What a wild weekend, weather-wise. Yesterday (August 12^th) started out calm and humid, with a cloudless sky. The lake was full, the water temp was 87^°, and visibility was limited to about 3 feet - normal, in other words. I knew that it was going to be a hot day, so I had planned to retire to the Yates cabin at noon to cool off and grab a short nap. I started fishing at first light, and picked up one just under 16" on a Whopper Plopper. Then a few quick small fish on weightless, wacky-rigged Senkos and two on a Bomber Fat Free Shad squarebill – all before the sun topped the pine trees. Senko color didn´t seem to matter -  I caught them on black/blue flake, watermelon/red flake, and green pumpkin/black flake. Right at 8:00. I caught a 4-01 and a 4-14 on two consecutive casts over the same brush pile on the shad Whopper Plopper. After a 2-hour dry spell, I finally boated a 4-07 on a 7-inch, watermelon/red flake, T-rigged Senko. All three of those 4-pounders had huge heads, but were very thin. Unfortunately, that one was the last fish I had on all day (I did miss several small fish on a HB frog). Around noon, I headed for the cabin, starting out again at 3:30 after a nap. It was hot, but not nearly as brutally humid as the morning had been. Around 4:00, it started sprinkling from one small cloud overhead. Within 20 minutes, the gully-washer was up to full strength. At one point, I couldn´t see the Yates´ home from the dam. As is normal, both my rain suit and manual bilge pump were in the car, dry as could be. I´ve never been fishing in a rain that hard – but at least it didn´t hail! The lightning held off until I was about 200 yards from the ramp, but then started loudly cracking overhead. I’m glad it was cloud-to-cloud, and not cloud-to-graphite rods! By the time I passed the Yates’ home, there was so much water in my little pond boat that the trolling motor shorted out, and I had to use my kayak paddle (a great investment) to make it the last 50 yards. It was 4:30 by then, and I had had it. I wasn’t cold, but was soaked. All I could think of was getting inside and safe from the lightning. Obviously, I made it. It was far from my best day at Yates’ Place, but at least I was safe. DeWayne told me later that it had rained 1.79” at the house, all in 30-45 minutes. I believed him! I enjoyed watching two whitetail does and a fawn after dinner last night. It was really nice and cool out, and the humidity was way down.

It rained almost as hard on my way home this morning.

What worked:  5" and 7" Senkos, white Fat Free Shad; a shad-patterned size 130 Whopper Plopper, HB frog

What didn’t:  Rattletraps, single-spins, chatter bait, buzz baits, swim baits, creature baits, 12” Ol’ Monster worm, 12” Mann’s Jelly Worm, jig & pork eel, Huddlestons, Ned rig

Posted By: Tom Dillon