By Chris Erwin
The water on Cave Run Lake in Morehead, Ky. finely managed to return to near summer pool, and last weekend I figured it was about time for me to get out there and give it a try. My son Scott was with me and I thought I would share our trip with my readers.
Once we got into the fish camp and got unpacked, we headed down to the water to spend the evening fishing. The lake looks a little ragged for this time of the year. I have seen Cave Run high a lot but with 18 straight days of rain and the lake climbing to 12.5 feet over summer pool in late July, I have to say it has been a very unusual year. It has left the lake with dying trees, brown grass and gobs of new trash.
The water had good color and was a lot cooler than you normally see it in August, so we piled in the old bass boat and fired her up and headed for one of our favorite spots. From the reports I had been getting, the fish were on the points early and late in the day while midday they were staging at about 12 to 15 foot on the first or second break.
What we did was to go to a spot where we know of an old roadbed that runs close to the channel, so we had a quick drop from about six feet to about 18 feet. This place also had a lot of new trees with the tops running out into the deeper water. We figured this place had about everything in the way of structure we needed to try to locate some active fish.
We started going through crankbaits and spinnerbaits to hit the right depth, color and action. It wasn’t long before we caught a few fish. With the stained water, a bone-colored medium running crankbait started producing.
One of the surprising things that became apparent pretty quickly was the crappie were hitting the crankbait just as often as the bass and the crappie were large, in the 12-14-inch range. This was another unusual thing we don’t see every day.
The crappie may have been large; however, the bass were not. The bass were in the 10 to 14-inch class and while they were taking our bait with regularity, the size proved to be a little disappointing. We kept telling each other we were going to nail a big one sooner or later. After catching and releasing 40 bass we still didn’t have a big fish come to the boat.
Presentation was everything using this pattern. Once the bait hit the water, you needed to pull it under the water and twitch it, let it float back toward the surface then start the retrieve. Many of the strikes came just as we started the retrieve, while the crappie hit the crankbait near the boat as the bait was coming up.
So many people think that this is just an exercise in casting and retrieving. It’s not. If you approach it that way, you are going to have very limited success.
All lures are inanimate objects. They have no life except what you put in them.
I often tell people just getting into the sport to think of fish the same way you would if you were playing with a cat and a string. The little things you do with a string playing with a cat, which gets their interest and triggers them to pounce on the string, is much the same as when casting out your bait and trying to get a fish to strike your lure.
This was very true this past weekend when we were casting our crankbaits — teasing the fish as soon as the lure hit the water, then stopping and twitching the lure once it reached its maximum depth all played a part in producing strikes.
When you take the time to play with your presentation, you will take your fishing to a new level. It will build your confidence and improve your focus.
Take it from a guy who for the last 45 years has been chucking and winding the biggest lure in your tackle box. It’s all about confidence. If you believe you are going to catch a fish it puts focus in your corner. Your attention and presentation skills will improve a hundred fold. The people that think fish in all about luck are the people that come up empty.
Get out there and give it a try and send your pictures to me! I will try to use them in our fishing report each week. Until next time, take a kid fishing and keep your lines tight.
Chris Erwin is the Author of Camping Kentucky, founder and publisher of Kentucky Angling News an on-line magazine available at www.kentuckyangling.com/magazine Chris can be reached by email chris@ashlandbeacon.com
Be the first to comment