Lake Mendota

Sunday Morning Conditions: Winds N 15-20 mph, Mostly Sunny, 58 deg water temp.

I got out on the water this morning for a few hours. The last two weeks have been, quite honestly, pretty slow for me on the Madison Chain. But, I was confident going into Sunday that the bass would be spawning soon. With some extended cool Spring temperatures, the spawning is about 3 weeks behind schedule. Sunday morning, I noticed almost immediately that there were more beds present than the weekend before. It took a while for the sun to come up, however, to positively identify some fish on the beds. Prior to sight fishing, I covered water with a Carolina-rigged 6” lizard. The beds I found in one particular section of Mendota were fairly deep, located 8-12 feet deep. I could barely see bottom in about 10 feet of water, so I switched to pitching white lizards and white lightning-colored Gambler Flappy Daddys (a crawfish-imitating plastic) to the beds. Although I could not see a fish engulf the bait, I was able to see the bait disappear. The other challenge I realized in fishing beds that deep was the subtlety of the bites. The smallmouth in the photo I submitted with this report is the stereotypical male that has already moved shallow. It measured just shy of 16 inches long. With another couple days of 80 degree-plus temperatures, I would expect bigger females to move on up. By morning’s end, I caught 10-12 fish in total. In no case, did I find a bed occupied with a pair of smallmouth.

Carolina Rig: Dobyns Champion 703C with 17 lb Suffix Siege and 14 lb Suffix Fluorocarbon leader. Watermelon colored 6” lizard.

Flipping Rig: Dobyns Champion 735C with 17 lb Suffix Siege. White Lightening Gambler Flappy Daddy.