Claytor, 21 AUG 2016

[31airborne]

Went out for a few hours after spending most of the weekend working in the yard. Needed a little 'me' time. Was hoping the threat of rain would keep the rec boaters away. Was thrilled to find the state park marina lot almost empty.

Put in a bit before safe light so I spent the first hour or so working a couple of main lake points just up from the state park. I started off w/ a topwater but no takers. Switched to a suspending jerkbait and it was game on. Had been wanting to experiment w/ a jerkbait in warmer water after watching KVD smoke the field w/ one during one of the MLF events. I targeted the same places I'd hit w/ the spook. Was rewarded on the third cast - solid keeper LM. Continued to work that same point until the sun came up over the trees.

Motored uplake to hit a few main lake cuts/coves. Started off w/ a jig on the main lake points and found fish willing to eat it almost right away on chunk rock and large laydowns. Was a strange bite tho'. The fish had to peck off the claws on my trailer before they'd eat the jig. I had to make 3 or 4 casts in some cases before they'd get it good enough for me to set the hook on'em. I switched to a fluke (weightless, TX rigged) for the smaller laydowns and brush and found plenty of fish willing to eat that. Again, the bites were kinda weird. Had to make multiple casts into the same spot before they'd eat it good enough to get a hook in'em.

I used these same patterns all the way back downlake to the state park, stopping at several cuts/coves along the way. Jig on chunk rock and big laydowns, fluke on smaller wood and brush. These bites held up everywhere I went. No big fish (my best 5 were maybe 7-8 lbs) but a ton of fun. Was good to find the fish in a feeding mood.

Observations: 1) Water temps ranged from 80 at the state park ramp to 82 uplake near the 660 bridge. Water had a slight stain but you still had -4' of viz just about everywhere. 2) There are huge pods of baitfish in the deeper coves and feeder creeks. Some of these pods were bigger than my boat. I didn't see any feeding activity deep but I did see some topwater schooling action in a couple places. 3) Just about every piece of wood had a fish on it today. 4) 4-7' was the magic range today. Smaller fish were up closer to the bank, better fish were holding at the first break. 5) Green was the key color for jigs and trailers today. My jig skirt had a little orange in it. No takers on black/blue. 6) No takers on moving baits aside from the jerkbait bite. 7) Wind blowing across a point or stretch of shoreline was better than wind blowing directly in on it.

Not bad for a summer outing on Claytor. It's usually a lil stingy. The cloud cover and light winds helped keep it cool. The lack of boat traffic was the best part.

peace,
B

[Lipripper]

Thanks for the report and looks like you had a great day of fishing. I like it without all that traffic.

[Princeton_Man]

Thanks for report Brian! Claytor sounds like it hasn't changed much since I was there last. You have to introduce me to Philpot sometime.