Reservation Number : 25754
Property Name : Lakota Lake
Reservation Date : 09/11/2020 All Day -
Total Fish/Sizes : 37 from 8" to 3.5#
Lures Used : finesse worms, Crankbait

Ron Dupree, Bob Scheidemann, and I fished Lakota Lake for the first time on Friday the 11th under partly cloudy skies, temps in the 80's, and a light breeze.  This is a beautiful property as a whole and the lake has a variety of factors favorable for bass habitat.  While much of the lake is 5-8 feet deep, there are several deep holes (we saw up to 17 feet) and several flooded steep-sided ravines.  Much of the shoreline has emergent vegetation, there isn't much submerged vegetation, and there are shallow areas (< 2 feet) particularly up some of the smaller arms.  The landowner has added a number of brush piles to augment the laydowns.  The design of the lake coupled with professional management should be a winning combination. As a bonus, you get to observe wildlife while fishing.  We observed a bald eagle, a herd of deer, and a group of wild swine.

Bob launched his kayak then we launched Ron's bass boat from the graveled ramp with no problem. Two quick topwater bass were the extent of the day's topwater action. We initially concentrated on the shorelines using a variety of topwater baits, lipless crankbaits, chatterbaits, underspins, Texas-rigged worms, and wacky Senko worms. We found little interest in moving baits and only caught six bass on them, two in the morning and four in mid afternoon. We had somewhat better success with worms fished adjacent to the shoreline vegetation or on the brushpiles.  Bob discovered the winning pattern for the day, finesse curley-tailed worms fished with very little weight, and pulled two bass of 3.25#-3.5# each out of some brushpiles. Ron and I caught a few now and then but many were 6'"-8" long who excelled at biting off worm tails or creature-bait appendages.

After a lunch break in town, we got back on the water and confirmed that the finesse curley-tail worm was still the best producer. Later in the afternoon, frustrated that Ron and Bob were doing a better job of hooking the nibblers than I was, I tied on a deep-diving crankbait and caught three bass (largest was 3.25#) by slowly grinding on the bottom. Unfortunately, that bite died quickly.

Our final tally was 37 bass among three fishermen: half were 10" or less, the largest three were 3.25-3.5#, and Ron caught more than Bob or I did.

This is a beautiful property that holds promise for satisfying days fishing in solitude.  It may take another trip to figure out its secrets!