Deeper

The plan was two-fold:
Drop into the river for an evening fish and then trade my boat in for waders and try to find some white bass in shallow.  Boat in tow, I headed out to fulfill this plan.  When I crossed the bridge and peered over the railing the plans changed.  Green and chuffed up.  There was no way I was going to spend my evening cleaning algae off of my line.  No way.

New plan.

I did a quick u-turn at the river boat ramp and headed back west and north to the nearest boat access on the south side of the lake.  The wind had been blowing from the north at a decent clip for the better part of two days and the south shore looked like it.  Prop washed weeds and greenery lapped the shore with each wave.  Despite the debris, the lake water looked fairly clear, so I launched.

I headed north across the lake looking for clear water and at the mid-lake line I found it.  I have been thinking for a few weeks about fishing deeper, giving a go at something other than shallow water sight fishing and it was at that moment that I decided today was going to be that day.  I dropped the E-Tec into an easy idle and pulled up a lake map on my phone.  I was looking for something interesting in the contour depth lines and spotted a relatively quick drop that seemed to be a reasonable place to try.

The Lake Nav app coupled with my depth finder put me on the spot in short order and I dropped anchor in 8.4' of water.  I was rigged with a floating line, 10' leader down to 0x and a 3.5" chartreuse and white clouser.

I got a bump on the second cast.  On the 3rd cast a fish picked up on the pause and came tight on the strip.  I was pleasantly surprised to boat a decent crappie.  Five casts later and it happened again.  Somewhere between the 4th and 5th crappie a 26" pike tried to digest the fly but thankfully I lip hooked it and I was able to release the fish and save my fly.  The 6th crappie was followed a white bass and then a cigar of a walleye.  Then another crappie.  The second walleye, a 2 pounder, that ate the fly wiggled free as I was trying to get the lens cap off of my camera. 

And so my evening went.

By the time I was done, the clouser was pretty well destroyed.

As much as I love sight fishing, there is a certain thrill in shooting fish in a barrel. 
Even if the barrel is deep.