White Lake D&R 2024 - Part 1

Here we go back to White Lake after a weak tournament and an even weaker practice. I’d been severely distracted by salmon jigging so I knew practice was going to be a struggle. I wasn’t going to have a full day to dedicate but I had a couple of ideas that I needed to get out of my head. I accomplished ruling those ideas out and caught 4 or 5 bass. I did see a couple of encouraging things and only had 1 bite that actually meant anything. I also never found and salmon in White Lake which was a huge bummer. But it is White Lake and I wasn’t going to lose any confidence that we were going to catch them. White Lake is one of those places where it is often better to keep an open mind and just let the fish tell you where they want to be on that particular day anyway. I felt that if we could get a couple good bites early that it wouldn’t be hard to get some quality filler fish.

I also had a special guest this event since Trevor was fishing the college National Championship on Lake Hartwell. It had been a minute since Bryan Plenzler and I had a chance to fish an event together or just go fishing at all. So regardless of how practice or the tournament before went, we were going to have a good time. This was one time I wanted a good boat number to gamble on some stuff I don’t really like fishing. I about fell over when we got boat number 4. We were going to be pointed toward the channel and I was going to have to dig more rods out of the rod locker. Even being boat number 4, I knew we wouldn’t get what I wanted. Between 3 other boats ahead of us and all the pier guys salmon fishing there wasn’t going to be much space. But if we could just get one big one out there it might make our day.

It was a show just like I expected. Salmon guys all over and they had every right to be there. I fish off the pier plenty and I am not getting in anyone’s way who is fishing off the bank. If you are there first than you by all means have claim to it, in a boat or not. If it is something I really want to fish I might ask if I can make a couple casts there and then move on. There was definitely one altercation out there between pier anglers and bass guys although I’m not sure if the pier guy was even there first. I heard that he just walked in and claimed some space but who knows. Channels and salmon season are going to be a mess. I was also surprised at the boats that just kept pulling in there to go between people. I’m not really one to fish in environments where I can make a cast and you can make a cast and our lines can get tangled. It did seem like everyone was being civil but it was really stupid.

The only thing we hooked in there was a drum and then I promptly got a wind knot trying to make the next cast. That was the last straw and we were out of there. We stopped on some really deep weeds next and immediately caught one. It was a 15 incher though so it really didn’t even count. But it went in the livewell for morale. It was already getting hot and incredibly still. The worst of the worst White Lake conditions. I pulled up to the next spot where I have been able to catch one on the outside of a coontail clump every single time. I went to cast and got another wind knot, drifted over it, and caught 0 fish. The next few spots produced more of the same and another wind knot. It must have been a sign to put the spinning rods down and it was seeming like it was going to be one of those days. It would take a lot more than that to get me spinning out though. It was so still and hot that the senkos came out. I wasn’t giving in to catching a limit or anything though. I knew that would come so my senkoing consisted of a 7 inch bait with a baitcaster and straight braid. Unfortunately the fish biting it were about the same size as the bait but it was some instant action. I was just kind of moving around and looking for a clue, not fishing specific stretches or spots because I really didn’t have anything that I really wanted to be on. We picked up 2 more keepers that didn’t mean anything pretty quick and then got into some thicker stuff. The first bite on that was a 3 pounder and maybe the clue we were looking for. If that fish wasn’t a fluke we were going to catch some fish.

15 minutes later and another one over 3 came aboard. Alright now we were working with something even though it was 3 hours into the tournament and we finally had a limit. I was continuing to poke around that area and saw a fringe patch that I just had a feeling about. Many times in the past a similar set up has produced some big bites. Being on the edge and a little isolated sometimes just attracts those bigger fish. We got lucky and one of the right ones was there. This one actually put up some resistance and I could see it down there digging under the boat. After a couple tense moments it was in the net and the hook just fell out. I assumed this one was probably close to 4 pounds, it was short but super stout. 2 more solid bites and we were going to at least get paid. I felt really good about getting at least some 2.75 pounders off some high percentage spots that we weren’t going to touch until later. It’s still troubling me a bit but I made a mistake on the next bite. I thought I felt something on the fall but went to verify it when I should have just set the hook. Hooksets are free and not taking one there cost us. Who knows how big that fish was but the average size was over 3 pounds on the last 3. We missed 3 more moving around in that area but ever since that first flipping bite I had been thinking about an area that was similar. It wasn’t just any grass that we were getting bit in. It had to have a certain look and density. The fish also weren’t schooled up which was unfortunate but not surprising given what we were looking for.