A friend and I fished Melody in Friday/Saturday the 27/28th of April.

The lake level is down about six inches from last time and water is no longer flowing over the dam.  Lots of emergent weeds, but oddly not much submergent—we almost never brought back any moss or weeds on our lures, a real blessing.  Water had some stain but you could see bottom down to about 2 feet.

The winds howled almost incessantly with only a mild respite early in the morning.  Despite, or maybe because of the wind, the fishing was good.  My buddy tore them up on a topwater Jitterbug, unusual for Melody, and I had nice action on a plastic worm.

We harvested 19 bass smaller than 15 inches, also one crappie.  All told that makes 87 bass harvested on my Melody trips this year!  Biggest fish caught was very close to 20 inches, many were in the 15 to 16 inch range.

This was my last chance to compete in the Big Bass tournament, and I knew from past experience that every so often Melody will give up a monster.  So it proved, as I hooked a submarine that slowly but irresistibly stripped most of the line off my reel before thrashing at the surface halfway across the lake.  Visions of victory briefly danced through my brain and then…nothing.  The hook had pulled out.

Oh well.  I won’t win the tournament, but I did have the fun of fighting a giant.  And she’s still there, so maybe I’ll get another shot next year!