Despite the ice storm a week ago, we found the fish biting at Melody on the morning of the 17th of February.  Southerly breezes raised surface temps to 59 degrees, and we caught bass after bass!  The biggest was 20.5 inches, a fat 5 lb female, but we caught several other nice ones as well.

A weak cold front came through that afternoon and the bite slowed, but the next day things picked up a bit with several good fish up to 18.5 inches.

Patti and Isauro were great hosts, as usual, and it was fun to see the newest additions to the ranch, the pigs (and piglets).  Patti explained these are Heritage pigs, much fattier and tastier than modern ultra-lean pork.  She also mentioned their beehives and the honey they expect to gather this year—get some when it becomes available, you’ll thank me!

The lake is at full pool, though water stopped flowing into it on Tuesday.  It is still quite cold at depth, we had little luck on faster presentations such as crankbaits and topwaters.  In general, the slower the better.

The brushpiles look great and we had some luck around them.  Perhaps as a result, we saw far more yearling bass than I’ve ever seen before at Melody.  It is loaded with 5 - 6 inch bass that would never have survived before without some place to hide.  If we keep harvesting, there should be some awesome fishing as the 2013 class grows up!

Speaking of harvesting, we kept 32 bass up to 14 inches and one large crappie.  We threw back a few nice bluegill.  Patti was able to share the kept fish with people who needed food, which made us feel good.  I’m guessing the 32 fish probably weighed around 20 to 22 pounds all told.

We did not observe signs of bedding anywhere.  I suspect it will begin fairly soon unless old man winter shows up again.