With this run of Indian Summer, I knew I was going out this morning, I just wasn't sure where. Based on reports, it sounded like I had several good options in mind, but I ultimately decided to hit Stissing Mountain Lake. This lake is on the small side, shaped like a three-leaf clover. It is lined around the outside with weeds, lily pads, reeds and other vegetation. With the exception of a few humps, this slopes relatively quickly to a bowl-like interior of about 25 feet deep. The vegetation has died off considerably, but not completely yet. I decided to try deep points and spots where the remaining weeds were closer to the dropoff.
I got on the water about 9 am (slept in a bit
), and fished till about noon. There is a spot just to the right of the launch which has produced all summer, lots of lily pad beds. The pads have almost died off and the dropoff at this point is more gradual, so instead I headed straight to the Pine Plains town beach, where the dropoff is steeper. I did get one good hit here on a perch/chartreuse spinnerbait with a double blade, but it was light and ultimately got off (I know, trailer might have helped, but I seldom use one.
) I tried to see if this pattern would keep working, but no more hits, so I went to a deep point across from the beach. Tried slow rolling the spinnerbait on the dropoff, right about where the "live" weededge was. This produced one bass, typical of what I have been getting in this lake, about 1.5-2 lbs. So at least the skunk was off. The wind at this point was enough that I was forced to sort of do a controlled drift. I wanted to try a jig-n-pig, but with no anchor I couldn't fish that slowly.
I went around the point into one of the "leaves" of the clover. This was protected from the wind, but unfortunately the dead weed muck was so thick, I quickly gave up. Back to the opposite side of the point, where I know there is a hump about 30 feet off shore, one of the only ones in this lake. An orange crayfish pattern Rat-L-Trap fished past this hump produced another nice 2 lber, and two casts later a similar one hit light and got right off. I kept trying around this deeper point but saw my time was winding down (had things to do back home), so I headed towards the shore where the beach and launch are. Caught one more to the right of the beach on that chartreuse spinnerbait, then saw I was in the ten minute warning and decided to try the spot near the launch with all the lilypads, just for old time's sake, before packing it in.
I started casting the crayfish Rat-L-Trap again, parallel to the dropoff, which does exist at this spot, it just isn't as deep. On what I figured was one of my last casts of the day, I started cranking, and ZZZZZZ went my reel. Whatever this was, it was bigger than the average fish I had been catching. After several bulldog runs, she finally reared her head and this was the biggest fish I have ever seen on this lake, so I'm yelling "Geez you are huge" to nobody in particular, while praying the hooks would hold because I could see she was hardly hooked at all. Two more runs and I lipped this beauty, and reached for a scale. My scale is a cheap one, but she ran 19 inches, was shaped like a football, and the scale said just over 4 lbs. :beerchug: Sorry, I don't have a digital camera yet, believe me today I was wishing I did.
Considering I've only fished this lake this year, I was very happy with the results today: only 3 hours on the water, 5 or 6 fish, and the biggest one a 4 lber. I'm headed out Monday too and was thinking about going someplace else, but now maybe not.
:beerchug:
