Lily Lake

Late post.  First time out this year on Lily (Wednesday, 13 March).   Eight bass, two crappie, and a bluegill.   The best bass was about 2 lbs and the smallest is pictured, along with an extremely aggressive bluegill that hit (or got hit by) a lipless crank.   I thought that it was too early in the year for red, but Wondertucky1 out fished me with a red lipless crank.  Only one bass was caught on a medium-diving crank (citrus/pearl) and the others were caught on a soft stickbait (pumpkinseed).

Possibly our last day out on soft water Lily this year.  We started late afternoon, trolling around and casting artificials.  Slow bite with only two bass (one pictured) and a crappie on crankbaits.  We then anchored for crappie, but did not use minnows this time.  We vertical-fished using 1/16 oz tubes, 1/8 and 1/16 oz marabou jigs.  Wondertucky1 tipped his marabou jigs with "Magic Bait" crappie bites and I did not.  Jig colors used were black/chartreuse, pink/white, and white/chartreuse. Tube colors used were chartreuse/pearl and green pumpkinseed.  The type of bait and color didn't seem to matter, nor, if the jigs were tipped with a "crappie bite" or not.  The depth of the lures seemed to be more important.  We watched the graph and adjusted the depth of our lures.  We ended our vertical fishing event with 20 crappie; the two best over 15 inches (both caught by WT1).  All fish caught were returned to the water safely.   Hope this year's ice fishing season lasts more than two days . . .   

     The lake has changed again.  The docks/piers are put away for the winter, but that wasn't the biggest change.  The lake's vegetation has dropped significantly and boaters have access to almost the entire lake without weeding up.  With that said, the productive weedlines were more difficult to find.  
     Quantity over quality today, but still a good day.  Team total of 31 fish, 16 fish (15 bass and one crappie) trolling around throwing artificials and 15 fish (11 crappie and 4 bass) anchored using minnows.  Biggest fish while casting was a 2 lbs 2 oz bass caught on a medium diving crankbait (hand-painted gold and pearl).  No picture because I got cocky and said that we’ll catch bigger ones today; we didn’t catch anything over 2 pounds again and that was the biggest one for the day.  Wondertucky1 pulled in this 15” black crappie on a jig head tipped with a minnow.  I’ll end with the individual scores; Wondertucky1 with 13 bass and 3 crappie, me with 6 bass and 9 crappie.  So, he out-fished me by just one fish . . . but who’s counting?  We both were . . .  

Not our best outing . . . actually one of our worst on Lily.  Six bass; all but one, under a pound.  Five reaction strikes in four foot water, using a lipless crank and one on a spinnerbait through the weed beds.  The largest bass was less than two pound and hit a popper.  We didn't take pictures because they were not picture-worthy, but I did post one we caught earlier this year out of Lily.