught on a Z-Man's Hot Snakes Baby Goat rigged on a chartreuse 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig.

The only effective presentation was a slow-and-steady swimming retrieve.

In conclusion, it appears that the black-bass fishing in north-central Texas is beginning to pick up. Thus, we are hopeful that the lousy wintertime black bass fishing has finally come to an end -- hallelujah!

April 6

Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas, filed a brief log on the Finesse News Network about his outing to one of northeastern Kansas's power-plant reservoirs on April 6.

Here is an edited version of his log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 22 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 62 degrees. The wind angled out of the northwest, northeast, and north at 3 to 8 mph; there was a gust of wind that reached 17 mph at 1:53 p.m. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.29 at 12:53 a.m., 30.35 at 5:53 a.m., 30.46 at 11:53 a.m., and 30.40 at 3:53 p.m.

The water level looked to be slightly above normal, and several inches of water was flowing over the spillway. The water exhibited about two feet of visibility, which is the clearest it has been for many months. The surface temperature in the lower section of this reservoir was 62 degrees.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 11:11 a.m. to 1:11 p.m., 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., and 5:22 p.m. to 7:22 p.m.

I was afloat from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and I caught 53 fish. Fifteen were largemouth bass. The other 38 were channel catfish, freshwater drum, and white bass.

I spent the bulk of the nine hours methodically dissecting three massive stretches of riprap shorelines. The fish were caught in two to 10 feet of water, and the bulk of them were in the vicinity of 10 feet of water, which is deeper than I traditionally catch them this time of the year. Consequently, my boat was positioned farther from the water's edge than I normally would position it, and I executed longer casts than I would normally make.

My most effective Midwest finesse rigs were a Z-Man's watermelon-red TRD BugZ affixed to a black 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig and a 2 ½-inch Z-Man's Junebug ZinkerZ affixed to a blue 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig. I employed a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation with each of these rigs.

At the tail end of the day, I caught three nearly identical 21-inch largemouth bass, and they were caught within 20 yards of each other. Besides those three lunkers, I caught four largemouth bass that were 18 inches long.

April 7

Pat and Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about their extremely short outing on April 7 at one of the many community reservoirs in northeastern Kansas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

First, it is important to note that this 84-year-old community reservoir has been waylaid during the past 12 years by many applications of aquatic herbicides that killed vast patches of bushy pondweeds, coontail, curly-leaf pondweeds, and Eurasian milfoil, which has adversely affected the largemouth bass fishing at this once bountiful reservoir. The reservoir managers rationalized this horrible deed by declaring that the Eurasian milfoil is an invasive species. Their rationalization failed to mention that this manmade reservoir began its invasion of the environment and natural landscape in the 1930s.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 29 degrees, and its afternoon's high temperature was 67 degrees. The wind was calm for four hours, and at other times, it angled out of the east, southeast, and south at 3 to 14 mph, and from 12:52 p.m. to 2:52 p.m., there were some 18 to 22 mph gusts. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.43 at 12:52 a.m., 30.42 at 5:52 a.m., 30.42 at 11:52 a.m., and 30.36 at 1:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about normal. The surface temperature was 55 degrees. The water exhibited about 3 1/2 feet of clarity.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 11:35 a.m. to 1:35 p.m., 11:58 p.m. to 1:58 a.m., and 5:46 a.m. to 7:46 a.m.

We made our first casts at noon and our last ones at 1:17 p.m., and we spent the entire 77 minutes dissecting a small portion of two shorelines in the back of a large feeder-creek arm in the lower section of this reservoir. The primary focus of this short endeavor was to search for submerged aquatic vegetation and catch some largemouth bass.

The underwater terrains of these shorelines consist of silt, gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are graced with a few stumps. Except for some patches of filamentous algae, the underwater terrain was devoid of any kind of submerged aquatic vegetation.

The water's edge is endowed with some patches of winter-dead American water willows, one dock, a concrete boat ramp, a few laydowns, several piles of brush, four tertiary points, and some overhanging trees and terrestrial vegetation.

Along about a 125-stretch of this feeder-creek's southern shoreline, we caught two largemouth bass. One was caught on the initial drop of a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead in about three feet of water adjacent to some meager patches of winter-dead American water willows, a few pieces of brush, and three overhanging trees. The second largemouth bass was caught around a tertiary point on a Z-Man's coppertreuse Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead with a drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation in about five feet of water and 15 feet from the water's edge.

Along about a 350-yard stretch of this feeder-creek's northern shoreline, we caught 18 largemouth bass.

Four were caught on the Tiny TicklerZ rig with a drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation in five to seven feet of water and from about 10 to 15 feet from the water's edge.

Fourteen were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig. One of the 14 was caught on a long deadstick presentation with the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig in about four feet of water and about five feet from the outside edge of a patch of winter-dead American water willows. Another one was caught near the outside of the dock with a swim-glide-and-shake presentation in eight to 10 feet of water. One was caught on the initial drop in about four feet of water and about five feet from the water's edge. The others were caught on either a drag-and-shake presentation or a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation in water as shallow as five feet and as deep as 11 feet and from as close as five from the water's edge to as far as 20 feet from the water's edge.

In short, we were delighted to catch 20 largemouth bass in 77 minutes. But we were disappointed about the state of this reservoir's aquatic vegetation.

April 10

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his outing with two of his grandsons, Brady Cayton of Lawrence and Logan Cayton of Las Vegas, on April 10 at one of northeastern Kansas' community reservoirs.

Here is an edited version of their log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 52 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 73 degrees. The wind angled out of the east, southeast, and south at 6 to 17 mph; some gusts reached 28 mph. The sky fluctuated from being fair to partly cloudy to mostly cloudy to overcast to cluttered with a few clouds, and it sprinkled for a few minutes. The barometric pressure was 30.22 at 12:52 a.m., 30.22 at 5:52 a.m., 30.24 at 11:52 a.m., and 30.23 at 1:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about normal. The surface temperature ranged from 58 to 59 degrees. The water exhibited about 3½ feet of clarity.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 2:21 a.m. to 4:21 p.m., 2:50 p.m. to 4:50 p.m., and 8:35 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.

On this very leisurely and chatty outing, we made our first casts at about 10:35 a.m .and our last ones when we caught largemouth bass number 30 and number 31 at 12:40 p.m.

We spent the entire 125 minutes hiding from the south and southeast wind by fishing along two shorelines inside a large feeder-creek arm in the vicinity of the dam.

The underwater terrains of the two shorelines consist of silt, gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are embellished with several stumps and a few manmade piles of brush. Except for some patches of filamentous algae, the underwater terrain was devoid of any kind of submerged aquatic vegetation.

The water's edges of these two shorelines are endowed with some patches of winter-dead American water willows, four docks, a concrete boat ramp, a few laydowns, several piles of brush, five tertiary points, a few laydowns, and some overhanging trees. The slants of the two shorelines vary from a 25- to a 60-degree slope.

Along about a 325-yard stretch of this feeder creek's south shoreline, we caught 18 largemouth bass. Along about a 300-yard stretch of the north shoreline, we caught 13 largemouth bass.

Twenty-nine of them were caught on a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. Two were caught on a Z-Man's green-pumpkin-goby Finesse TRD affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead.

There was no rhyme or reason as to where and how we caught them. Two were caught on the initial drop in two to three feet of water. One was caught around one of the tertiary points. One was caught under a series of three overhanging trees and around a shallow-water pile of brush. Some were caught on a drag-shake-and-short-deadstick presentation. Two were caught on a protracted deadstick presentation. Three were caught on a swimming presentation many feet from the water's edge. Some were caught on a swim-glide-and-shake presentation. One was caught adjacent to a dock. They were caught from as close as two feet from the water's edge to 20 feet from the water's edge.

As we fished and caught these fish, we reminisced about Brady's and Logan's many youthful outings at various northeastern Kansas waterways. It was a fun way to fish, and it was especially fun to nonchalantly catch 31 largemouth bass in such a variety of ways.

April 11

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 11 outing with John Thomas of Denton.

Here is an edited version of their log.

John joined me for a five-hour excursion to a state reservoir in north-central Texas. Neither one of us had fished this impoundment in 2023.

The sky was partly cloudy, and there was plenty of sunshine. The temperature was 63 degrees when we launched the boat at 10:30 a.m., and it was 77 degrees when we trailered the boat at 3:30 p.m. The wind quartered out of the south-by-southeast at 5 to 10 mph. The barometric pressure was 30.28 at 10:00 a.m. and 30.20 at 3:00 p.m.

This reservoir isn't known for relinquishing many lunker-size largemouth bass. And according to a 2018 Texas Parks and Wildlife Lake Survey report, there are more spotted bass in this reservoir than largemouth bass. It is also noted in the report that smallmouth bass were stocked in this reservoir in the late 1990s, but state fisheries biologists collected only one of them during their last survey in 2018.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would occur from 3:32 a.m. to 5:32 a.m., 9:47 a.m. to 11:47 a.m., and 4:02 p.m. to 6:02 p.m. It also indicated that the fishing would be poor.

We caught a mixed bag of 23 largemouth bass and 12 spotted bass. We also caught 10 white bass and two large black crappie by accident.

We searched for spotted bass and largemouth bass inside four feeder-creek arms and one large pea-gravel-and-clay bay. One of the feeder-creek arms is located in the southeast end of the reservoir, and the other three creek arms are situated on the north side of the reservoir.

Inside the four feeder-creek arms, we focused our attention on steep and flat shorelines and secondary points that are laden with rocks, several clay flats, three small coves, and several boat docks. On the main-lake, we dissected two main-lake points and a 50-yard section of a flat and rock-covered shoreline.

The water clarity varied from 12 to 18 inches of visibility. The surface temperature ranged from 63 to 68 degrees. The water level appeared to be at full capacity.

This reservoir is graced with several varieties of aquatic vegetation: American pondweed, American water willows, muskgrass, coontail, and yellow floating-heart. The yellow floating-heart is not a native aquatic vegetation, and it is castigated as a noxious or an invasive weed by some folks.

We employed several Midwest finesse rigs. Three of them were effective. A Z-Man's Hot Snakes TRD TicklerZ matched with a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead allured 26 of these 35 black bass, two black crappie, and one white bass. A Z-Man's green-pumpkin TRD TicklerZ fastened on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead enticed eight black bass, and a three-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Slim SwimZ rigged on a chartreuse 3/32-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead induced one largemouth bass and nine white bass.

A slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation was the most effective retrieve by far with the Hot Snakes and green-pumpkin TRD TicklerZ rigs. A steady-swimming retrieve was effective with the three-inch green-pumpkin Slim SwimZ rig.

We failed to elicit any strikes across a medium-size mud flat and inside two small coves in the upper and midsections of the southeast creek arm.

Twenty-six of these 35 largemouth bass and spotted bass, and the two crappie, were caught throughout the three northern feeder-creek arms in water as shallow as two feet and as deep as 18 feet. Rock- and boulder-laden shorelines and secondary points and one 25-yard section of a cattail and rock-laden shoreline were the most productive areas. It didn't seem to matter if these rocky areas were steep or flat as long as there was an abundance of rocks and boulders.

The other nine largemouth bass and spotted bass, and the 10 white bass were caught in three to eight feet of water around a flat main-lake point at the entrance to a large bay on the west end of the reservoir and along its adjoining shoreline. The shoreline is flat, and its underwater terrain consists of gravel and clay that is littered with scores of laydowns and submerged stumps. The point's underwater terrain is laden with clay and rocks. This point and shoreline are located on the north side of the bay.

In sum, the black-bass fishing at this reservoir started off on a slow note; it took us 45 minutes to elicit our first strike. But as the day progressed and the water's surface temperature increased, it became the most bountiful outing we have experienced in 2023.

April 12

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 12 outing with Todd Judy of Denton.

Here is an edited version of their log.

From 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Todd and I returned to the same U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' hill-land reservoir in north-central Texas where Bear Brundrett of Valley View and I fished on April 6 and caught a combination of 25 largemouth bass and spotted bass.

When we arrived at the boat ramp parking lot at about 10:00 a.m., we were surprised to find that it was filled to the brim with tow vehicles and boat trailers. We were later informed by a couple of tournament anglers that April 12 was a practice day for a major bass tournament that would occur on April 13 and 14. We also learned from another local angler that two more smaller tournaments would be held at this impoundment on April 14 and 15.

It was sunny on April 12, and about 35 percent of the sky was embellished with thin clouds. The morning's low temperature was 48 degrees. The afternoon's high temperature peaked at 80 degrees. The wind quartered out of the southeast at 10 to 20 mph. The barometric pressure measured 30.13 at 10:00 a.m. and dropped to 30.00 by 4:00 p.m.

The best fishing, according to In-Fisherman's solunar calendar, would most likely occur from 4:36 a.m. to 6:36 a.m., 10:51 a.m. to 12:51 p.m., and 5:07 p.m. to 7:07 p.m. It also noted that the fishing would be great.

The water exhibited between 18 to 30 inches of clarity. The surface temperature ranged from 63 to 69 degrees. The reservoir's water level was at normal pool.

In the northern half of this reservoir, there are acres and acres of thick stands of flooded timber, laydowns, stumps, brush piles, and flooded buck brush that intrigue many power anglers, but we rarely venture there. We primarily fish in the reservoir's lower half, where the vast majority of the reservoir's submerged terrain is composed of red clay, small gravel, chunk rocks, and countless large boulders.

During this six-hour endeavor, we fished a variety of locales inside five feeder-creek arms that are scattered across the east and west tributary arms, and there were tournament anglers everywhere we fished. This intense angler pressure made the black-bass fishing difficult, but we managed to scrounge up 17 largemouth bass, four spotted bass, one black crappie, and a white bass.

The 21 black bass were scattered in two to seven feet of water and five to 25 feet from the water's edge. They were abiding from the mouths to about halfway back into the creek arms around flat rocky shorelines adorned with burgeoning patches of Eurasian milfoil.

We failed to elicit any strikes from several gravel-and-clay shorelines and points, two clay-and-gravel shorelines littered with laydowns and buck brush, the remnants of three stock-pond dams, a couple of shallow rock ledges, and three rocky main-lake points.

Eleven of the 21 black bass and the one white bass were enticed by a steady-swimming retrieve with a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man's pearl Slim SwimZ matched with a blue 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig. Six black bass and one crappie were allured by a steady-swimming retrieve with a three-inch Z-Man's pearl Slim SwimZ affixed on a blue 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse Shroom Z jig. Three black bass were caught on either a steady-swimming retrieve or a swim-and-pause retrieve with a three-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Slim SwimZ rigged on a blue 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig. And one largemouth bass was coaxed into striking a Z-Man's Hot Snakes TRD TicklerZ fastened on a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig as it was employed with a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation.

As we were driving home, Todd and I discussed the intense amount of angler pressure that is expected to wallop this reservoir over the next four days; thus, it may be a couple of weeks before we return.

April 17

Pat and Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about their April 17 outing at a 91-year-old and heavily fished state reservoir in northeastern Kansas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

The weather in northeastern Kansas has been the strangest that our 82-year-old minds can recall. It has been so odd during the first four months of 2023 that it has been difficult for us old codgers to fish. And many of the farmers and gardeners that we know have been exchanging similar observations.

We tried to fish at one of northeastern Kansas's many state reservoirs on April 11, but upon arriving at the boat ramp we discovered that this reservoir's watershed had been walloped with a surprising and mighty deluge of rainfall on April 10. What's more, the wind, which was predicted to angle pleasantly out of the southwest, was howling out of the south and southeast. Nevertheless, we launched the boat and tried to fish for a spell, but the wind and rising water level made it a chore to catch six largemouth bass and accidentally catch two white bass, one crappie, and one channel catfish. It was such a futile endeavor that we did not post a log about it. After that 90-minute affair, the wind kept us at bay until April 17.

On April 17, the National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 31 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 73 degrees. The wind was calm for a short spell and when it stirred, it was either variable or angled out of the northwest, west, north, and south at 3 to 10 mph. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.o5 at 12:52 a.m., 30.05 at 5:52 a.m., 30.05 at 11:52 a.m., and 29.93 at 3:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about normal. The surface temperature ranged from 59 to 61 degrees. The water exhibited about 11 feet of visibility, which is an incredible accomplishment in northeastern Kansas. This reservoir's shallow-water flats and shorelines are endowed with uncountable patches of curly-leaf pondweeds. There are scores of manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees embellishing this reservoir's underwater terrains, and many of the shallow-water piles are now coated with wads of filamentous algae, and many of the shallow-water laydowns and boulders are also covered with filamentous algae.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 8:53 a.m. to 10:53 a.m., 9:17 p.m. to 11:17 p.m., and 2:41 a.m. to 4:41 a.m.

We made our first casts at noon, and Patty caught two largemouth bass on her first two casts. At 12:43, she made her last cast, and then she drove to a business appointment in her fishing wardrobe.

We spent these 43 minutes inside one of this reservoir's primary feeder-creek arms, fishing along about a 600-yard stretch of one of its shorelines. The shoreline possesses a 25- to 50-degree slope. It is graced with several tertiary points. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, and much of it is quilted with patches of curly-leaf pondweeds and wads of filamentous algae. The water's edge is lined with many patches of winter-dead American water willows and a few laydowns. This shoreline yielded 30 largemouth bass and two crappie. Fourteen largemouth bass were caught on a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. Sixteen largemouth bass were caught on a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. These largemouth bass were caught in water as shallow as five feet and as deep as 12 feet, and they were caught along the outside edges of the patches of winter-dead American water willows to as far as about 20 feet from the outside edges of those patches. Many of them were caught near submerged patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, and primarily along or near the inside edge of these patches. Two were caught on the initial drop of our rigs. Two were caught on a deadstick presentation. The others were caught while we employed either a drag-shake-and-pause presentation or a swim-glide-and-shake presentation.

After Patty left, I fished until 3:30 p.m. During these two hours and 30 minutes of fishing, 85 largemouth bass were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig. In total, this rig caught 101 largemouth bass in three hours and 30 minutes.

Thirty-two of these 101 largemouth bass were caught along about a 400-yard stretch of a shoreline inside another one of this reservoir's feeder creeks. The shoreline possesses a 30- to 55-degree slope. It is endowed with two secondary points and several tertiary points. The water's edge is laced with patches of winter-dead American water willows, some laydowns, and a few overhanging trees. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rock, and boulders, and much of this terrain is adorned with patches of curly-leaf pondweeds and wads of filamentous algae. Some of the largemouth bass were caught between the inside edge of the patches of curly-leaf pondweeds and the outside edges of the patches of winter-dead American water willows, and they were caught on either the initial drop of the TRD TicklerZ rig or a swim-glide-and-shake presentation in about four to six feet water. A few were caught adjacent to a laydown on either the initial drop or a swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to six feet of water. The others were caught on a drag-shake-and-pause presentation in five to eight feet of water.

Around a main-lake point and along about 75 yards of its adjacent shorelines, the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig caught 21 largemouth bass. The underwater terrain of this locale consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are embellished with several patches of curly-leaf pondweeds and wads of filamentous algae. The point and its shorelines possess a 30- to 50-degree slope. The water's edge is entwined with an impressive array of winter-dead patches of American water willows. The bulk of these 21 largemouth bass were caught around the wads of filamentous algae, inside edges of the patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, significant holes inside the patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, and the outside edges of the patches of winter-dead American water willows. Three were caught on the initial drop in four to six feet of water. The others were caught on a swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to seven feet of water.

The Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig caught three largemouth bass around another main-lake point. It has a 25- to 30-degree slope. Its underwater terrain is comprised of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are quilted with a few minor patches of curly-leaf pondweeds. The water's edge is endowed with thick patches of winter-dead American water willows. Two largemouth bass were caught on the initial drop of the rig near the outside edges of the American water willows in three to four feet of water. The third one was caught on a swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to six feet of water and about 15 feet from the outside edge of the American water willows.

Around a main-lake point, along a 50-yard section of its main-lake shoreline, and along about a 350-yard stretch of its shoreline that is inside a large feeder-creek arm, the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig caught 26 largemouth bass.

This main-lake point and its main-lake shoreline possess a 45- to 50-degree slope. Their underwater terrains consist of gravel, rocks, boulders, a house foundation, and a barn foundation. The water's edge is adorned with massive patches of winter-dead American water willows and several laydowns. It is devoid of any significant patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, but it is endowed with occasional wads of filamentous algae. This area yielded 13 largemouth bass, which were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig. They were caught on a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation in six to 12 feet of water; two were caught while I was strolling.

The 350-yard shoreline inside the feeder-creek arm possesses a 25- to 50-degree slope. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, boulders, and the residue of a massive rock fence. It has two secondary points and one tertiary point. About 290 yards of this shoreline are lined with patches of winter-dead American water willows. The outside edges of these patches yielded seven largemouth bass in about five to six feet of water on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig. One was caught on a deadstick presentation. The others were caught on a slow swim-glide-and-shale presentation.

About a 60-yard stretch of this 350-yard shoreline's water's edge is not embellished with patches of winter-dead American water willows, and this section has a 50-degree slope and two secondary points. This area yielded seven largemouth bass in six to eight feet of water. They were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig with a drag-and-shake presentation.

Along about a 125-yard section of the main-lake shoreline adjacent to the dam, the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig caught three largemouth bass. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and humongous boulders, and some of these boulders are cluttered with wads of filamentous algae. About 75 percent of the water's edge is lined with patches of winter-dead American water willows. There are several significant laydowns along this shoreline. The three largemouth bass were caught on a drag-and-shake presentation in about six feet of water in the vicinity of the outside edges of the patches of the American water willows.

In total, these 1,600 yards of shorelines, four main-lake points, and four secondary points were fished quite quickly. Many yards were fruitless. But the areas that were fruitful garnered 115 largemouth bass. It is essential to note that none of these 115 largemouth bass were lunkers, and none of them would allure the fancy of a tournament angler or a producer of a YouTube or TV fishing show. But for us numbers hunters, it was a remarkable 210 minutes of fishing.

It is predicted that the wind is going to howl again, and it might rain on April 19, 20, and 21. So, it is unlikely that we will be fishing on those days.

April 17

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 17 outing with Norman Brown of Lewisville, Texas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

On April 15, Norman and I fished at one of several U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' hill-land reservoirs in North-central Texas. Upon our arrival, we discovered that another bass tournament was in progress, and the intense angler pressure on all of the most promising areas relegated us to fishing locales that normally aren't very productive. We fished for 5 1/2 hours, and we shared several spots with several tournament anglers. And by the time this outing came to a close, we barely managed to catch five spotted bass and three largemouth bass.

On April 17, Norman and I opted to check the status of the black-bass fishing at another U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' hill-land reservoir in north-central Texas. Over the past several years, this reservoir has developed a reputation for being very stingy with its largemouth bass, spotted bass, and smallmouth bass, and it was just as penurious this time.

According to In-Fisherman's solunar calendar, the best fishing would occur from 2:43 a.m. to 4:43 a.m., 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and 9:25 p.m. to 11:25 p.m. The calendar also indicated that the fishing would be poor.

It was sunny. Area thermometers recorded the morning's low temperature at 48 degrees and the afternoon's high reached 81 degrees. The barometric pressure measured 30.13 at 10:00 a.m. and it dropped to 29.95 by 4:00 p.m. When we launched the boat at 9:50 a.m., the wind was angling out of the southeast at 15 mph. When we trailered the boat at 4:45 p.m., the wind was still quartering out of the southeast, but its intensity had increased throughout the day to 30 mph.

The water exhibited between 1 1/4 and two feet of visibility. The water temperature ranged from 64 to 66 degrees. The water level was one foot above normal.

We searched for shelter from the robust wind inside two major feeder-creek arms and three minor feeder-creek arms on the north side of the reservoir, and one large feeder-creek arm on the south end of the reservoir. We also meandered over to the dam, which forms the eastern boundary of this impoundment, and we tolerated the wind as we probed about two-thirds of the riprap that covers the dam.

The underwater terrains inside these six feeder-creek arms are similar and consist of clay, some sand, silt, gravel, fist-size rocks, and sandstone boulders. There are patches of flooded buck brush and stickups that grace many sections of the shorelines inside these creek arms.

The black-bass fishing was atrocious, and we failed to find any aggregations of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass that inhabit this reservoir. We failed to elicit any strikes during the first three hours and 18 minutes of this outing. Therefore, we elected to spend an hour fishing for white bass to break up the monotony of the lackluster black-bass fishing, and we relished catching 35 of them.

We were astonished that all five feeder-creek arms on the north end of the reservoir were fruitless. We discovered that the spawning areas where we usually find significant numbers of black bass during this time in April were completely devoid of bass. And our inability to elicit a single strike during the first three hours and 18 minutes of this outing is very unusual in our eyes.

As we were crossing the main-lake area of the reservoir toward the south-side feeder-creek arm, we stumbled across a large number of Foster's Terns diving into water that was 51 feet deep, and they were snatching small threadfin shad from just under the surface. We fished amongst them for an hour, employing a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man's pearl Slim SwimZ rigged on either a blue 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig or a generic chartreuse 1/16-ounce finesse jig. We utilized these two rigs with a steady-swimming retrieve about a foot or two below the surface of the water, and we caught 35 white bass before the feeding spree came to an end.

After we finished fishing for white bass, we ventured inside the south feeder-creek arm, and we fished around rocky secondary points, rocky shorelines, and clay-and-gravel flats from the upper end to the midsection of the creek arm, and this creek arm was virtually devoid of black bass. We caught one spotted bass and lost another largemouth bass in three to five feet of water around the tip of one of the rocky secondary points in the upper end of the creek arm. The spotted bass was caught on a three-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Slim SwimZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig and a steady-swimming retrieve, and the largemouth bass was allured by the generic chartreuse 1/16-ounce finesse jig affixed to a 2 1/2-inch pearl Slim SwimZ rig with a steady-swimming presentation. These were the only two strikes we generated in this creek arm.

We finished the outing at the dam, where we hoped to cross paths with some smallmouth bass. We drifted with the wind and probed about two-thirds of the riprap that covers the dam. The 30-mph wind made it difficult for us to effectively cast and retrieve our lures, and we managed to catch two smallmouth bass and one largemouth bass that were suspended eight to 10 feet below the surface in 17 to 21 feet of water, and from 10 to 25 feet from the water's edge. These three black bass were caught on a slow-swimming retrieve with a shortened Z-Man's California-craw Hula StickZ rigged on a generic chartreuse 1/16-ounce finesse jig.

In sum, the black-bass fishing was awful, and we were befuddled that we could catch only two smallmouth bass, one largemouth bass, and one spotted bass in 5 1/2 hours. In contrast, the white-bass fishing was pretty good; we caught 35 of them in an hour.

April 17

Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas, filed a brief log on the Finesse News Network about his outing to one of northeastern Kansas's federal reservoirs on April 17.

This reservoir is 53 years old, and its largemouth bass population has been unable to reproduce effectively or bountifully for several decades. Consequently, it has become a very difficult venue for largemouth bass anglers. The most productive times for these anglers have occurred after this reservoir's watershed has been waylaid by an extensive flood, which washes significant numbers of largemouth bass into this reservoir from adjoining or nearby farm ponds. But this has always been a short-lived phenomenon, lasting about two years.

For example, during the great flood of 2019, thousands of 10- to 14-inch largemouth bass were washed into this reservoir, and when the water level was normal again, Midwest finesse anglers could catch and release impressive numbers of largemouth bass. But those bountiful days have disappeared.

To ameliorate these piscatorial woes with the largemouth bass population, some of the founding members of the Finesse News Network encouraged and helped this reservoir's fisheries biologist to stock some smallmouth bass from 2008 to 2010. And these smallmouth bass have reproduced. We wished, however, that the biologist would have stocked more smallmouth bass than he did. And nowadays, we are still hoping that more will be stocked and the reservoir's managers will create a method for cultivating and maintaining patches of aquatic vegetation.

Here is an edited version of Bob's log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 31 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 73 degrees. The wind was calm for a short spell and when it stirred, it was either variable or angled out of the northwest, west, north, and south at 3 to 10 mph. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.o5 at 12:52 a.m., 30.05 at 5:52 a.m., 30.05 at 11:52 a.m., and 29.93 at 3:52 p.m.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 8:53 a.m. to 10:53 a.m., 9:17 p.m. to 11:17 p.m., and 2:41 a.m. to 4:41 a.m.

The water level was slightly above normal. The surface temperature ranged from 58 to 60 degrees. The water exhibited about 12 inches of visibility, which might be a byproduct of the many days that the wind and waves have stirred the reservoir's layers of silt.

I made my first cast around 7:30 a.m. and the last one around 2:30 p.m. And after I made that last cast, I helped a fellow bass angler by towing him and his boat about six miles to the boat ramp. And I made a few futile casts after I took him to the boat ramp.

I spent the entire outing fishing about a 2 ½-mile section of the lower section of a major feeder-creek arm that is situated in the lower portion of this reservoir.

During this seven-hour endeavor, I fished about a 200-yard stretch of a riprap shoreline along a causeway, around several main-lake points, and along some main-lake shorelines. I also fished along some shorelines and around several secondary points inside several small feeder-creek arms. The underwater terrains of these areas consist of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are the kind of underwater terrains that smallmouth bass in northeastern Kansas often inhabit.

I caught 15 smallmouth bass, 15 freshwater drum, two channel catfish, and one white bass. It was somewhat surprising that I failed to catch a largemouth bass. Six of the smallmouth bass were 18 to 20 inches in length.

My most effective Midwest finesse rigs were a Z-Man's watermelon-red TRD BugZ affixed to a black 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig and a 2 ½-inch Z-Man's Junebug ZinkerZ affixed to a blue 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig.

I employed a swim-glide-and-shake retrieve with these two rigs, and most of the strikes occurred when I stopped shaking the rig.

The angler who I towed to the boat ramp said he should have been using the same Midwest finesse rigs and retrieves that I was using. In other words, he was having a trying day with his boat and catching largemouth bass and smallmouth bass.

April 18

Ned Kehde posted a log about his short outing on April 18 at one of northeastern Kansas' many community reservoirs.

Here is an edited version of his log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 49 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 85 degrees. The wind angled out of the east, southeast, and south at 6 to 18 mph; some gusts reached 30 mph during the evening hours. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 29.80 at 12:52 a.m., 29.87 at 5:52 a.m., 29.76 at 11:52 a.m., and 29.69 at 2:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about normal. The surface temperature was 65 degrees. The water exhibited from about one foot to 3 ½ feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 9:36 a.m. to 11:36 a.m., 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., and 3:24 a.m. to 5:24 a.m.

The weather forecasters are predicting that the wind is going to howl on April 19, 20, 21, and 22 with gusts ranging from 30 to 45 mph. And a thunderstorm or two might erupt on April 19 and 20. This kind of weather will keep an old codger like me at bay. Therefore, I decided at lunch on April 18 that I should quickly examine two of northeastern Kansas' most bountiful shorelines for catching largemouth during the third week of April.

The water's edges of these two shorelines are endowed with some patches of winter-dead American water willows, four docks, a concrete kayak ramp, a few laydowns, several piles of brush, five tertiary points, a few laydowns, and some overhanging trees. The slants of the two shorelines vary from a 25- to a 60-degree slope. The submerged creek channel butts against short portions of both shorelines.

The underwater terrains of the two shorelines consist of silt, gravel, rocks, and boulders. Some of the boulders are gargantuan. There are several submerged stumps, and a few of them are quite large. Some manmade piles of brush embellish several portions of this terrain. Except for patches of filamentous algae, the underwater terrain is basically devoid of submerged aquatic vegetation, but I found a small patch of bushy pondweeds gracing a shallow-water flat.

This feeder-creek arm is situated in the lower portions of this reservoir.

At 1:46 p.m. I made my first cast, and it was aimed at the water's edge of the main-lake point at the mouth of this feeder creek, and I fished about 350 yards of the south shoreline. My catch rate was quite disappointing.

I caught one largemouth bass on a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. It was caught about 50 yards from the main-lake point along a steep section of the south shoreline as I was employing a drag-and-shake presentation in about eight feet of water.

The morningwood Finesse ShadZ rig.

After fishing about another 40 yards of this shoreline without eliciting another strike, I began working with a Z-Man's morningwood Finesse ShadZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. On the initial drop of my second cast with this rig, I elicited a strike, and it was a fish that felt as if it were a hefty one, but it became unfettered after it swam a yard or two. As I progressed along this shoreline, the morningwood Finesse ShadZ inveigled four largemouth bass and four crappie. Two were caught on the initial drop in about three feet of water. The others were caught with a swim-glide-and-shake presentation in about five and six feet of water.

The north shoreline, which is traditionally the most bountiful area inside this feeder-creek, was more trying than the south one. The Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ failed to elicit a strike. The morningwood Finesse ShadZ rig caught two largemouth bass, one crappie and the first bluegill of 2023.

Upon finishing fishing the entire north shore, I decided to go home.

At the boat ramp, I tied the boat to the ramp's loading dock, and I began to put the rods into the storage compartment. But before I placed the rod rigged with the morningwood Finesse ShadZ rig into the storage compartment, I made a cast to the slightly windblown main-lake point that is adjacent to the loading dock. On the initial drop of the morningwood Finesse ShadZ rig, I caught a largemouth bass in about five feet of water. Then on the next nine casts, I caught four more largemouth bass. They were caught on a drag-shake-and-pause presentation in about nine feet of water.

I made my last casts at 3:21 p.m. So, thanks to the last 11 minutes at the loading dock, my total for this 95-minute outing jumped from seven largemouth to 12 largemouth bass.

Until this outing in 2023, Z-Man's Drew's craw TicklerZ rig has inveigled the vast majority of the largemouth bass and other species that we have caught. And I was surprised at how ineffective it was on this outing. And I was surprised about the effectiveness of the morningwood Finesse ShadZ.

For some unknown and ridiculous reason, this was the first time that I had used the morningwood Finesse ShadZ. I was immediately enchanted with the way it looks in the water, but to my chagrin, I discovered that it is no longer available.

On Nov. 20, 2013, we wrote about it in our In-Fisherman's Midwest Finesse column. Here is a link to that column: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/z-man-fishing-finesse-shadz/154835.

We call the Finesse ShadZ a shad-shaped worm. And since April 1, 2006, when Shin Fukae, who hails from Osaka, Japan, showed us the manifold virtues of using a shad-shaped worm rig in April, it has become our most productive Midwest finesse rig in northeastern Kansas on most outings in April and May. Here is a link to an In-Fisherman's Midwest Finesse column about Fukae's insights: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/a-midwest-finesse-tribute-to-shin-fukae/154302.

April 20

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 20 outing with Norman Brown of Lewisville, Texas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

On April 15, Norman and I fished at one of several U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' hill-land reservoirs in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area. We fished from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. while a bass tournament was in progress. The fishing was trying, and it was a grind for us to catch five spotted bass and three largemouth bass.

On April 20, Norman and I returned to this same Corps' reservoir to see if the wretched black-bass fishing had improved during the past five days. And much to our dismay, we discovered that the black-bass fishing was still in a funk.

The weather was unstable on April 20, and there were scattered thunderstorms in the area. The sky conditions fluctuated from being overcast to mostly cloudy to partly cloudy. The morning's low temperature was 71 degrees, and the afternoon's was unseasonably humid with a high temperature of 80 degrees. The barometric pressure measured 29.90 at 11:00 a.m and 29.85 at 4:00 p.m. The wind quartered out of the south, west, and northwest at 15 to 17 mph.

The water level was at its normal level. The water clarity ranged from 14 to 18 inches. The surface temperature varied from 64 to 66 degrees.

In-Fisherman's solunar table noted that the most lucrative fishing periods would most likely occur from 11:39 p.m. to 1:39 a.m., 5:02 a.m. to 7:02 a.m., and 5:27 p.m. to 7:27 p.m. It also noted that fishing would be excellent.

We fished a total of nine locales in the lower end of the reservoir, and only two of them were spots that we fished on April 15. During this April 20 excursion, we concentrated our efforts inside two large bays, two feeder-creek arms, and two main-lake black-bass haunts.

The two main-lake areas were fruitless. One of the two spots is the perimeter of a main-lake island at the mouth of a large feeder-creek arm, and the other one is a 75-yard section of a clay-and-gravel shoreline adorned with large boulders and its adjacent rocky main-lake point.

The two feeder-creek arms were somewhat productive. Inside the first feeder-creek arm, we caught three spotted bass from a flat clay-and-gravel shoreline adjacent to the boat ramp where we launched the boat. They were caught in three to six feet of water and 15 to 20 feet from the water's edge. Two were caught on a steady-swimming retrieve with a three-inch Z-Man's Space Guppy Slim SwimZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig, and the other one was caught on a slow-swimming retrieve with a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse TRD affixed on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce finesse jig.

In the second feeder-creek arm, which is located about half of a mile east of the first creek arm, we caught one largemouth bass in five feet of water from a concrete boat ramp that is situated along the midsection of the creek arm's west shoreline. This largemouth bass was tempted by a slow-and-steady swimming retrieve with a shortened Z-Man's Mudbug Hula StickZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce finesse jig. We caught one spotted bass from a prominent riprap-laden secondary point in the lower end of the creek arm. It was coaxed into striking a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man's pearl Slim SwimZ fastened on a black 1/10-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig with a moderate-paced swimming retrieve.

We also investigated several steep and rocky shorelines and secondary points in the middle and upper portions of this same creek arm, but we failed to locate any largemouth or spotted bass around these spots.

Inside the first large bay, which is located a short distance from the second creek arm that we just fished, we caught one largemouth bass. It was abiding in six feet of water near the deep-water side of a shallow 50-yard long rock ledge that parallels the south shoreline of the bay. It was enticed by a steady-swimming retrieve with the 2 1/2-inch pearl Slim SwimZ rig. We also investigated a flat and rocky shoreline that is adorned with flooded stickups and several laydowns, but we failed to garner a strike.

The second bay was the most fruitful location. It relinquished three spotted bass, two largemouth bass, four white bass, one hybrid striper, and one channel catfish. They were caught in three to five feet of water from a series of five flat clay-gravel-and-chunk-rock secondary points that lead into a large cove on the north side of the bay. Two of the three spotted bass, two of the four white bass, and the hybrid striper were allured by the 2 1/2-inch pearl Slim SwimZ rig and a moderate-paced swimming retrieve. The two largemouth bass were induced by a slow-swimming retrieve with a Z-Man's green-pumpkin TRD TicklerZ matched with a chartreuse 1/16-ounce finesse jig. And the other two white bass were attracted to a swim-glide-and-shake presentation with a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig sporting a Z-Man's White Lightning Finesse TRD.

We also dissected a 75-yard section of an embankment blanketed with riprap on the west side of the bay, but we failed to cross paths with a largemouth or spotted bass along this embankment.

All told, this was another lusterless outing at this Corps' reservoir. We fished for six hours and we had to work hard to catch 11 black bass, which consisted of seven spotted bass and four largemouth bass. We also inadvertently caught four white bass, one hybrid striper (also known as a wiper), and one channel catfish.

The weather is forecast to take a turn for the worse over the next few days which will probably keep us off the water.

April 21

Ned Kehde posted a log about his outing on April 21 at one of northeastern Kansas' many community reservoirs.

Here is an edited version of his log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 41 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 61 degrees. The wind angled out of the west and northwest; during the early morning hours, the wind fluctuated from being mild-mannered to being calm, but after that, it roared with gusts that reached 37 mph. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.06 at 12:53 a.m., 30.05 at 5:53 a.m., 30.09 at 11:53 a.m., and 30.00 at 3:53 p.m.

The water level at this 84-year-old flatland reservoir looked to be about five inches above its normal level. The surface temperature ranged from 59 to 61 degrees. In the back of its primary feeder-creek arm, the water was quite muddy; at the dam, the water exhibited from about 3 ½ to four feet of visibility; along the middle section of this reservoir, the water exhibited from about 2 ½ to three feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 11:36 a.m. to 1:36 p.m., 12:02 p.m. to 2:02 p.m., and 5:49 a.m. to 7:49 a.m.

The third week in April can be quite a bountiful time for catching largemouth bass and smallmouth bass at the many flatland reservoirs that embellish the various landscapes of northeastern Kansas. For example, we caught as many as 101 largemouth bass in four hours and 15 minutes at one of our many state reservoirs. At one of our federal reservoirs, we caught 45 smallmouth bass, one largemouth bass, and one spotted bass in four hours. We caught a six-pound, 10-ounce smallmouth bass, 56 largemouth bass, and five rainbow trout in four hours at one of our community reservoirs. And there are many more bountiful examples, such as our most recent one, which occurred last Monday, April 17, when Patty Kehde and I caught 115 largemouth bass in 3 ½ hours.

Thus, it is difficult for us not to be afloat during this week. But in our April 18 log, we noted that the weather forecasters were predicting that the wind was going to howl on April 19, 20, 21, and 22 with gusts ranging from 30 to 45 mph, which made it unlikely that we would be afloat. But when I noticed that the wind was angling out of the west and northwest, I decided to venture to this community reservoir and spend several hours probing its western shorelines and points with hopes of tangling with a significant number of its largemouth bass and smallmouth bass.

This outing, however, was not a bountiful one, and the wind was damnable. But it allowed me to experiment with a new color and a new Midwest finesse rig.

For decades, I have been wedded to using various green-pumpkin hues and purple hues. My transition to a different hue began on April 18. On this outing, I worked with a Z-Man's morningwood Finesse ShadZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead instead of a green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ or a Junebug Finesse ShadZ. My eyes were immediately impressed with the way this pinkish hue looked in water, which was exhibiting about three feet of visibility. For 95 minutes, I tested it against a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig and a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead. And to my surprise, the monrningwood Finesse ShadZ caught 11 of the 12 largemouth bass, as well as five crappie and one bluegill.

To my chagrin, I discovered that the morningwood hue is no longer available, but Daniel Nussbaum of Charleston, South Carolina, who is president of Z-Man Fishing Products, suggested that I should try a 3 ½-inch Z-Man's twilight Trick ShotZ, which is a plastic worm designed to be employed on a drop-shot rig rather than a Midwest finesse rig.

The 3 ½-inch Z-Man's Twilight Trick ShotZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig.

The morningwood hue and twilight hue are Z-Man's rendition of the morning-dawn hue that several California anglers created in the 1980s and 1990s for their plastic worms.

I made my first cast at 12:55 p.m., and for the next three hours, I intermittently worked with four Midwest finesse rigs: a Z-Man's morningwood Finesse ShadZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead, a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig, a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead, and a 3 ½-inch Z-Man's Twilight Trick ShotZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. These rigs were affixed to a four-pound-test braided line and a four-pound-test fluorocarbon leader.

As I attempted to hide from the blustery wind, I fished along four shorelines inside three feeder-creek arms, around six main-lake points, along portions of five main-lake shorelines, and one offshore pile of rocks and boulders. They were situated from the upper reaches of this reservoir to the face of the dam, and they were the most wind-sheltered areas that I could find. But only one of the shorelines was completely sheltered from the wind, and along the others, it was often a whirlwind ordeal as the west-by-northwest gusts would occasionally whip the bow of the boat almost 180 degrees in the other direction.

What's more, the wind made it a struggle to execute our standard Midwest finesse retrieves.

The underwater terrains of all of these shorelines and points consist of gravel, rocks, and boulders. They possess a 25- to 85-degree slope. The water's edges are lined with many winter-dead patches of American water willows, some laydowns, and several overhanging trees.

Along about a 200-yard stretch of a shoreline inside a feeder-creek arm in the upper reaches of this reservoir, I caught one largemouth bass on a sloppy and wind-blown swim-glide-and-shake presentation with the twilight Trick ShotZ rig. It was in the vicinity of some laydowns and overhanging trees, but because of the wind, I don't have a clue how deep it was and how far it was from the water's edge.

In the upper reaches of this reservoir and along the most wind-sheltered shoreline, which possesses a 65- to 85-degree slope, the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig with a drag-and-shake presentation parallel to a patch of winter-dead American water willows caught one largemouth bass in about six feet of water.

While I was strolling with a sloppy and wind-blown drag-and-shake presentation in five to six feet of water with the Tiny TicklerZ rig along another main-lake shoreline in the upper reaches of this reservoir, I caught one largemouth bass around a stretch of the underwater terrain that is comprised of scores of large rocks and boulders and one humongous tree stump. It was about 15 feet from the water's edge, which is endowed with patches of winter-dead American water willows. This area has a 45-degree slope.

Along a 75-yard stretch of a shoreline and around a secondary point inside a small feeder-creek arm in the middle section of this reservoir, I caught one smallmouth bass and two largemouth bass. One of the largemouth bass was caught on the initial drop of the twilight Trick ShotZ rig immediately adjacent to a patch of winter-dead American water willows in about two feet of water. The smallmouth bass and the second largemouth bass were caught on the twilight Trick ShotZ rig with a sloppy and a wind-blown drag-and-shake presentation as I was strolling in about five feet of water about 10 to 15 feet from the water's edge, which is devoid of any laydowns and patches of winter-dead American water willows. This area possesses a 25- to 35-degree slope.

Around a main-lake point in the lower half of this reservoir, the twilight Trick ShotZ rig caught a smallmouth bass and a largemouth bass. The water's edge is graced with thick patches of American water willows. It has about a 45-degree slope. The largemouth bass was caught on a deadstick presentation in about 10 feet of water as the wind played havoc with my ability to control the boat and the deadstick presentation. The smallmouth bass was caught as I was trying rather unsuccessfully to drag and pause the twilight Trick ShotZ rig in about 10 feet of water.

Along two shorelines and around several secondary and tertiary points inside a medium-size feeder-creek arm in the lower half of the reservoir, the twilight Trick ShotZ rig caught four largemouth bass. This area has a 25- to 45-degree slope. The water's edge is lined with two docks and many thick patches of winter-dead American water willows, several overhanging trees, and a few laydowns. One largemouth bass was caught on the initial drop of the rig near a patch of winter-dead American water willows and by an overhanging tree in three to four feet of water. The other three largemouth bass were caught on another poorly executed swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to seven feet of water.

One smallmouth bass was caught along a short segment of a main-lake shoreline in the vicinity of the spillway and dam. This shoreline has about a 45- to 50-degree slope. The water's edge is laced with patches of winter-dead American water willows. This smallmouth bass was caught accidentally on the twilight Trick ShotZ rig with a fast-paced swimming presentation in about 15 feet of water.

One smallmouth bass and one largemouth bass were caught around a main-lake point in the vicinity of the dam and spillway. It has about a 45-degree slope. The water's edge is adorned with patches of winter-dead American water willows, a massive chunk of concrete, several overhanging trees, a section of riprap, and a few laydowns. Both of these fish were caught on the twilight Trick ShotZ rig with a drag-and-shake presentation in six to eight feet of water and about 10 to 12 feet from the water's edge.

I made my last cast at 3:55 p.m. and it caught a smallmouth bass on the initial drop of the twilight Trick Shotz rig in about four feet of water on top of an offshore pile of rocks and boulders in the vicinity of the spillway.

During these very wind-blown three hours of fishing, it was a struggle to catch 11 largemouth bass, five smallmouth bass, and accidentally catch four green sunfish, which were the first green sunfish of 2023. Of these 20 fish, 18 of them were caught on the twilight Trick ShotZ.

During the third week in April of 2023, we fished three times and a total of eight hours and five minutes. We caught 138 largemouth bass, five smallmouth bass, three green sunfish, two crappie, and one bluegill, which is an average of about 17.8 black bass an hour. The Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig caught 103 largemouth bass, the morningwood Finesse ShadZ caught 11 largemouth bass, the green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ rig caught 15 largemouth bass, and the twilight Trick ShotZ caught five smallmouth bass and nine largemouth bass. The Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig was used for nearly four hours.

In the days to come, we will continue to experiment with the twilight Trick ShotZ and report about its effectiveness as a Midwest finesse rig.

April 24

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 24 outing with Seward Horner of Lawrence and Larry Von Nortwick of Junction City, Oregan, at a state reservoir in northeastern Kansas.

Here is an edited version of their log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 32 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 69 degrees. The wind angled out of the southeast, south, southwest, and west at 7 to 24 mph. The conditions of the sky varied from being fair to cluttered with a few clouds to mostly clouds. The barometric pressure was 30.14 at 12:52 a.m., 30.13 at 5:52 a.m., 30.12 at 11:52 a.m., and 30.07 at 1:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be several inches above its normal level. The surface temperature ranged from 58 to 60 degrees. The water exhibited about 10 feet of visibility. This reservoir's shallow-water flats and shorelines are endowed with vast patches of curly-leaf pondweeds. There are numerous manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees, which are quilted with thick wads of filamentous algae, embellishing this reservoir's shallow-water shorelines and flats, and many of the shallow-water laydowns and boulders are also covered with filamentous algae.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 2.27 a.m. to 4:27 a.m., 2:53 p.m. to 4:53 p.m., and 8:40 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.

We caught our first largemouth bass on our first cast at 10:21 a.m., and we caught largemouth bass number 101 on our last cast at 1:11 p.m. In between those many casts, we also caught one crappie.

This two-hour-and-50-minute outing was another remarkable and bountiful Monday in April of 2023. The other one occurred on April 17.

Every cast was made with a 3 ½-inch Z-Man's Trick ShotZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. The most fruitful hue was the twilight one. The second most fruitful was a meat-dog one. The third most fruitful was a green-pumpkin-goby one. One of the twilight Trick ShotZ had its tail completely removed by one of the largemouth bass that we caught, which made it a 2 ½-inch stick-style bait similar to a Z-Man's Finesse TRD, and it inveigled four of the 101 largemouth bass that we caught.

Except for the last three minutes of this outing, we used the wind and a drift sock to move the boat at a moderate pace around three main-lake points, along four massive shorelines, and around 10 secondary points. We estimated that we fished along and around 1,500 yards of the shorelines and the points.

The most bountiful main-lake point yielded 11 largemouth bass. We caught six largemouth bass and one crappie around the second most fruitful one. The third main-lake point yielded three largemouth bass, but it was the last area that we fished, and it is where we caught largemouth bass number 99, number 100, and number 101. As soon as we caught largemouth bass number 101, we didn't make another cast.

Along one of the four shorelines and around four of its secondary points, we caught 22 largemouth bass.

Along the second shoreline and around three of its secondary points, we caught 24 largemouth bass.

We caught 35 largemouth bass along the third shoreline and around three of its secondary points.

The underwater terrains of the points and shorelines consisted of gravel, rocks, and boulders. Some of the boulders are quite large, and a few spots are devoid of the large boulders. One secondary point is enhanced with a submerged rock fence. One main-lake point and its adjacent shoreline are endowed with a submerged barn and house foundation. The slopes of the points and shorelines ranged from 25- to 60 degrees. Most of the water's edges are quilted with significant patches of winter-dead American water willows, and many of these patches are entangled with wads of filamentous algae. Many of the flatter or shallow-water areas adjacent to the shorelines are adorned with patches of curly-leaf pondweeds.

We failed to elicit a strike along about a 50-yard stretch of a shoreline that possesses about a 50- to 60-degree slope. It is devoid of any significant patches of curly-leaf pondweeds. This shoreline's water's edge is lined with a few minor laydowns and some meager patches of winter-dead American water willows.

However, along two shorelines, which have a 50- to 60-degree slope and are unadorned with patches of curly-lead pondweeds, we were surprised to garner an array of strikes and catch a noteworthy number of largemouth bass. The water's edges along these two shorelines are endowed with many thick patches of winter-dead American water willows and a goodly number of laydowns. They are also endowed with some wads of filamentous algae, which yielded several largemouth bass.

The most bountiful sections of shorelines and secondary points were enhanced with some patches of curly-leaf pondweeds. And the best of these areas occurred where there is a significant channel or gap between the outside edges of the patches of winter-dead American water willows or a mega laydown along the water's edges of these shorelines and the inside edges of the patches of curly-leaf pondweeds that are enhancing the flatter and shallow-water areas adjacent to these shorelines.

We presented our Trick ShotZ rigs in a variety of ways. A few were caught on the initial drop. A few were caught on a deadstick presentation. Some were caught on a swimming presentation. Many were caught on a drag-and-shake presentation. Others were caught on a swim-glide-and-shake presentation. Several were caught as we were strolling and employing a dragging presentation.

The 101 largemouth bass were caught in a variety of depths, ranging from water as shallow as four feet to as deep as about 11 feet.

As we have noted in many of our logs across the past 12 years, none of the 101 largemouth bass were lunkers, and none of them would allure the fancy of a tournament angler or a producer of a YouTube or TV fishing show. But for us numbers hunters, it was a delightful two hours and 50 minutes of fishing. In fact, Larry and Seward said it was the most prolific 170 minutes of fishing that they have ever experienced.

April 24

Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas, filed a brief log on the Finesse News Network about his outing to one of northeastern Kansas' power-plant reservoirs on April 24.

Here is an edited version of his log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 35 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 66 degrees. The wind angled out of the south, southeast, southwest, and south at 3 to 15 mph; during the afternoon, there were gusts of wind that ranged from 20 to 26 mph. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.14 at 12:53 a.m., 30.13 at 5:53 a.m., 30.16 at 11:53, and 30.05 at 3:53 p.m.

The water level looked to be slightly above normal, and several inches of water were flowing over the spillway. At the dam, the water exhibited about two feet of visibility. The surface temperature in the lower section of this reservoir was 63 degrees.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 2.27 a.m. to 4:27 a.m., 2:53 p.m. to 4:53 p.m., and 8:40 a.m. a.m. to 10:40 a.m.

I was afloat from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and I caught 31 largemouth bass, four green sunfish, three channel catfish, and one white bass. Four of the 31 largemouth bass were lunkers, weighing 6.25. 6.0, 5.25, and 5.0 pounds.

I spent entire eight hours in the lower section of the reservoir and thoroughly dissected the riprap shorelines of the dam and a roadway.

My most effective Midwest finesse rigs were a 2 ½-inch Z-Man's Junebug ZinkerZ affixed to a blue 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig, A Z-Man's watermelon-red TRD BugZ affixed to a black 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig, and a 2 ½-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin-red ZinkerZ affixed to a red 1/32-ounce mushroom-style jig.

I employed a swim-glide-and-shake presentation. When I used the rig with a 1/32-ounce jig, I fished parallel to the shoreline. Most of the fish were caught in two to eight feet of water.

April 26

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, and Rick Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about their April 26 outing at one of northeastern Kansas' many community reservoirs.

Here is an edited version of their log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 47 degrees, and its afternoon's high temperature was 67 degrees. The wind angled out of the southeast, east, and northeast at 3 to 14 mph; at 2:53 p.m. and 3:53 p.m., there were gusts of wind that reached 21 mph. The barometric pressure was 30.10 at 12:53 a.m., 30.11 at 5:53 a.m., 30.14 at 11:53 a.m., and 30.10 at 1:53 p.m.

At this 83-year-old reservoir, the water level looked to be a few inches above normal. The surface temperature ranged from 60 to 62 degrees. The water exhibited about five feet of visibility. For several years, the managers of this reservoir have worked diligently to eradicate all of the submerged aquatic vegetation, as well as the wads of duckweed that often cluttered the surface. To our surprise and delight, we crossed paths with a significant number of patches of coontail, and one meager wad of duckweed.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 4:18 a.m. to 6:18 a.m., 4:44 p.m. to 6:44 p.m., and 10:31 a.m. to 12:31 p.m.

We made our first casts at 9:58 a.m. and our last ones at 1:58 p.m. During this four-hour outing, we caught 57 largemouth bass, six bluegills, five crappie, two green sunfish, and one white bass. We also elicited a multitude of strikes that we failed to hook; we suspect that some of those strikes were provided by bluegill and green sunfish.

One of the 57 largemouth bass was caught on a Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig.

Six of the 57 largemouth bass were caught on a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ affixed to either a blue 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig or a red 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. Fifty largemouth bass were caught on a 3 ½-inch Z-Man's twilight Trick ShotZ affixed to either a red 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig or a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig.

Along the dam, we caught five largemouth bass. It is 1,550 feet long with a height of 58 feet. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are adorned with a few burgeoning patches of coontail and some wads of filamentous algae. It possesses a 50- to 60-degree slope. The water's edge is grace with a few patches of winter-dead American water willows. Our Finesse ShadZ rigs caught two of the largemouth bass, and our Trick ShotZ rigs caught three largemouth bass. One of the largemouth bass was caught on the initial drop of a Trick ShotZ rig in about four feet of water. The others were caught as we employed either a drag-and-shake presentation or a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to about eight feet of water.

We spent the rest of this outing plying more than 2,000 yards of main-lake shorelines in the lower half and upper half of this reservoir.

In the upper half of this reservoir, the shorelines along its east side were sheltered from the easterly winds. One section that we fished was about 75 yards long, and we failed to catch a largemouth bass. This shoreline possesses a 35- to 40-degree slope. Its water's edge is endowed with several patches of winter-dead American water willows and dotted with eight docks. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, and this terrain possessed a few patches of coontail.

We caught six largemouth bass along about a 500-yard stretch of another east-side shoreline. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, boulders, and some silt. Parts of this terrain are quilted with some burgeoning patches of coontail and several wads of filamentous algae. It possesses a 25- to 60-degree slope. The water's edge consists of several concrete retaining walls, eight docks, one small rock bridge, a few laydowns, several piles of brush, some patches of winter-dead American water willows, and a few overhanging trees. One largemouth bass was caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig with a drag-and-shake presentation adjacent to one of the docks in about six feet of water. The others were caught on our twilight Trick ShotZ rigs; one was caught on the initial drop adjacent to another dock in about five feet of water; one was caught on the initial drop near a meager laydown and wads of filamentous algae in about three feet of water; the other three were caught on a drag-and-shake presentation about 10 to 15 feet from the water's edge. Four were caught along a section of the shoreline that has a 45- to 50-degree slope. The slope of the terrain adjacent to the two fruitful docks is about 25 degrees.

Forty-six of the 57 largemouth bass were caught along the shorelines along the west side of this reservoir.

We estimated that we fished more than 1,500 yards of the shoreline along the west side of this reservoir.

Nineteen of the 57 largemouth bass were caught along the west shoreline in the lower half of the reservoir. The slope of this shoreline ranges from 20- to 35-degrees. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are adorned with an occasional patch of coontail and some wads of filamentous algae. The water's edge is littered with 46 docks, several rock retaining walls, several concrete retaining walls, a few overhanging trees, and an occasional patch of winter-dead American water willows.

Four of the 19 largemouth bass were caught on our Finesse ShadZ rigs with a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation in five to seven feet of water.

The other 15 largemouth bass were caught on our twilight Trick ShotZ rigs, and they were caught in a variety of ways.

One was caught on a long-winded deadstick presentation in about eight feet of water and many feet from the water's edge.

Three were caught as we were strolling and employing a swimming presentation many feet from the water's edge in six to eight feet of water.

Two were caught on the initial drop of the rig near the water's edge in three to four feet of water.

Nine were caught as we employed three different retrieves: a drag-and-shake presentation, a drag-shake-and-pause presentation, and a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation with a long pause when the rig was halfway to the boat. These largemouth bass were caught in four to nine feet feet of water from about six feet from the water's edge to more than 15 feet from the water's edge. A few were caught in close proximity to the docks.

Twenty-seven largemouth bass were caught along the west shoreline in the upper half of the reservoir. This area possesses a 25- to 70-degree slope. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders. The shoreline is cluttered with 27 docks, some concrete retaining walls, a few rock retaining walls, a number of overhanging trees, one massive laydown, a few piles of brush, and an occasional patch of winter-dead American water willow. There are a few burgeoning patches of coontail gracing the underwater terrain between the scores of docks.

All 27 of the largemouth bass were caught on our twilight Trick ShotZ rigs, and we caught them with a variety of presentations and at a variety of locations. Some were caught adjacent to the docks. A few were caught near the water's edge. Others were caught many feet from the water's edge. Three were caught with a deadstick-and-shake presentation. Two were caught with a longwinded deadstick presentation that was accentuated with a quivering tactic. Four were caught on the initial drop. Sometimes it seemed to us that several of the largemouth bass caught us rather than us catching them. On some presentations, we would elicit two to three strikes before we would hook either a bluegill or a largemouth bass, and during these multiple-strike presentations, we would catch a few of them when implementing a short pause-and-quivering routine. We also caught them on two standard Midwest presentations: the swim-glide-and-shake presentation and the drag-and-shake presentation.

In short, we caught an average of 14.5 largemouth bass an hour. And Z-Man's twilight Trick ShotZ rig was are most effective rig. We can't recall catching such a significant number of largemouth bass at such a variety of locations and with so many different presentations.

April 27

Pat and Ned Kehde posted a log about their short outing on April 27 at one of northeastern Kansas' many community reservoirs.

Here is an edited version of their log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 51 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 71 degrees. The wind was calm for eight hours, and when it erupted, it angled out of the north, southwest, southeast, and east at 3 to 16 mph. The conditions of the sky fluctuated from being overcast to fair to mostly cloudy to partly cloudy. The barometric pressure was 30.03 at 12:53 a.m., 29.90 at 5:53 a.m., 29.89 at 11:53 a.m., and 29.80 at 2:53 p.m.

The water level at this 84-year-old flatland reservoir looked to be about five inches above its normal level. The surface temperature was 62 degrees. The water in the lower section of this reservoir exhibited slightly more than five feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 5:13 a.m. to 7:13 a.m., 5:37 p.m. to 7:37 p.m., and 11:01 a.m. to 1:01 p.m.

We made our first casts at 12:35 p.m. And by the time we executed our last cast at 2:05 p.m., our fish counters revealed that we had caught 18 largemouth bass and three smallmouth bass, and we inadvertently caught five bluegill, five green sunfish, one white bass, and one wiper.

During this 90-minute outing, we spent nearly 65 minutes offshore and thoroughly dissecting two dilapidated rock fences. They consist of rocks and boulders. They are submerged and covered with four to seven feet of water. Each one is about 75 yards long and six feet wide. They are surrounded by 10 to more than 25 feet of water. Many of its rocks and boulders are coated with significant wads of filamentous algae.

One of the submerged fences yielded 10 largemouth and three smallmouth bass. Two of the smallmouth bass and five of the largemouth bass were caught on a 2 1/4-inch Z-Man's Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig; it is a shortened TRD TicklerZ. One smallmouth bass and four largemouth bass were caught on a 3 ½-inch Z-Man's twilight Trick ShotZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. One largemouth bass was caught on a 3 ½-inch Z-Man's meat-dog Trick ShotZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. These 13 black bass were caught in four to seven feet of water.

Pat Kehde with her first smallmouth bass in 2023.

The other submerged fence yielded two largemouth bass, which were caught on the twilight Trick ShotZ rig in about five feet of water.

We spent the final 25 minutes fishing around two main-lake points and very short segments of these points' main-lake shorelines. The underwater terrains of these two points consist of gravel, rocks, and boulders. They possess a 35-degree slope and a significant ledge that plummets quickly into 25 feet of water. The water's edges are adorned with patches of winter-dead American water willows and a few laydowns.

One of the main-lake points yielded four largemouth bass. Three were caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig, and one was caught on the meat-dog Trick ShotZ rig.

We caught two largemouth bass around the second main-lake point. One was caught on the meat-dog Trick ShotZ rig, and the second one was caught on the Drew's craw TRD TicklerZ rig.

At all four of those locations, we elicited a significant number of strikes that we failed to hook. For a while, we attempted to keep an exact count of them, but they occurred so frequently that we needed another fish counter, which we did not possess, in order to accomplish that task accurately. On a few retrieves, we elicited as many as three strikes. Several times we temporally hooked a fish, and when that occurred, we allowed our rig to plummet to the bottom, and we would employ a deadstick presentation, and three times that tactic provoked a largemouth bass to engulf our rig.

In addition to the deadstick presentation, we caught them by employing a drag-and-shake presentation, a hop-and-bounce presentation, a slow and straight swimming presentation, which the late Charlie Brewer of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, used to call his do-nothing retrieve. Brewer explained that the do-nothing retrieved allowed his famous finesse rigs to polish the rocks and boulders that grace the underwater terrains of the Tennessee impoundments that he used to fish. We also caught three largemouth bass on the initial drop of our rigs. And there were several retrieves when we employed radical shakes and twitches to our rigs, which are radically different from the do-nothing retrieve.

In other words, we caught these 33 fish every which way.

We caught either a largemouth bass or a smallmouth bass every four minutes. And by adding the five bluegill, five green sunfish, one white bass, and one wiper to the count, we caught a fish every 2.7 minutes, which made for a delightful 90 minutes of Midwest finesse fishing.

 

April 27

Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas, filed a brief log on the Finesse News Network about his outing with David Harrison of Lawrence, Kansas, at one of northeastern Kansas' federal reservoirs on April 27.

Here is an edited version of their log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning's low temperature was 51 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature was 71 degrees. The wind was calm for eight hours, and when it erupted, it angled out of the north, southwest, southeast, and east at 3 to 16 mph. The conditions of the sky fluctuated from being overcast to fair to mostly cloudy to partly cloudy. The barometric pressure was 30.03 at 12:53 a.m., 29.90 at 5:53 a.m., 29.89 at 11:53 a.m., and 29.80 at 2:53 p.m.

The water level at this 53-year-old reservoir was three-quarters of a foot above normal. The surface temperature ranged from 60 to 61 degrees. The water exhibited from 1 ½ to two feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman's solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 5:13 a.m. to 7:13 a.m., 5:37 p.m. to 7:37 p.m., and 11:01 a.m. to 1:01 p.m.

We made our first casts around 7:00 a.m. and our last ones around 2:30 p.m.

We spent these 7 ½ hours in the lower section of this reservoir. We fished along portions of the riprap shorelines of a causeway inside a primary feeder-creek arm. Inside this primary feeder-creek arm, we fished along several shorelines and around a variety of secondary and tertiary points. We also fished around several main-lake points and main-lake shorelines. The underwater terrains of these shorelines and points consist of gravel, rocks, and boulders; some of these locales are endowed with submerged roadbeds, silo foundations, house foundations, and barn foundations.

Besides the points and shorelines, we fished around two offshore humps.

We caught 43 smallmouth bass and five largemouth bass, and accidentally caught two channel catfish, four freshwater drum, and 10 crappie.

We caught them on a 2 ½-inch Z-Man's PB&J ZinkerZ affixed on a blue 1/16-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead, Z-Man's mudbug Hula StickZ affixed to a red 3/32-ounce Z-Man's OG Mushroom Jighead, 2 ½-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin ZinkerZ affixed to a black 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig, and a Z-Man's watermelon-red TRD BugZ affixed to a black 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig.

We employed these rigs with a swim-glide-and-shake presentation in two to eight feet of water.

April 29

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his April 29 outing with Bill Kenney of Denton.

Here is an edited version of his log.

On April 15, Norman Brown of Lewisville and I fished at one of several U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' hill-land reservoirs in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area. We fished from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. while a bass tournament was in progress. The fishing was trying, and it was a grind for us to catch five spotted bass and three largemouth bass.

On April 20, Norman and I returned to this same Corps' reservoir to see if the wretched black-bass fishing had improved during the past five days. And much to our dismay, we discovered that the black-bass fishing was still awful. We fished for six hours, and we had to work hard to catch 11 black bass, which consisted of seven spotted bass and four largemouth bass. And I haven't fished since then.

On April 29, Bill Kenney and I were planning to fish at a fruitful state reservoir in north-central Texas. But a cold front passed through this area on April 28, and it brought rain, some hail, and robust 30-mph-plus winds.

The weather stabilized on April 29. The rain and hail storms moved eastward, but the vigorous winds remained. The sky conditions changed from overcast to clear. The morning's low temperature was 47 degrees, and the afternoon's high temperature warmed to 72 degrees. The barometric pressure measured 29.98 at 10:00 a.m. and 29.90 at 4:00 p.m. The unrelenting wind was problematic all day, and it roared out of the northwest at 25 to 38 mph. Consequently, we changed our plans from fishing at the state reservoir that would provide little protection from the wind to the same Corps' reservoir that Norman and I fished on April 15 and 20, which would provide more significant shelter.

The water level was at its normal level. The water clarity ranged from 14 to 18 inches. The surface temperature varied from 62 to 63 degrees.

According to In-Fisherman's solunar table, the most productive fishing would occur between 12:38 a.m. and 2:38 a.m., 6:49 a.m. and 8:49 a.m., and 7:11 p.m. to 9:11 p.m. It also indicated that fishing would be poor.

During this April 29 excursion, we fished in the lower end of the reservoir from about 10:30 a.m. to about 4:00 p.m. The wind relegated us to fishing inside four feeder-creek arms, and it was a grind to catch 10 largemouth bass and seven spotted bass. We also accidentally caught one channel catfish and one white bass.

There wasn't any location pattern. These 17 black bass were scattered from the mouths to the back ends of the creek arms. We caught them around steep and rocky secondary points, clay-and-gravel flats, flat gravel-and-clay tertiary points, and a couple of shallow rock ledges adorned with stickups, chunk rocks, and a few boulders.

We also couldn't establish a dominant lure. We employed a total of 11 Midwest finesse rigs and caught fish on eight of them. The two most productive ones were a Z-Man's green-pumpkin TRD TicklerZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig, and a Z-Man's coppertreuse Trick ShotZ matched with a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man's Finesse ShroomZ jig.

The most effective presentation was a slow swim-glide-and-shake retrieve.