The Structure Cafe

The season is coming to a close, and it will be a wet one. Several days of heavy rain is expected, then a drop in temperatures that will finally get us below the freezing mark for perhaps a week or longer according to models. Still, if you can manage to get out before things get too bad, there are still fish to be had.

This past Tuesday had fellow Spoonplugger Lee Dilley and I out on Cataract Lake chasing crappie. A little cool in the morning, but turned out to be a great afternoon, with over 125 fish being landed.

Then on Thursday (Christmas Eve), I snuck in 3 hours of fishing before having to chase around and meet up with family. Managed a nice mixed bag of fish including largemouth, white bass, crappie and a decent walleye. Already started working on my deep water game for next year, spending about half the time in 25' or more of water. The walleye came out of nearly 35,' the deepest water in the lake, and the crappie were only 5'-7' shallower in 28'-30.'

I awoke to temps just below freezing and a brisk wind already beginning to kick up. Normally I don't get out too early on weekends, but today was special. When David Erdly messaged me and said he'd be passing through the area this weekend and wanted to see if we could get out for a bit, I jumped at the chance. David has trained under John and Denny, along with spending time in the boat with several other top notch Spoonpluggers, so I certainly didn't want to miss a chance to share a boat and pick his brain a little. As Buck has said, "the more I learn, the more I see there is to learn." Today would be no exception.

I saw skim ice on the far upper end of the lowland reservoir we were planning on fishing today as I drove by on my way to the ramp. I met David at 10:20 and we bundled up in our cold weather gear and launched the boat in 34 degree air temps. Water clarity was good and surface temps read 42-43 degrees on the main lake. After discussing some mapping stuff I had been doing on the lake, and letting the engine warm up, we headed out after bass. After a quick stop to vertical jig in the deepest water in the lake around some large schools of shad we had marked, we headed on toward the dam and began our quest.

We ended up focusing on several different structures including the dam, a large rockpile sitting on a breakline into deep water, as well as several very steep wintering banks (green book, pg. 15, fig. 4). Throwing a mix of jerkbaits, blade baits and jigs, we managed to bring 54 bass to the boat by the time we pulled back into the marina less than 4 hours later. By then the air had warmed to near 50 degrees, but the lake was white-capping something fierce with the 20 mph winds the weatherman promised.

As expected, David was a wealth of knowledge and a great guy to fish with, and having such a good outing just days before Christmas in Indiana on open water was a real treat.

Some pics from the day to share, follow.