Oakwood Lake Leon: 3/29 & 3/30

Apr 02 2012

Sean Wilcheck

Fry

Member Since :
2012
Number of Posts :
8

Arrived around noon in Oakwood on the afternoon of 3/29 to rain and more rain.  Met the owner Tom at the gate and he was a very nice and helpful host.  Showed us around and we got acquainted with the place.  Finally got out to fish about 3 and seemed as though things just weren't going our way to end this week trip we were on.  Hooked the trolling motor up to the boat provided and found that it didn't want to work.  So we started to paddle.  Hit the first cove with a bunch of lily pads working a weed less frog, and we got slammed hit after hit, but couldn't get hooked up.  They were knocking it out of the water and we probably missed 20 or so blow ups, but it kept our interest and we were determined since a couple were slight misses and you could obviously tell they were really good fish.  Ended up catching 4 that afternoon 3 that were 2.5-3 lbs and then this big girl my wife landed.

It was awesome to see my wife's face when she came out of the water trying to throw the hook.  Only bad part is we left the keys at the truck and didn't have any other keys to take a picture with.  LESSON LEARNED. She measured out at 21 3/4 to 22, as we really didn't want to keep her out of the water too long.  Put her back in and she swam off to fight another day.

We had a comfortable night and woke up to a calm morning, paddled back out to the same spot and had the same type of action.  Missed about the same amount of blow ups, but no really big fish that morning.  Only landed two, one right at 3 lbs and this one that was right at 4.5.


Had a great time and looking forward to trying again at hooking up with another big one.  Im fairly certain there are some big fish in this lake.  We had some huge blow ups and just by the size of them, and the brief drag that was pulled from the reels, we missed some really good fish.

Posted by: Sean Wilcheck

Apr 02 2012

Steve Alexander

Keeper

Member Since :
2010
Number of Posts :
415

Sean,

I hope you had a great time during your week long anniversary trip. Getting a good hook set with frogs can be a bit tricky. Do not use Flourocarbon line as it sinks, but rather braid or mono. When the fish blows up on the frog, the natural reaction is to set the hook. Instead wait for the line to get tight, often 2 seconds and then set the hook. Most anglers set the hook way to early, if you wait your hook ratios should increase to 50% or better.

Apr 02 2012

Sean Wilchek

Fry

Member Since :
2012
Number of Posts :
8

Yea, that is what the problem was in the beginning.  We were using braid, so we were good there.  For the most part, about 60% of the time due to the wind, I was paddling through the pads, watching the wife have a good time.  I just about enjoyed that as much as having my own line in the water, and for never bass fishing before, it was a work in progress, but she started to figure it out.  Been a very long time since I fished lily pads, much less a frog.  After a little thinking about it, and me trying to explain to her what was happening, we figured out what we were doing wrong and were able to land a few fish.  Getting back into the game has been fun though for just the first few outings.  Thanks again!

Apr 02 2012

Phillip D. Chapin

Slot Fish

Member Since :
2005
Number of Posts :
227

hey sean, i caught a 10lber there a couple of years ago, so yes there are a lot of big ones there… one tip i learned when fishing a frog across the lilly pads and the bass are just slaping at it.. my dad taught me this many years ago. if the bass are slaping then move the lure, or frog, faster and they wont slap at it they will attacked it . it really does work on bass that want take it. make sure when you try moving the frog faster you do what steve suggested. that is once they hit let it hold for a couple seconds then when you feel the fish on a tight line, set that hook. i normally fish very slow but once again if they are just slaping , speed it up