Midwest Finesse Fishing: December 2023

Midwest Finesse Fishing: December 2023

Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas, with one of the largemouth bass that he caught on Dec. 8.

Dec. 4

Ned and Pat Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a brief on the Finesse News Network about their short outing on Dec. 4 at an 84-year-old northeastern Kansas' community reservoir.

Here is an edited version of their brief.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 30 degrees. The afternoon's high temperature was 55 degrees. The sky was fair. The wind angled from the northwest, west, southwest, and south at 3 to 13 mph. The barometric pressure was 29.97 at 12:53 a.m., 30.01 at 5:53 a.m., 30.08 at 11:53 a.m., and 29.98 at 3:53 p.m.

The water level looked to be about three feet below normal. The surface temperature ranged from 42 to 43 degrees. The water exhibited an algae bloom and about three to four feet of visibility. Many of this reservoir's shorelines and points are embellished with fantastic patches of winter-dead American water willows, but most of them are more than 50 percent out of the water.

In-Fisherman's Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 3:46 a.m. to 5:46 a.m., 4:07 p.m. to 6:07 p.m., and 9:56 a.m. to 11:56 a.m.

We made our first casts at 2:23 p.m. and our last ones at 4:05 p.m.

This was not a traditional Midwest finesse endeavor. Instead, it was an experimental affair in which we made every cast with two of Z-Man’s Micro Finesse Rigs. They were the 1.75-inch electric-chicken StringZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead and the 1.75-inch bumblebee Micro Finesse TRD affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig head.

By the way, some of our power fishing colleagues would assert that we were crappie fishing for largemouth bass, which they used to say back in the 1960s and 1970 when we were wedded to Chuck Woods’ Beatle, Beatle Spin, and tiny jig-worm rig.

On our first casts, we simultaneously caught a walleye and a largemouth bass. In short, it was a multispecies affair. We caught nine largemouth bass, eight freshwater drum, one rainbow trout, one walleye, and one wiper.

We began this outing by fishing around a main-lake point and about a 300-yard stretch of its main-lake shoreline. This area is situated in the upper third of the reservoir. It possesses a 45- to 90-degree slope. The underwater terrain of the point and shoreline consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are occasionally quilted with patches of Eurasian milfoil. The water’s edge is lined with winter-dead American water willows, one concrete pier, and an array of laydowns. This area yielded five largemouth bass, three freshwater drum, one walleye, and one wiper. Two were caught on the initial drop of our rigs in about four feet of water. The others were caught as we were employing either a slow swim-and-long-pause presentation or a drag-and-shake presentation in about five to nine feet of water in the vicinity of patches of Eurasian milfoil.

Pat caught this walleye on her first cast.

We finished this 102-minute outing by fishing along two short segments of the shorelines inside a small feeder-creek arm in the lower third of this reservoir. We also fished around one of the main-lake points at the mouth of this small feeder-creek arm and along about a 100-yard section of this point’s main-lake shoreline. This area possesses a 35- to 50-degree slope. Its water’s edge is adorned with two docks, shallow-water patches of winter-dead American water willows, some piles of brush, several overhanging trees, and a few laydowns. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders that are coated with a few patches of Eurasian milfoil. This area yielded five freshwater drum, four largemouth bass, and one rainbow trout. They were caught as we employed either a slow swim-and-long-pause presentation or a drag-and-shake presentation in about four to 10 feet of water in the vicinity of patches of Eurasian milfoil.

After this 102-minute test, we suspect that these Micro Finesse rigs will pay some dividends as the surface temperatures of our flatland reservoirs fluctuate from 38 to 44 degrees in the weeks to come. Of course, these flatland reservoirs will have to be endowed with significant patches of submerged aquatic vegetation, such as coontail or curly-leaf pondweeds or Eurasian milfoil or sago pondweeds.

Dec. 4

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 4 outing with Norman Brown of Lewisville, Texas.

Here is an edited version of his log.

From 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Norman Brown joined me for a late-fall outing at a heavily fished U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ hill-land reservoir in north-central Texas.

This is the same Corps’ reservoir where Bear Brundrett of Valley View, Texas, and I fished on Nov. 21, but the weather and water conditions were much different then than they were on this Dec. 4 foray.

During the Nov. 21 outing, it was overcast for most of the day. The morning’s low temperature was 47 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature reached 56 degrees. A robust northwesterly wind blew at 20 to 30 mph. The water level was 2.21 feet below normal pool. The water’s clarity varied between 12 and 18 inches of visibility. The surface temperature ranged from 59 to 60 degrees. We had a good day of fishing, and we enjoyed grappling with a mixed bag of 30 largemouth and spotted bass, five hybrid-striped bass, and one large channel catfish in five hours.

In stark contrast to Nov. 21, the weather on Dec. 4 was quite delightful. The sky was partly cloudy, and the sun was intensely bright. The wind was light and variable. The barometric pressure measured 30.23 at 11:00 a.m., and 30.14 at 4:00 p.m.

The water clarity had improved a tad, too, and it displayed 18 to 24 inches of clarity on Dec. 4. The water level had dropped since Nov. 21, and measured 2.54 feet below normal. The water temperature had also dropped from 59 to 60 degrees on Nov. 21 to 55 to 56 degrees. (It should be noted that when the water temperature drops below 55 degrees, the Florida-strain largemouth bass that populate the vast majority of the waterways throughout Texas, become extremely difficult to catch during the cold-water months of winter.)

According to In-Fisherman's Solunar calendar, the best fishing periods would occur from 3:51 a.m. to 5:51 a.m., 10:02 a.m. to 12:02 p.m., and 4:12 p.m. to 6:12 p.m.

This reservoir’s submerged terrain consists of red clay, small gravel, chunky rocks, boulders of all shapes and sizes, and silt. There are also some submerged stumps, partially-flooded stickups, and thin stands of flooded timber in a few of the shallow-water areas. And much to our consternation, there is no aquatic vegetation in this impoundment.

During these five hours, we focused our efforts inside three feeder-creek arms situated in the lower region of the reservoir. Two of the three feeder-creek arms contain large marinas, and we spent quite a bit of time fishing portions of several shorelines and secondary points behind the boat docks in the marinas. And though the water temperature was on the cusp of dropping below 55 degrees, we still managed to eke out 17 largemouth bass and two spotted bass.

Three largemouth bass and one spotted bass were caught in a large cove that is located in the middle section of the first feeder-creek arm. The spotted bass was caught in six feet of water from the end of a concrete boat ramp that we used to launch our boat. The other three largemouth bass were caught behind some of the marina’s floating docks in three to nine feet of water along a clay-and-gravel shoreline that possesses a 35- to 45-degree slope.

Behind the marina’s docks that are situated in the middle and upper sections of the second feeder-creek arm, we caught six largemouth bass in five to 13 feet of water. They were relating to the ends of four rocky secondary points and one 50-yard segment of a chunk rock-and boulder shoreline with 40- to 60-degree gradients.

The third feeder-creek arm doesn’t contain a marina, but it is endowed with numerous rocky secondary points, three medium-size coves, several clay-and-gravel flats, and two concrete boat ramps. This feeder-creek yielded eight largemouth bass and one spotted bass, and they were all abiding in the lower and middle portions of this creek arm. Six of these nine black bass were caught in three to seven feet of water from the ends of five rocky secondary points with 45- to 60-degree inclines, and the other three bass were caught in less than five feet of water from the end of one of the two concrete boat ramps.

During this outing, we discovered that flat terrains such as clay-and-gravel flats, gravel-and-rock-laden secondary points and their adjoining flat shorelines, which were fruitful a couple of weeks ago, were bereft of black bass this time.

All totaled, 10 largemouth bass and two spotted bass were enraptured by a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation with a 4.75-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ that was shortened to 3 1/4 inches and matched with a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. Three largemouth bass were induced by a slow swimming retrieve with a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Finesse TRD rigged on a green-pumpkin-red-flake 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig. Three more largemouth bass were beguiled by a steady swimming retrieve with a 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s mudbug TRD TubeZ fastened to a 1/16-ounce green-pumpkin-red-flake mushroom-style jig. And one largemouth bass was enticed by a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick retrieve with a 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin TRD TubeZ affixed on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead.

Dec. 5

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 5 outing with Norman Brown of Lewisville, Texas.

Here is an edited version of his log.

Norman and I returned to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ hill-land reservoir in north-central Texas that we fished on Nov. 27, when we caught 21 largemouth bass and one spotted bass in four hours.

Dec. 5 was a beautiful fall day. The sky was cloudless, and there was an abundance of sunshine. The morning’s low temperature was 35 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature was 64 degrees. When we launched the boat at 11:20 a.m., the wind was light and variable, and it was calm by noon. The barometric pressure measured 30.43 at 11:00 a.m. and 30.29 at 4:00 p.m.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar indicated that the fishing would be poor, and the best fishing would occur from 3:52 a.m. to 5:52 a.m., 10:02 a.m. to 12:02 p.m., and 4:13 p.m. to 6:13 p.m.

We fished from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the fishing was awful.

We spent these 4 1/2 hours in the lower region of the reservoir, targeting patches of Eurasian milfoil patches inside two major feeder-creek arms and one minor creek arm. And it was a grind to catch nine largemouth bass. Seven of these nine bass were caught during the first two hours of the outing, but the black-bass bite petered out when the wind became calm, and we struggled mightily to catch two more bass during the last 2 1/2 hours.

We caught six largemouth bass in the lower and middle sections of the first major feeder-creek arm, one largemouth bass at the entrance to the minor feeder-creek arm, and one largemouth bass in the lower end of the other major creek arm. On our way back to the boat ramp at the end of this outing, we stopped and slowly dissected a 50-yard section of a main-lake shoreline and an adjacent jetty that are covered with riprap. Along the shoreline and jetty, there are thick and massive patches of Eurasian milfoil that extend about 40 feet out from the water’s edge and are covered with two to four feet of water, and they yielded one largemouth bass.

The water level was 1.73 feet below normal. The water exhibited three feet of clarity. The surface temperature had dropped from 57 and 58 degrees on Nov. 27 to 52 to 55 degrees in the minor creek arm, and 56 to 57 degrees in the two larger creek arms and in the main-lake areas.

The underwater terrains of these three creek arms are composed of red clay, some sand, small gravel, Woodbine sandstone rocks and boulders, and a few sparse patches of American pondweed mixed in with the patches of Eurasian milfoil. There are also stands of flooded timber, submerged stumps, and laydowns in these three creek arms.

All nine of these black bass were scattered about and caught in water that was 56 to 57 degrees. They were abiding around the outside edges and tops of milfoil patches in three to six feet of water. We failed to elicit any strikes in water that was colder than 56 degrees. What’s more, many of the milfoil patches that were productive on Nov. 27 were devoid of any largemouth and spotted bass this time.

One largemouth bass was caught on a slow-swimming retrieve with a three-inch Z-Man’s pearl Slim SwimZ affixed on a black 3/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. Another largemouth bass was enticed by a slow swimming presentation with a Z-Man’s mudbug TRD TubeZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig. A slow swim-glide-and-shake retrieve with a 4.75-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ that was trimmed down to 3 1/4 inches allured seven largemouth bass.

In conclusion, we weren’t the only ones having a wretched outing. We spoke with three other anglers at the boat-ramp, and we discovered that two of them had failed to catch a bass, and the other angler quit black-bass fishing and opted to pursue catfish instead, and he caught four of them.

With winter just around the corner, and the water temperatures dropping to and below 55 degrees, the fishing for Florida-strain largemouth bass in north-central Texas is already tapering off, and it will be horrendous until the water temperatures rise to 58 degrees or higher in mid-March.

Dec. 6

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his outing on Dec. 6 at the same 84-year-old northeastern Kansas' community reservoir that he and Pat Kehde fished on Dec. 4.

Here is an edited version of his log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 27 degrees. The afternoon's high temperature was 58 degrees. The sky was fair. The wind was calm for four early morning hours, and then it angled from the east, southwest, and south at 3 to 14 mph, and from 11:53 a.m. to 2:53 p.m. wind gusts ranged from 22 to 26 mph. The barometric pressure was 30.38 at 12:53 a.m., 30.34 at 5:53 a.m., 30.22 at 11:53 a.m., and 30.08 at 3:53 p.m.

The water level looked to be about three feet below normal. The surface temperature ranged from 42 to 43 degrees. The water exhibited an algae bloom and about three to four feet of visibility. This reservoir has been afflicted with blue-green algae blooms this year. Many of this reservoir's shorelines and points are embellished with fantastic patches of winter-dead American water willows, but most of them are more than 50 percent out of the water.

In-Fisherman's Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 5:06 a.m. to 7:06 a.m., 5:25 p.m. to 7:25 p.m., and 11:16 p.m. to 1:16 a.m.

I made my first casts at 12:46 p.m. and the last one at 3:13 p.m.

I was planning to spend most of this wind-blown outing fishing inside a large feeder-creek arm in the lower section of the reservoir. Its shorelines, secondary points, and shallow-water flats were protected from all of the wind gusts. But to my chagrin, the algae bloom was quite intense, and there were two areas where the surface of the water looked like it was covered with several gallons of a greenish-and-chartreuse paint. I spent an hour and 15 minutes probing all of the secondary points, many yards of its shoreline, and some of its shallow-water flats, and I caught only two largemouth bass.

The underwater terrains of the areas that I fished consist of gravel, rocks, and boulders. Silt covers some of the terrains of the shallow-water flats. These areas possess a 20- to 65-degree slope. There are patches of Eurasian milfoil quilting portions of these terrains. The water’s edges with many patches of winter-dead American water willows, many overhanging trees, and numerous laydowns.

The first largemouth bass was caught on a tiny shallow-water flat around a patch of Eurasian milfoil and two laydowns. It was caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s bumblebee Micro Finesse TRD affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead with a slow swim-glide-and-shake presentation near the outside edge of a patch of milfoil in about five feet of water.

The second largemouth bass was caught along a boulder-laden shoreline as I was strolling and employing a drag-and-shake presentation with a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin-goby Finesse TRD affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead. It was caught in about seven feet of water.

I failed to elicit another strike inside this feeder-creek arm.

Initially, I didn’t want to fish any of the areas that Pat and I fished on Dec. 4. But I changed my mind after enduring this trying 75 minutes, and I slowly battled the white caps on the main-body of the reservoir to get to a small feeder-creek arm, which is situated on the other side of this reservoir.

As I entered this arm, I immediately crossed paths with Gail Bessey of Lawrence, Kansas, who is a veteran and talented Midwest finesse angler. We lamented about the wind, algae bloom, and difficult fishing. She and her friend, who began fishing at 11:00 a.m., had caught 13 largemouth bass and accidentally caught three walleye.

For 43 minutes, I fished around one of the main-lake points at the mouth of this small feeder-creek arm, around two secondary points, across a tiny shallow-water flat, and along about a 125-yard stretch of a shoreline. These areas possess a 25- to 45-degree slope. Its water’s edge is adorned with two docks, a few laydowns, and significant patches of winter-dead American water willows. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders that are coated with a few patches of Eurasian milfoil. These areas were not battered by the wind and white caps. The main-lake point yielded one largemouth bass, one wiper, and one freshwater drum. A 40-yard stretch of the shoreline immediately adjacent to the point seven largemouth bass. And the other 85-yard stretch of this shorelines yielded one largemouth bass. One of the largemouth bass was caught on the green-pumpkin-goby Finesse TRD as I was strolling and employing a drag-and-shake presentation in seven to eight feet of water in front of patches of Eurasian milfoil. The others were caught on a slightly shortened Z-Man’s coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead with a drag-and-shake presentation in six to eight feet of water in the vicinity of the patches of milfoil.

In search of another area that was not pummeled by the wind and white caps, I spent the next 27 minutes crossing to the other side of the reservoir and fishing a main-lake point and about a 35-yard stretch of its adjacent shoreline inside another large feeder-creek arm. The underwater terrains consist of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are quilted with a few patches of Eurasian milfoil. The water’s edges are graced with patches of winter-dead American water willows, some overhanging trees, and numerous laydowns. I failed to elicit a strike with my Finesse TRD and TRD TicklerZ rigs, but as I was putting my rods into the boat’s rod box, I made a cast with the bumblebee Micro Finesse TRD and caught a wiper on the initial drop in about five feet of water on the point. Then I made about a dozen more casts with that rig, and I caught one largemouth bass and a freshwater drum as I was employing a drag-and-shake presentation in six to eight feet of water along the secondary shoreline next to the point.

In sum, it was a mega struggle to tangle with 13 largemouth bass, two wipers, and one freshwater drum. The wind is predicted to howl up to 40 mph on Dec. 7, and this old codger will be kept at bay.

Dec. 8

Bob Gum of Kansas City, Kansas, posted a brief on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 8 outing at one of northeastern Kansas’ power-plant reservoirs.

Here is an edited version of his brief

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 47 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature was 56 degrees. The wind fluctuated from being calm to angling out of the southwest, south, north, and northeast at 3 to 12 mph. The conditions of the sky ranged from being cluttered with a few clouds to fair to foggy and misty to mostly cloudy to overcast to light rain, The barometric pressure was 30.16 at 12:53 a.m., 30.20 at 5:53 a.m., 30.23 at 11:53 a.m., and 30.21 at 3:53 p.m. But it did rain while I was afloat.

The water level looked to be about 2 ½ below normal. The surface temperature within the warm-water plume, which is situated in the middle section of the reservoir, was 57 degrees, and outside of the warm-water plume, it was 50 degrees along the riprap shoreline of a road situated in the lower section of the reservoir. The water exhibited about 30 inches of visibility.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 6:16 a.m. to 8:16 a.m., 6:37 p.m. to 8:37 p.m., and 12:06 a.m. to 2:06 a.m.

I began fishing around sunup, which occurred at 7:22 a.m. and stopped fishing at 1:30 p.m.

I crossed paths with just a couple of kayak fishermen at the north end of the warm-water plume, I briefly spoke with one of them who was fishing for largemouth bass, and he hadn’t caught a fish. And I saw one boat around 11:00 a.m., which is an unusual phenomenon on this heavily fished reservoir.

I fished along four steep shorelines inside the warm-water plume and along two riprap shorelines outside of the warm-water plume and situated in the lower section of the reservoir.

During this six-hour and eight-minute outing, it was a struggle to catch 14 largemouth bass, four freshwater drum, and one crappie.

This seven-pound largemouth bass was caught on the TRD HogZ rig.

My two most effective Midwest finesse rigs were a Z-Man’s Junebug TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig and a Z-Man’s molting-craw TRD HogZ affixed to a black 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig. Most of the 19 fish were caught in four to eight feet of water as I was using a swim-glide-and-occasional-twitch presentation.

Dec. 8

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log about his short and wet outing on Dec. 8 at a 63-year-old and heavily fished northeastern Kansas’ state reservoir.

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 62 degrees. The wind fluctuated from being calm to angling out of the west, south, southwest, northwest, and northeast at 3 to 10 mph. The conditions of the sky varied from being foggy and misty to fair to foggy to overcast to mostly cloudy to raining. The barometric pressure was 29.67 at 12:52 a.m., 29.68 at 5:52 a.m., 29.69 at 11:52 a.m., and 29.66 at 2:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about 12 inches below normal. The surface temperature was 44 degrees. My dipstick indicated that the water exhibited from three to four feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 6:16 a.m. to 8:16 a.m., 6:37 p.m. to 8:37 p.m., and 12:06 a.m. to 2:06 a.m.

I executed my first casts at 1:24 p.m., and shortly after that cast, it began to rain lightly. And I fished in the rain until I caught largemouth bass number 25 at 2:52 p.m.

I spent the entire one hour and 28 minutes fishing on a massive shallow-water flat in the back of a major feeder-creek arm. This flat looks to be the size of four or five football fields. Its depth ranges from water as shallow as a foot to as deep as nine feet. The underwater terrain of this flat is embellished with patches of coontail, sago pondweeds, and numerous manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees. A submerged creek channel meanders around the western side of this flat. The coontail and sago pondweeds are in the midst of their wintertime wilt.

I fished around an area about the size of two football fields, which is essentially in the middle section of this flat. After the first 33 minutes, a kayak angler fished this same area.

As I fished, I experimented with six Midwest finesse rigs, which was a tactic that I have never tried.

The most effective one was the 1.75-inch Z-Man’s bumblebee Micro Finesse TRD affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead, and it inveigled eight largemouth bass and one black crappie.

The second most alluring rig was a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin-goby Finesse TRD affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead. It caught six largemouth bass.

The 1.75-inch Z-Man’s Micro bumblebee Shad FryZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead caught five largemouth bass.

The 1.75-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead, which I used only during the last five minutes of this outing, allured three largemouth bass. In retrospect, I wish I had used it more.

A shortened Z-Man’s coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead caught two largemouth bass.

I caught one largemouth bass on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s Micro electric-chicken StringZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead. I used this rig for about six minutes.

One of the largemouth bass was caught on the initial drop of the Tiny TicklerZ rig. The others were caught as I was employing a slow swim-and-pause presentation, which allowed the rigs to cruise along and polish the tops of the patches of coontail and sago pondweeds. At times, a rig would become slightly entangled with a patch of coontail or sago pondweeds, but a slight twitch of the rod easily removed the entangled rig from vegetation, and several times a largemouth bass engulfed the rig a second or two after the rig was unfettered from vegetation.

The 25 largemouth bass and one crappie were caught in water as shallow as five feet and as deep as eight feet.

In sum, I caught a largemouth bass every three minutes and 52 seconds. And I hooked three fish that freed themselves several seconds after the strike. I also elicited four strikes that I failed to hook.

Dec. 11

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, and Rick Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about their Dec. 11 outing at a 91-year-old and heavily fished state reservoir in northeastern Kansas.

Here is an edited version of that log.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 24 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature was 54 degrees. The wind was calm at times, and when it stirred, it angled out of the west and northwest at 5 to 10 mph. The sky was completely cloudless, and the sun was blindingly bright. The barometric pressure was 30.06 at 12:52 a.m., 30.07 at 5:52 a.m., 30:12 at 11:52 a.m., and 30:11 at 2:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about a foot below normal. The surface temperature ranged from 43 to 44 degrees. According to our nine-foot dipstick, the water exhibited more than nine feet of visibility. To our surprise, the submerged patches of aquatic vegetation were quite scanty; the patches of coontail were extremely wilted; the burgeoning patches of curly-leaf pondweeds were quite immature; and the winter-dead patches of bushy pondweeds or southern naiad have been replaced by bright-green and thin wads of filamentous algae.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 8:23 a.m. to 10:23 a.m., 8:50 p.m. to 10:50 p.m., and 2:09 a.m. to 4:09 a.m. And it proclaimed that the fishing would be great.

We made our first casts at 10:52 a.m., and our last ones were made at 2:52 p.m. And we were expecting to tangle with at least 50 largemouth bass, but to our dismay, we struggled mightily to catch 16 largemouth bass and two crappie.

Two of the 16 largemouth bass were caught on an extremely shortened Z-Man’s purple-haze Finesse WormZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig; this rig was three inches long. Four largemouth bass were caught on a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. Ten of the 16 were caught on a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin-goby Finesse TRD affixed to either a red 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig or a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig.

We caught five of the largemouth bass along about a 100-yard stretch of a shoreline inside a major feeder-creek arm.

This shoreline possesses a 20- to 50-degree slope, and it is endowed with a shallow-water flat that is about the size of three tennis courts. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are carpeted with occasional patches of wilted coontail, burgeoning patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, and wads of bright-green filamentous algae. Along this shoreline, the shallow-water flat possesses the most pronounced patches of wilted coontail and tiny stems of curly-leaf pondweeds. The shoreline's water’s edge is graced with substantial patches of winter-dead American water willows, some laydowns, and minor piles of submerged brush.

Two of the five largemouth bass were extracted from the submerged vegetation of the shallow-water flat and many yards from the water’s edge. One was inveigled on the Finesse TRD rig. The second one was caught on the Finesse WormZ rig. They were caught as we employed a slow swim-and-pause presentation that allowed the rigs to graze and polish the tops of the patches of coontail and curly-leaf pondweeds in about five to six feet of water.

Three of the five largemouth bass were caught along the shoreline about 15 to 20 feet from the water’s edge and in about seven to eight feet of water. Along the shoreline, we used a drag-and-shake presentation. One was caught on the Finesse WormZ rig. One was caught on the Tiny TicklerZ rig. One was caught on a Finesse TRD rig.

Six largemouth bass were caught across a massive shallow-water flat inside another major feeder-creek arm. We fished in an area about the size of three football fields. Its underwater terrain is partially coated by some extremely wilted patches of coontail; some young patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, numerous manmade piles of eastern cedar trees, and numerous wads of bright-green filamentous algae.

Two of the six were caught on the Tiny TicklerZ rig. One of those was caught on the initial drop of the rig in the vicinity of one of the piles of eastern red cedar trees and a patch of wilted coontail in about seven feet of water. The second one was caught on a slow swim-and-pause presentation in about seven feet of water around a wilted patch of coontail.

Our Finesse TRD rigs caught four of the six largemouth bass. One was caught around a bevy of wads of bright-green filamentous algae with a swim-glide-and-shake retrieve in about five feet of water. The others were caught with a slow swim-and-pause presentation in about seven to eight feet of water around patches of wilted coontail.

We caught two crappie and five largemouth bass along about a 150-yard stretch of a main-lake shoreline. It has a 25- to 50-degree slope. The water’s edge is lined with significant patches of winter-dead American water willow, some laydowns, and a few overhanging trees. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders that are occasionally endowed with extremely wilted patches of coontail, recently sprouted patches of curly-leaf pondweeds, a few manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees, and some wads of bright-green filamentous algae. It is also embellished with two small shallow-water flats that are graced with patches of wilted coontail, meager sprouts of curly-leaf pondweeds, and wads of bright-green filamentous algae. One largemouth bass was caught on the initial drop of the Tiny TicklerZ rig in about six feet of water around a patch of coontail on one of the shallow-water flats and many yards from the water’s edge. Our Finesse TRDs allured the other four largemouth bass as we were strolling and executing a drag-and-shake presentation in about six to seven feet of water; three of these four were caught around the other shallow-water flat; one of these four largemouth bass was caught along a portion of the shoreline that is devoid of submerged aquatic vegetation.

We failed to elicit a strike around two main-lake points, across a massive shallow-water flat in the back of a major feeder-creek arm, across a shallow-water flat and a shallow-water hump at the mouth of a small feeder-creek arm, and around two secondary points and their adjacent shorelines.

In sum, it was a very trying and disappointing outing. And it is always a difficult chore to compose a log about outings like this one, which is why it took several days to post it. Nevertheless, this state reservoir is still our most bountiful one during 2023.

Dec. 12

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a brief on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 7 outing with Rick Allen of Dallas and a log about his outing on Dec. 12 with Norman Brown of Lewisville, Texas.

Here is an edited version of his brief and log.

During the morning hours of Dec. 7, Rick Allen and I fished at a usually productive state reservoir in north-central Texas. The water was muddy with less than a foot of visibility, the water temperature was 52 degrees, and we failed to garner a single strike.

At noon, we decided to pack up and travel 60 miles to one of several U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ hill-land reservoirs in the Dallas metropolitan area. At the Corps’ reservoir, the water clarity was 18 inches and the water temperature was 55 degrees. We fished for 3 1/2 hours during the afternoon, and it was a grind for us to catch four largemouth bass.

Now that the water temperatures in the federal, state, and community reservoirs that adorn the landscapes of north-central Texas are dropping into the mid and lower 50s, it appears that our dreaded wintertime bass fishing has begun once again.

About 85- to 90-percent of the sky was blanketed with thin wispy clouds on Dec. 12. The morning’s low temperature was 37 degrees. The afternoon’s high temperature climbed to 60 degrees. A subdued wind quartered out of the south-by southeast at 5 to 8 mph. The barometric pressure dropped slightly from 30.39 at noon to 30.31 at 3:00 p.m.

From noon to 3:30 p.m., Norman Brown of Lewisville and I decided to conducted a bank-walking excursion at two community reservoirs in north-central Texas instead of enduring another lackluster outing at a federal or state reservoir.

According to In-Fisherman’s solunar calendar, the fishing was forecast to be excellent, and the best fishing would take place from 3:09 a.m. to 5:09 a.m., 9:24 a.m. to 11:24 a.m., and 9:53 p.m. to 11:53 p.m.

At the first community reservoir, the fishing was stellar, and we enjoyed grappling with 32 largemouth bass.

The water temperature was 54.7 degrees. The water level was normal. The water exhibited 24 inches of visibility.

This reservoir’s underwater terrain consists of mostly small gravel and sand. A shallow sand-and-gravel ledge extends about five feet out from the water’s edge along the north and west shorelines. The north and east shorelines are the steepest of the four, and they possess 30- to 45-degree inclines. The south and west shorelines are flatter with 10- to 15-degree inclines. Their water’s edges are adorned with many bald cypress trees, partially-submerged bald cypress tree knees, and some scattered wood debris such as twigs and small branches.

We started this outing along the west shoreline, and on our first casts, we caught two largemouth bass simultaneously. And during the next 45 minutes, we caught another 21 largemouth bass. These 23 largemouth bass were caught from the deep-water side of the ledge that parallels the west shoreline. They were abiding in five to eight feet of water and five to 35 feet from the water’s edge.

In four to seven feet of water across the deep-water side of the sand-and-gravel ledge situated along the steep north shoreline, we caught two largemouth bass.

We caught five largemouth bass around the submerged cypress tree knees and scattered wood debris along the east shoreline in four to six feet of water and about five to 15 feet from the water’s edge.

And two largemouth bass were caught around the partially-submerged cypress-tree knees in two to three feet of water across the south shoreline.

At the second community reservoir, the fishing was much more difficult. We made scores and scores of casts and retrieves, and we had a difficult time catching four largemouth bass.

The water level was at its normal level. The water temperature was 57.4 degrees. The water’s clarity was 24 inches.

This reservoir’s north shoreline encompasses numerous bald cypress tree knees, several points, and a small brush pile. A shallow sand-and-gravel ledge protrudes about three to five feet from the water’s edge. The west end of this reservoir features a concrete culvert and a shallow ditch that extends from the south end of the west shoreline. Another sand-and-gravel ledge extends outward from the water’s edge, and it continues along the south and east shorelines. These ledges are covered with about a foot or two of water and drop off into three to seven feet of water. The bottom terrain consists of sand mixed with small pieces of gravel. There are several large patches of submerged baby pondweed occupying several shallow-water areas along all of these shorelines.

Along the south end of the west shoreline, we caught one largemouth bass in four feet of water near the end of a concrete culvert and its adjoining ditch. This was the only strike we could generate along this shoreline.

The north shoreline’s patches of baby pondweed surrendered three largemouth bass in four to eight feet of water and 10 to 20 feet from the water’s edge. We failed to garner any strikes from several points, around the cypress tree knees, and along portions of the sand-and-gravel ledge.

We fished only a small portion of the south shoreline, and we failed to elicit any strikes there.

As for lures and presentations, a slow swim-glide-and-shake retrieve with a 4.75-inch Z-Man’s Junebug Finesse WormZ trimmed down to about three inches and rigged on a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead attracted one largemouth bass. A Z-Man’s coppertreuse Finesse TRD rigged on an unpainted 3/32-ounce mushroom-style jig that was slowly dragged across the bottom also tempted one largemouth bass. A slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation with a Z-Man’s mudbug TRD TicklerZ affixed on a 1/16-ounce green-pumpkin-red-flake mushroom-style jig enticed three largemouth bass. A 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s mudbug TRD TubeZ threaded on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig and utilized with a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick retrieve induced six largemouth bass. And a 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin TRD TubeZ matched with a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead and employed with a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick retrieve allured 23 largemouth bass.

In closing, usually the Florida-strain largemouth bass in north-central Texas become very difficult to catch in water that is 55 degrees and colder. But by the time this outing came to an end, we were left scratching our heads trying to figure out why we caught 32 largemouth bass in 54-degree water in the first community reservoir, and only four largemouth bass in the 57-degree water in the second community reservoir. But one thing we do know is that catching 36 Florida-strain largemouth bass in 54- and 57-degree water in 3 1/2 hours is pretty stellar fishing in December in north-central Texas.

Dec. 13

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a brief about his short outing on Dec. 13 at a 63-year-old and heavily fished northeastern Kansas’ state reservoir, where he was the only angler afloat.

Here is an edited version of his brief.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 23 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature was 56 degrees. The wind fluctuated from being calm for nine hours to angling out of the southeast, south, and east at 3 to 7 mph. The sky was fair. The barometric pressure was 30.60 at 12:52 a.m., 30.61 at 5:52 a.m., 30.56 at 11:52 a.m., and 30:47 at 2:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about 12 inches below normal. The surface temperature was 42 degrees. My nine-foot dipstick indicated that the water exhibited about 6 1/2 feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 10:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., 11:20 p.m. to 1:20 a.m., and 5:04 a.m. to 7:04 a.m.

I executed my first cast at 1:16 p.m., and I fished until I caught largemouth bass number 25 at 2:33 p.m.

I spent the entire one hour and 17 minutes fishing on a massive shallow-water flat in the back of a major feeder-creek arm. This flat looks to be the size of four or five football fields. Its depth ranges from water as shallow as a foot to as deep as nine feet. The underwater terrain of this flat is embellished with patches of coontail, sago pondweeds, and numerous manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees. A submerged creek channel meanders around the western side of this flat. The coontail and sago pondweeds are in the midst of their wintertime wilt.

I fished around an area about the size of 1 1/2 football fields, which is essentially in the middle section of this flat.

I caught eight of the 25 largemouth bass on a radically shortened 4.75-inch Z-Man’s purple-haze Finesse WormZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead. This rig is about three inches long.

Seventeen of the 25 were caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/20-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

I temporarily hooked two strikes and failed to hook two strikes.

Three of the 25 were caught on the initial drop. The others were caught as I employed a slow swim-and-pause presentation, which allowed the rigs to graze across the top of the submerged patches of coontail, sago pondweeds, and piles of eastern red cedar trees in six to eight feet of water.

In sum, I was afloat in hopes of locating the source of a leak in the hull of the boat, which I failed to find. But it was delightful to catch an average of one largemouth bass every 3.08 minutes.

Dec. 14

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 14 outing with Rick Allen of Dallas.

Here is an edited version of his log.

I joined Rick Allen at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ hill-land reservoir in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area.

The sky was mostly cloudy with a few brief spells of sunshine. The afternoon’s high temperature was 61 degrees. The morning’s low temperature was 42 degrees. The barometric pressure measured 30.47 at 11:00 a.m., and it fell to 30.31 by 4:00 p.m. The wind angled out of the east-by-southeast at 10 to 15 mph.

According to In-Fisherman’s Solunar table, the fishing was predicted to be average. It also noted that the most productive fishing periods would occur from 4:08 a.m. to 6:08 a.m., 10:23 a.m. to 12:23 p.m., and 10:54 p.m. to 12:54 a.m.

We fished from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

We spent these 4 1/2 hours inside a minor feeder-creek arm on the north end of the reservoir. Except for two other crappie anglers fishing from the bank, we had this creek arm to ourselves.

The water in the main-lake area outside of this creek arm exhibited about 14 inches of visibility. The surface temperature was 51 degrees. The water level was 2.78 feet low.

Inside this creek arm, we were encouraged to find the water clarity had improved to 2 1/2 feet of visibility, and the surface temperature ranged from 59 to 62 degrees.

The submerged terrain inside this creek arm consists of clay and gravel. The creek’s shorelines are steep and bluff-like in the upper reaches of the creek arm, and they become flatter in the middle and lower sections. Countless numbers of flooded bushes, submerged brush piles, partially-submerged laydowns, and submerged stumps adorn the shallows around the shorelines, and with the current low-water level, many of them are either out of the water or nearly out of the water.

We fished from the mouth of the creek arm to its middle section, and the black-bass bite was tediously sluggish. And by the time we had executed our last casts and retrieves at 4:00 p.m., we had finagled only 12 black bass. Eight of them were largemouth bass, and four were spotted bass. We also took a few minutes to speak with the two crappie anglers, and we lent them our digital scale so they could weigh a large one-pound, 15-ounce crappie. They reported that the crappie fishing has been steadily improving in this creek arm, but they had little information to offer in regard to the black-bass and white- bass fishing.

The 12 largemouth and spotted bass that we caught were abiding in five to eight feet of water next to laydowns, brush piles, and submerged stumps that were situated relatively close to the main channel in the center of the creek.

This outing slowly turned into a junk-fishing endeavor. We caught three largemouth bass and two spotted bass on a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man’s pearl Slim SwimZ affixed to either a 3/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead or a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig and a slow-swimming retrieve. One spotted bass was allured on a slow-swimming retrieve with a slightly shortened 2 1/4-inch Z-Man’s space guppy Slim SwimZ rigged on a chartreuse 3/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. Three largemouth bass, including a hefty 4-pound, 10-ounce largemouth bass, were enticed by a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin-orange Baby Goat affixed on a blue 1/10-ounce weedless mushroom-style jig and a hop-and-bounce presentation. One largemouth bass was enticed by a hop-and-bounce presentation with a 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s molting craw TRD TubeZ fastened on a blue 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig. A hop-and-bounce presentation with a 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s PB&J TRD TubeZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead induced a strike from the eighth largemouth bass. And a shortened three-inch Z-Man’s Junebug Finesse WormZ, which was trimmed down from its original length of 4.75-inches, and fastened on a chartreuse 1/30-ounce Z-Man’s Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig tempted the fourth spotted bass. This combo was employed with a slow swim-glide-and-shake retrieve. We failed to entice any largemouth bass or spotted bass with seven other Midwest finesse offerings.

We didn’t fish in the upper end of this creek arm.

Local meteorologists have forecasted rain for Dec. 15 and 16, so we will be off the water for the next few days.

Dec. 18

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 18 outing at two community reservoirs in north-central Texas.

Here is an edited version of his log.

The weather has been fairly mild in north-central Texas. On Dec. 18, the sun was intensely bright, and the sky was clear without a cloud in sight for miles around. The morning’s low temperature was 33 degrees. The afternoon’s high temperature climbed to 64 degrees. A mild breeze quartered out of the northwest at 5 to 10 mph. The barometric pressure dropped from 30.32 at 11:00 a.m. to 30.24 at 3:00 p.m.

I wanted to spend some time becoming more familiar with a community reservoir that my cohorts and I have fished only a handful of times. And when we did fish it, we only fished about half of it each time. During this Dec. 18 excursion, I fished the entire impoundment from 11:20 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.

According to In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar, the optimum fishing periods would take place from 3:11 a.m. to 5:11 a.m., 9:23 a.m. to 11:23 a.m., and 3:36 p.m. to 5:36 p.m. It also noted that the fishing would be poor.

The water exhibited about 12 inches of clarity. The water’s surface temperature measured 53 degrees. The water level appeared to be about three feet low.

This impoundment is crescent-shaped and lies in a north-to-south direction. It is surrounded by several cypress trees, large silver-maple trees, and a couple of large weeping willow trees. The submerged terrain consists of mostly clay. A few small areas are sprinkled with small bits of pea-size gravel and some patches of cypress tree knees. The submerged terrain is also matted with scads and scads of fallen leaves, broken tree branches, twigs, and cypress tree needles.

The upper or north end of this reservoir is shallow and flat. It is endowed with a concrete culvert and a ditch. The ditch serpentines its way from the north culvert southward to a large concrete water outlet drain that is situated on the lower or south shoreline. The ditch doesn’t appear to come close to the east or west shorelines. The east and west shorelines possess several small clay points and shallow ledges along the middle section of the impoundment. The lower end of the impoundment is also fairly flat, and it encompasses a minor cove and a steep clay point at the mouth of the cove. The shallow ledges are covered with about a foot of water and drop off into three to five feet of water.

I caught four largemouth bass in five to seven feet of water along the deep-water side of a clay ledge that parallels the east shoreline. One of them was a 10-inch dink, and the other three measured 15 1/4 to 17 1/2 inches in length. The first one was caught on a 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s California-craw TRD TubeZ affixed on a red 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. The second one was caught on a Z-Man’s Bama-bug TRD BugZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. The third and fourth bass were tempted by a Z-Man’s hot-craw TRD BugZ matched with a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. All of these rigs were employed with a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick retrieve. Time-wise, the deadstick portion of this presentation lasted five to seven seconds.

I failed to garner any strikes from the south shoreline and inside the adjoining cove.

In five feet of water near the tip of a steep clay point located at the mouth of the small cove, I caught one brawny four-pound, 13-ounce largemouth bass. It engulfed a Z-Man’s 4.75-inch coppertreuse Finesse WormZ that was trimmed down to 3 1/4 inches. It was fastened to a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead and was implemented with a slow drag-shake-and-seven-second deadstick presentation. The other two largemouth bass, which measured 15 and 16 ¼ inches, were caught in three to five feet of water near the ends of two small points in the midsection of the west shoreline. Both of them were captivated by the hot-craw TRD BugZ rig and a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation.

I failed to elicit any strikes around the concrete culvert and the sides of the ditch at the upper end of the impoundment.

In sum, I struggled mightily to catch seven largemouth bass in four hours. And though this catch rate may seem paltry to many anglers across the country, it is considered a decent outing for this time of year in north-central Texas.

Dec. 19

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 19 outing at one of several community reservoirs in north-central Texas.

Here is an edited version of his log.

It was a mostly overcast day. The morning’s low temperature was 37 degrees. The high temperature struggled to reach 57 degrees. The wind blew out of the southeast at 10 to 20 mph. The barometric pressure fluctuated from 30.28 at 11:00 a.m. to 30.15 at 3:00 p.m.

According to In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar, the fishing was predicted to be great, and the most optimum fishing periods would take place from 4:03 a.m. to 6:03 a.m., 10:14 a.m. to 12:14 p.m., and 4:26 p.m. to 6:26 p.m.

I fished from 11:40 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. with mixed results by walking around the shorelines of a community reservoir in north-central Texas. It is a different one than the one I fished on Dec. 18.

Upon my arrival at the reservoir, I discovered that the water was dingy with about a foot of visibility. The water temperature was 50 degrees, which is the coldest water I have fished in this fall. The water level was normal.

I started fishing along the lower or south end of the reservoir, which consists of a decorative stone dam, a submerged rock pile, and a small brush pile. The bottom terrain along the base of the dam is covered with softball-size rocks. I slowly dissected this area with several of Z-Man’s Midwest finesse offerings, but I failed to garner any strikes.

After that ordeal, I plied the east shoreline, and it relinquished six largemouth bass. This shoreline is the steepest of the four. It is endowed with two primary points and three tertiary points. These six largemouth bass were scattered about and abiding in five to eight feet of water and 35 to 40 feet from the water’s edge, and I couldn’t determine what they were relating to that far from shore. Three were enticed with a 4.75-inch Z-Man’s coppertreuse Finesse WormZ that was cut back to 3 1/4-inches and rigged on a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. Two were caught on a Z-Man’s hot-craw TRD BugZ matched with a red 1/32-ounce OG Mushroom Jighead. And one largemouth bass was caught on a Z-Man’s Bama-bug TRD BugZ that was fastened to a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. These three combos were employed with a slow drag-and-deadstick presentation.

I failed to elicit any strikes across a shallow mud flat that occupies most of the northern shoreline or from a small feeder creek that enters the reservoir at the west end of this shoreline.

I caught three more largemouth bass along the reservoir’s west-side shoreline, which features three small patches of winter-dead water lilies, a shallow 30-yard clay-and-gravel ledge, one primary point, and three tertiary points. All three of these largemouth bass were abiding in three to five feet of water near the deep-water side of the 30-yard clay-and-gravel ledge in the midsection of the shoreline. The first one was caught on the hot-craw TRD BugZ; the second one was caught on the Bama-bug TRD BugZ; and the third one was caught on the 3 1/4-inch coppertreuse Finesse WormZ. All three of these rigs were implemented with a slow drag-and-deadstick retrieve.

In short, it was a grind to catch nine Florida-strain largemouth bass in four hours.

Dec. 20

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a brief about his short outing on Dec. 20 at a 63-year-old and heavily fished northeastern Kansas’ state reservoir.

Here is an edited version of his brief.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 35 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature was 57 degrees. The wind angled out of the southeast, south, and southwest at 7 to 14 mph. The sky was partly cloudy. The barometric pressure was 30.07 at 12:52 a.m., 30.o9 at 5:52 a.m., 30.15 at 11:52 a.m., and 30:11 at 3:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about 12 inches below normal. The surface temperature was 41 degrees. My nine-foot dipstick indicated that the water exhibited about seven feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 4:43 a.m. to 6:43 a.m., 5:06 p.m. to 7:06 p.m., and 10:54 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

I executed my first cast at 1:55 p.m., and my last one at 3:33 p.m.

I spent the entire one hour and 38 minutes fishing across a massive shallow-water flat in the back of a major feeder-creek arm, which Gail Bessey of Lawrence was also fishing. She is a veteran and extremely talented Midwest finesse angler. She began fishing this flat at noon and made her final cast at 2:30 p.m. and caught 24 largemouth bass. The preponderance of those 24 largemouth bass were caught on a 2 ½-inch Z-Man’s watermelon-white ZinkerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jighead with a slow swimming presentation.

This flat looks to be the size of four or five football fields. Its depth ranges from water as shallow as a foot to as deep as nine feet. The underwater terrain of this flat is embellished with patches of coontail, sago pondweeds, and numerous manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees. A submerged creek channel meanders around the western side of this flat. The coontail and sago pondweeds are in the midst of their wintertime wilt.

I fished around an area about the size of three football fields. At times, the wind was troublesome. And I struggled to catch 14 largemouth bass.

One was caught on a radically shortened 4.75-inch Z-Man’s purple-haze Finesse WormZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead. This rig is about three inches long.

One was caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s bumblebee Micro TRD affixed to a red 1/20-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

Two were caught on a slightly shortened Z-Man’s coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

Ten were caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/20-ounce Z-Man’s Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig.

They were caught as I employed a slow swim-and-pause presentation, which allowed the rigs to graze across the top of the submerged patches of coontail and sago pondweeds. Four were caught as I was strolling and employing the slow swim-and-pause retrieve.

This was the third time that I fished this reservoir this December. During three outings, I fished a total of four hours and 23 minutes and caught 64 largemouth bass and one crappie, which is an hourly average of 14 largemouth bass an hour. But it took me one hour and 38 minutes to catch 14 on this outing.

Dec. 22

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a brief about his short outing on Dec. 22 at a 63-year-old and heavily fished northeastern Kansas’ state reservoir.

Here is an edited version of his brief.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 51 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature was 56 degrees. The wind angled out of the southeast, south, and southwest at 3 to 9 mph. The conditions of the sky fluctuated from being foggy and mist to raining lightly. The barometric pressure was 30.12 at 12:52 a.m., 30.08 at 5:52 a.m., 30.07 at 11:52 a.m., and 30:04 at 2:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about 12 inches below normal. The surface temperature was 43 degrees. My nine-foot dipstick indicated that the water exhibited about seven feet of visibility.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 6:10 a.m. to 8:10 a.m., 6:35 p.m. to 8:35 p.m., and 11:58 a.m. to 1:58 p.m.

This short outing was a pure numbers-hunter endeavor. My focus was to fish until I caught 20 largemouth bass, and I could not fish for more than one hour.

I executed my first cast at 1:38 p.m., and my last one when I caught largemouth bass number 20 at 2:31 p.m.

I spent the entire 53 minutes fishing across a massive shallow-water flat in the back of a major feeder-creek arm, which I fished on Dec. 22 for one hour and 38 minutes. On that outing, Gail Bessey of Lawrence, who is an extremely talented Midwest finesse angler, was also afloat and fishing this flat. She told me it was a struggle for her to catch 24 largemouth bass in 2 ½ hours. Likewise, I struggled to catch 14 in one hour and 38 minutes. Part of our woes pivoted around dealing with the wind, which adversely affected the way we retrieved our Midwest finesse rigs.

This flat looks to be the size of four or five football fields. Its depth ranges from water as shallow as a foot to as deep as nine feet. The underwater terrain of this flat is embellished with patches of coontail, sago pondweeds, and numerous manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees. A submerged creek channel meanders around the western side of this flat. The coontail and sago pondweeds are amid their wintertime wilt.

I fished around an area about the size of 2 1/2 football fields in water that was as shallow as four feet and as deep as nine feet.

To my delight, the wind was not troublesome, which allowed me to fish more precisely than I could fish on Dec. 20.

Two of the 20 largemouth bass were caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s hot-snakes Micro TRD affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

Eighteen were caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/20-ounce Z-Man’s Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig. Three of those were caught on my first three casts.

They were caught as I employed a slow swim-and-pause presentation, which allowed the rigs to graze across the top of the submerged patches of coontail and sago pondweeds.

This was the fourth time that I fished this reservoir this December. During these four outings, I fished a total of five hours and 16 minutes and caught 84 largemouth bass and one crappie, which is an hourly average of 16 largemouth bass an hour.

For many winters, this reservoir has been one of our most bountiful ones. Virtually all of the fish that we have caught when the surface temperature ranges from 38 to 45 degrees have been caught around the patches of coontail and sago pondweeds on this shallow-water flat in the back of this major feeder-creek and around a few other patches of coontail that grace the shallow-water flats inside several other feeder-creek arms. But to our chagrin, the patches of coontail on the other flats are disappearing and so are the largemouth bass that used to inhabit those flats in winters of the past. Thus, scores and scores of Midwest finesse anglers across northeastern Kansas are constantly hoping that the managers of our community and state reservoirs will work on cultivating and manually maintaining vast patches of submerged aquatic vegetation, such as coontail.

Dec. 26

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 26 outing at two community reservoirs in north-central Texas.

Here is an edited version of his log.

It has been raining in north-central Texas from Dec. 21 through Dec. 24, with some locales in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area receiving up to three inches of rain. And the runoff from the rain has muddied many of the waterways in north-central Texas.

The black-bass bite in north-central Texas is now tapering off to its usual winter blahs. For example, on Dec. 21 Norman Brown of Lewisville and I fished at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ reservoir in the Dallas metropolitan area from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and it rained on us almost the entire time we were afloat. We were hoping that the black-bass fishing would be bountiful with the rainy weather, but our hopes didn’t come to fruition. Instead, the fishing was wretched, and we caught only one spotted bass. We also hooked— and lost— another hefty fish that liberated itself before we could see it. The rain has kept us at bay since then.

On Dec. 26, I was planning on fishing at a nearby U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ reservoir, but the weather forecast indicated that it was going to be a windy day. Therefore, I conducted an early-winter bank-walking excursion at two north-central Texas’ community reservoirs instead. These two impoundments are the same ones I fished on Dec. 16, when I caught 16 largemouth bass and 29 large bluegill.

Dec. 26 was bright and sunny. The sky was cloudless and exhibited a light shade of powder-blue. The morning’s low temperature was 28 degrees, and the afternoon’s high slowly climbed to 57 degrees. The barometric pressure measured 30.05 at 10:00 a.m. and 29.90 at 4:00 p.m. A blustery wind blew out of the southwest at 17 to 22 mph, and there were a few 30-mph gusts.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the fishing would be great, and the most lucrative fishing periods would likely occur from 3:17 a.m. to 5:17 a.m., 9:31 a.m. to 11:31 a.m., and 9:59 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.

I fished at the first community reservoir from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I fished at the second one from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the black-bass fishing was much more difficult this time than it was on Dec. 16.

At the first reservoir, the water was muddy from the recent rain and exhibited about six to 10 inches of clarity. The water temperature was 53 degrees. The water level was normal. I shared this reservoir with five other bank anglers.

The upper end of this reservoir, which is a protected waterfowl nesting area, encompasses a large and shallow mud flat. Its shoreline is lined with thick walls of cattails. There is a small feeder creek that enters the impoundment from one side of this area, and I fished a small portion of this creek.

Inside the creek arm, the water’s clarity was about 14 inches. The water temperature was 55 degrees. There was also a slow current flowing through the creek. In the upper end of this creek arm, I caught three largemouth bass and five large bluegill in a pool that is about 15 feet wide, 40 feet long, and two to four feet deep. Its underwater terrain is comprised of red clay, small gravel, and patches of softball-size rocks. These chunky rocks occupy about half of this pool, and the most productive ones lie in the center of the pool in about four feet of water. These three largemouth bass and the five bluegill were bewitched by a scaled-down 3 1/4-inch Z-Man’s black-blue Finesse WormZ that was trimmed down from its original length of 4.75 inches. It was matched with a blue 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. It was employed with a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick retrieve.

After I finished fishing in the feeder-creek arm, I moved to the reservoir’s east shoreline, and I failed to elicit any strikes from a long clay-and-gravel point on the upper end of this shoreline, but I did catch one largemouth bass in five feet of water from the bottom of an adjacent shallow-water ditch. It was caught on a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation with a Z-Man’s molting craw TRD CrawZ rigged on a blue 1/16-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead.

A short distance from the ditch is a broad point with a shallow sand-and-gravel ledge that parallels the point and the remainder of this shoreline. In five to seven feet of water along the deep-water side of this ledge on one side of the point, I caught two largemouth bass. They were caught on a 3 1/2-inch Z-Man’s white-lightning Trick ShotZ that was pared down to 2.75-inches and attached to a black 1/16-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead. This rig was retrieved with a slow-and-constant-shaking presentation. The lower end of this shoreline, and an adjacent concrete dam that forms the lower boundary of this impoundment, were fruitless.

The west shoreline wasn’t as productive as the east shoreline. I was sharing this shoreline with two anglers who were attempting to catch live bait fish with a casting net, and they were making quite a ruckus with the casting net. But along a minor tertiary point located in the middle section of this shoreline and about 30 yards away from the two anglers employing the casting net, I caught one largemouth bass. This largemouth was abiding in four feet of water off one side of this small point, and it was allured by a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation with the molting craw TRD CrawZ rig.

After that, I noticed more anglers were arriving, so I decided to go to the second reservoir.

The second community reservoir’s submerged terrain consists mostly of clay, gravel, and a few small patches of rocks. A large island occupies the upper or western end of this reservoir, and there is a creek channel that parallels the north and south sides of the island. Just west of the island is a medium-sized cove. The reservoir’s north shoreline is relatively straight and flat with a concrete water outlet near the center of this shoreline. The south shoreline is also fairly flat, and it encompasses a couple of prominent points. The east or lower end of this reservoir is the steepest of the four. Its terrain consists of clay and small gravel, and a tertiary point extends from the center of this shoreline.

The water was muddy and exhibited less than a foot of visibility. The water level was about a foot high. The water temperature was 53 degrees.

The fishing at this reservoir was awful. I dissected its most promising features, and it surrendered two largemouth bass. They were caught from the deep-water end of the tertiary point in the middle section of the east shoreline in five to seven feet of water. They were enticed by an 1/8-ounce Z-Man’s black-blue Micro Finesse Jig with a Z-Man’s black-blue TRD BugZ affixed as a trailer on the jig. This rig was implemented with a slow and subtle hop-and-bounce retrieve.

I was unable to elicit any other strikes around several points, the two creek channels by the island, and inside the cove in the upper end of this impoundment.

In closing, it was a grind to catch nine largemouth bass and five bluegill in five hours. Seven largemouth bass and five bluegill were caught from the first community reservoir, and two largemouth bass were caught from the second one. And hopefully, the muddy-water conditions in these two community reservoirs will clear up in the next week or so.

Dec. 29

Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about his Dec. 29 with outing Todd Judy of Denton and his grandson Sam Nugent of Johnstown, Colorado.

Here is an edited version of his log.

From 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Todd Judy of Denton and his grandson Sam Nugent of Johnstown, Colorado, joined me for an afternoon outing at three community reservoirs in north-central Texas. This was also my last outing in 2023.

Sam is an ardent trout fisherman, and occasionally, he pursues largemouth bass at a state reservoir near his home in Colorado. He informed me that the most black bass he had caught in one outing was eight. This was his first Midwest finesse outing, and he quickly caught a largemouth bass on his second cast.

About 20 percent of the sky was adorned with wispy clouds and an abundance of sunshine. The morning's low temperature was 31 degrees. The afternoon's high temperature was 55 degrees. The wind quartered incessantly out of the north-by-northwest at 15 to 20 mph. The barometric pressure dropped from 30.20 at 1:00 p.m. to 30.13 at 5:00 p.m.

According to In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar, the fishing was forecast to be average, and the optimum fishing periods would take place from 6:04 a.m. to 8:04 a.m., 11:52 a.m. to 1:52 p.m., and 12:16 p.m. to 2:16 p.m.

At the first community reservoir, the water exhibited about 12 inches of clarity. The water level was normal. We were disheartened to discover that the water temperature was 50 degrees, which makes it difficult for us to catch the Florida-strain largemouth bass that inhabit the many waterways of north-central Texas.

This reservoir’s underwater terrain consists of sand, small gravel, and some scattered rocks. There are numerous tree limbs, bald-cypress knees, and other wood debris littering the east and south shorelines. A shallow sand-and-gravel ledge extends about three to five feet from the water’s edge, and it lines the periphery of the entire impoundment. This ledge is covered with about a foot of water and drops off into three to eight feet of water. There is no aquatic vegetation in this reservoir.

The black-bass bite was much better than we expected at this impoundment, and it relinquished 15 largemouth bass.

Along the west shoreline, we caught seven largemouth bass; four were caught from the north shoreline; and four were caught from the south shoreline. The east shoreline was fruitless. All 15 of these largemouth bass were abiding in five to seven feet of water and were associated with the deep-water side of the sand-and-gravel ledge. Nine of them were caught on a 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin TRD TubeZ rigged on a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig, four were allured by a Z-Man’s Junebug TRD TicklerZ affixed on a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Z-Man’s OG Mushroom Jighead, and two were enticed by a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin TRD BugZ fastened on a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig. All three of these combos were employed with a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation.

At the second reservoir, we struggled to catch two largemouth bass.

This reservoir’s underwater terrain consists of small gravel and sand. There are numerous tree limbs, bald-cypress knees, and other wood debris cluttering the west and south shorelines. A shallow sand-and-gravel ledge extends about five feet out from the water’s edge along the north and east shorelines. The south and east shorelines are fairly flat with 10- to 15-degree inclines. The north and west shorelines are the steepest and have gradients of 30 to 40 degrees. Most of the water’s edges are adorned with bald-cypress trees and partially submerged bald-cypress tree knees. The upper end of this impoundment is graced with several large patches of submerged baby pondweed.

The water exhibited about 18 inches of clarity. The water temperature was 51 degrees. The water level appeared to be normal.

We caught these two largemouth bass from the lower end of the impoundment in three to five feet of water near the deep-water side of the shallow ledge. They were beguiled by the 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin TRD TubeZ rig and a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation.

We failed to elicit any strikes around the submerged patches of baby pondweed and three minor points near the pondweed beds in the upper end of the impoundment and a ditch in the lower end of the impoundment.

At the third impoundment, we caught four largemouth bass.

This reservoir lacks any significant visible features. The shorelines are adorned with cypress trees and weeping willow trees. There is a shallow ledge that parallels the perimeter of this impoundment, and portions of the ledge are cluttered with cypress tree knees. There are two minor points in the reservoir’s midsection and one major point in its lower end. There is also a small concrete water outlet and a small cove in the lower end of the reservoir. The underwater terrain consists of sand, gravel, and mats of dead leaves and twigs. This reservoir is bereft of any submerged aquatic vegetation.

The water temperature was 51 degrees. The water level appeared to be normal. The water exhibited about 14 inches of visibility.

We fished in the lower end of the reservoir that we shared with three other anglers, and we caught these four largemouth bass while fishing behind those anglers. These bass were caught from the deep-water side of the submerged ledge in three to five feet of water. Three were caught on a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation with the 2 3/4-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin TRD TubeZ rig, and the other one was enticed by a Z-Man’s green-pumpkin TRD TicklerZ matched with a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig and a slow drag-shake-and-deadstick presentation.

Overall, it was a good outing to introduce Sam to the many virtues of Midwest finesse tactics. We relished catching 21 Florida-strain largemouth bass in water temperatures that ranged from 50 to 51 degrees, which is considered a difficult task in north-central Texas. Most of them were keeper-size, and we estimated that the two largest ones would weigh in the two-pound-class range.

Fifteen largemouth bass were caught from the first community reservoir, two were caught from the second community reservoir, and four were caught from the third one. It was a nice ending to our 2023 black-bass endeavors.

Endnote

The black-bass fishing in north-central Texas was more difficult and not as bountiful in 2023 as it was in 2022. We caught 449 fewer bass in 2023. Here are my catch results for 2023 compared to my 2022 catch rates:

2023:

Total Bass Trips for 2023: 80

Total Hours Fished: 354.5

Avg. Total Bass/Trip: 20.23

Avg. Total Bass/Hour: 4.56

Total Bass: 1,619

Largemouths 843

Smallmouths: 434

Spotted Bass: 338

Hybrid-Spotted Bass: 4

2022:

Total Bass Trips for 2022: 81

Total Hours Fished: 382.0

Avg. Total Bass/Trip: 25.53

Avg. Total Bass/Hour: 5.41

Total Bass: 2,068

Largemouths 1,181

Smallmouths: 533

Spotted Bass: 343

Hybrid-Spotted Bass: 11

Dec. 29

Ned Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a brief about his short outing on Dec. 29 at a 63-year-old and heavily fished northeastern Kansas’ state reservoir.

Here is an edited version of his brief.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 35 degrees, and the afternoon’s high temperature was 50 degrees. The wind angled out of the northwest at 12 to 16 mph with occasional wind gusts from 23 to 26 mph. The conditions of the sky fluctuated from being overcast to fair. The barometric pressure was 30.04 at 12:52 a.m., 30.02 at 5:52 a.m., 30.04 at 11:52 a.m., and 30:01 at 2:52 p.m.

The water level looked to be about nearly normal. The surface temperature was 41 degrees. The water exhibited somewhat of a yellowish hue, which might be the byproduct of the 1 ½ inches of rain that fell upon its watershed recently, and my nine-foot dipstick indicated that it exhibited about four feet of visibility, which is a significant decline from Dec. 22.

In-Fisherman’s Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 11:44 a.m. to 1:44 p.m., 12:09 p.m. to 2:09 p.m., and 5:57 a.m. to 7:57 a.m.

I executed my first cast at 12:48 p.m., which yielded a largemouth bass, but by the time I made my last cast at 2:48 p.m., my fish counter revealed that I had struggled to catch 12 largemouth bass and four crappie.

I spent the entire two hours fishing across a massive shallow-water flat in the back of a major feeder-creek arm. I suspect that some of my piscatorial woes pivoted around dealing with the wind, which adversely affected the way I retrieved my Midwest finesse rigs. What’s more, fishing for largemouth bass in cold water is usually much more bountiful when the water is virtually crystal clear, and from my perspective, the yellowish hue of the water on this outing inhibited my ability to elicit a significant number of strikes and hook at least 10 largemouth bass an hour.

This flat looks to be the size of four or five football fields. Its depth ranges from water as shallow as a foot to as deep as nine feet. The underwater terrain of this flat is embellished with patches of coontail, sago pondweeds, and numerous manmade piles of eastern red cedar trees. A submerged creek channel meanders around the western side of this flat. The coontail and sago pondweeds are amid their wintertime wilt.

I fished around an area about the size of 3 ½ football fields in water that was as shallow as four feet and as deep as nine feet.

One of the 12 largemouth bass was caught on a shortened Z-Man’s Junebug TRD TicklerZ affixed to a chartreuse 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

One of the 12 was caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s green-pumpkin Tiny TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/20-ounce Z-Man’s Micro Finesse ShroomZ jig.

Four of the 12 largemouth bass were caught on a shortened Z-Man’s coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

Six of the 12 were caught on a 1.75-inch Z-Man’s coppertreuse Micro TRD affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

Most were caught as I was strolling with the wind and into the wind and employing a slow swimming presentation that allowed the rigs to traverse across the tops of the submerged patches of coontail and sago pondweeds.

This was the fifth time that I fished this reservoir this December. During the past several years, it has been our most bountiful cold-water reservoir in northeastern Kansas. During these five outings, I fished a total of seven hours and 16 minutes and caught 96 largemouth bass and five crappie, which is an hourly average of about 13 largemouth bass an hour. Of course, I struggled to catch six an hour on this Dec. 29 outing.

Dec. 30

Ned and Pat Kehde of Lawrence, Kansas, posted a log on the Finesse News Network about their outing on Dec. 30 at an 84-year-old northeastern Kansas' community reservoir.

Here is an edited version of their brief.

The National Weather Service reported that the morning’s low temperature was 30 degrees. The afternoon's high temperature was 51 degrees. The sky fluctuated from being fair to mostly cloudy to partly cloudy to fair again. The wind angled from the west and northwest at 3 to 13 mph. The barometric pressure was 30.05 at 12:53 a.m., 30.02 at 5:53 a.m., 30.03 at 11:53 a.m., and 29.97 at 2:53 p.m.

The water level looked to be about one foot below normal. The surface temperature ranged from 40 to 41 degrees. This reservoir has been periodically bombarded with various kinds of algal blooms in 2023, and minor remnants of these blooms were apparent during this outing. The water exhibited four feet of visibility. Many of this reservoir's shorelines and points are embellished with fantastic patches of winter-dead American water willows, but most of them are partially out of the water. Several of this reservoir’s shallow-water flats and shorelines are graced with burgeoning patches of Eurasian milfoil, which are in the midst of their wintertime wilt. In our eyes, these patches of Eurasian milfoil are a godsend to the piscatorial world, and we are hoping that this reservoir’s managers will learn how to manually maintain them rather than employing aquatic herbicides.

In-Fisherman's Solunar calendar noted that the best fishing would take place from 12:40 a.m. to 2:40 a.m., 1:02 p.m. to 3:02 p.m., and 6:51 a.m. to 8:51 a.m.

We made our first casts at 12:30 p.m. and our last ones at 2:57 p.m.

Patty’s favorite outings are the ones we call bass fishing for trout. Thus, we decided to bass fish for trout during our last outing of 2023.

To do this we wielded a 1.75-inch bumblebee Micro Finesse TRD affixed to a red 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead and a Z-Man’s coppertreuse TRD TicklerZ affixed to a baby-blue 1/15-ounce Micro Finesse ShroomZ jighead.

The Micro Finesse TRD rig caught one largemouth bass and seven rainbow trout. The TRD TicklerZ rig caught one trout and 13 largemouth bass. By the way, five of the 13 largemouth bass were hefty ones, which was an unusual feat for us, because we are numbers hunters rather than lunker hunters.

We caught one trout and three largemouth bass along about a 45-yard stretch of a shoreline inside a small feeder-creek arm in the lower half of this reservoir. This shoreline possesses a 30- to 40-degree slope. Its water’s edge is lined with patches of winter-dead American water willows and two docks. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and a few boulders, which are occasionally quilted with meager patches of Eurasian milfoil. The three largemouth bass and the trout were caught in the vicinity of the patches of Eurasian milfoil in about four to six feet as we were executing a drag-and-pause presentation along the outside edges of the patches of milfoil.

We caught three largemouth bass and one rainbow trout along about a 125-yard stretch of a shoreline inside a large feeder-creek arm in the upper half of this reservoir. This shoreline possesses a 25-degree slope. Its water’s edge is embellished with four laydowns, a beaver hut, and winter-dead patches of American water willows. The underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are adorned with some significant patches of Eurasian milfoil. Two of the three largemouth bass and the rainbow trout were caught around the patches of Eurasian milfoil in about four feet of water while we were employing a swim-and-pause presentation. The third largemouth bass was caught around two of the laydowns and a patch of Eurasian milfoil in about four feet of water on the initial drop of the presentation.

We caught one largemouth bass around a main-lake point in the upper half of the reservoir. It possesses a 45- to 60-degree slope. Its underwater terrain consists of gravel, rocks, and boulders, which are occasionally endowed with some meager patches of Eurasian milfoil. The largemouth bass was caught as were strolling with a slow swim-and-pause presentation in about five feet of water around some Eurasian milfoil.

Around three main-lake points and short sections of their main-lake shorelines in the upper half of the reservoir, we caught seven largemouth bass and six rainbow trout. We caught them along the flatter and shallower portions of these points and shorelines. The underwater terrains of these locales are comprised of gravel, rocks, and boulders, and some of them are enhanced with patches of Eurasian milfoil. One of the trout and two of the largemouth bass were caught on the initial drop of our rigs; the trout was caught in about 2 ½ feet of water, and the two largemouth bass were caught in about three to four feet of water. One largemouth bass was caught on a swim-glide-and-subtle-shake presentation in about five feet of water in the vicinity of the outside edge of a patch of Eurasian milfoil. The other rainbow trout and largemouth bass were caught as we used either a drag-and-pause or drag-and-subtle-shake presentation in four to six feet of water in the vicinity of the patches of Eurasian milfoil.

Pat Kehde with one of the five hefty largemouth bass.

In sum, we caught 22 fish, which was an average of about eight fish per hour, and five of the eight fish were largemouth bass. Even though it wasn’t a bountiful outing, it was a delightful winter day to be afloat and to enjoy some conjugal angling for largemouth bass and rainbow trout for two hours and 27 minutes and a charming way to mark the end of our piscatorial endeavors for 2023.

Throughout 2023, we fished 91 times for a total of about 296 hours. We caught and immediately released 131 smallmouth bass and 2573 largemouth bass. We enjoyed three outings when we caught 101 largemouth bass in two hours and 50 minutes on April 26, 110 largemouth bass in three hours and 48 minutes on Oct. 4, and 115 in 3 ½ hours on April 17. We averaged 29.7 black bass an outing and 9.1 black bass an hour. While we were fishing for these black bass, we also accidentally caught bluegill, channel catfish, crappie, flathead catfish, freshwater drum, green sunfish, longnose gar, pumpkinseed, rainbow trout, redear sunfish, temperate bass, yellow perch, walleye, and warmouth, which were fun to catch, but we do not possess the wherewithal to calculate how many of these species we caught.