Fishing Report Archives

Hey y’all from the Excel 230 Elite. Hot-hot-hot! It looks like this heat is about to break for a few days. I know it has made for some miserable time on the lake.

When I look at the surface temperature on my Humminbird Solix and it says almost 93 degrees, that’s too hot. That was before noon on Tuesday. I saw where the Hancock Biological Station was recording an all-time surface temperature this week. It is a strange sensation to try to unhook a fish and the fish is warm to the touch!

The calendar is about to roll over to August but traditionally we don’t get any relief from the heat until mid September. I’m ready already.

The lake has been relinquished to the pleasure boat crowd for the most part.The boat ramps are pretty much empty of fishing boat rigs.

I was out earlier this week scouting for, then fishing, a guide trip with a Grandad and his two Grandsons from Iowa. It was their first trip to our area and they were thoroughly enjoying it. The boys had never pulled planer boards and they seemed concerned when we started. It took them no time to be having fun with them.

My Humminbird screens were constantly showing baitballs and larger fish that mostly ignored our crankbaits. We did end up with some keeper yellow bass and nice crappie. A largemouth about 4 pounds added some excitement when it was hooked with well over 100 feet of line out.

I have been seeing some nice catches of yellow and white bass along with bluegills. Obviously some fishermen are taking advantage of the cooler parts of the days to get on the water. These fish are being caught on deeper drops near deep water.

School will be starting soon and the boat traffic during the week will slow down. Maybe the guy in a wake board boat who thought it was a good idea to pull his skier 100 feet off the launching ramp while my boat was tied up to the courtesy dock will not be an issue soon. No wake zones get equal treatment to stop signs any more. They are there as a suggestion for somebody else. I just wish I had my phone handy so I could make him famous.

Be careful out there. Cooler weather will be here soon but so will lower lake levels. Many more boats are damaged in the fall on our lakes when folks who ran their boats in summer lake levels fail to realize the fall levels can be 4 feet less. Gremlins don’t discriminate and stumps or rocks aren’t going to get out of your way.

Welcome to our slice of Heaven.