Buzzbait Saturday Morning

Loaded the BARF (BARe aluminunum Floater) - my 12' Alumacraft this
morning, and met my buddy Jon Johnson at Willow Crk Res, on the out
skirts of Rochester at 5.30. Willow is a 67acre electric only (carry
in) flood control reservoir built in the early 90's.

We got the boat in the water - it was cool, about 57F, mist rising off
the water, a slight breeze. While getting the boat in, I watched a LM
come to the surface several times. The BARF has been upgraded since
we last fished Willow - it now sports sonar - a Zercom RTS that I
picked of over the winter.

Jon threw a buzz bait, got a strike, but the fish missing. We worked
our way along the dam, casting at and along the edge of the slop.
Since it was still fairly dark in the water (sun had not peeked over
the horizon yet), I was throwing my Midnite Snack SW, covered with
a Junebug tube. Got a hit on it, but like a rookie, I didn't set the
hook.

When we reached the outlet structure, Jon hooked a small LM, maybe
9". It was a fish, broke the goose egg as he put it.

We turned to the W shoreline, coming across the what we named Park
Bench Bay. I told Jon I had picked up a bass here earlier in the
summer. I no more than spoke, and Jon casted a buzzbait to the edge of
the slop. The water exploded, fish on. Jon did a very nice job of of
bringing in a 15.5-16" LM to the boat, on a 5' ultra light rod, with I
learned, 2# test mono! Fish was CPR'ed - but not measured - so its a
guess. Very nice fish. Jon then picked up another small fish, then I
connected on my buzz bait - and got a chunky 13" LM. I had modified
all of my no-name buzz baits to work like the SW buzz bait I got from
Joe a couple weeks ago, using SW blades and a stinger hook. The fish
was hooked on the stinger.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery Joe. Sorry - no fish on
the SW, but my no-names sure performed like them this morning.

What breeze we had ended - leaving the water looking like glass.
We continued down the shoreline, watched a whitetail doe bring her
fawns to drink, and evaded a Blue Heron who was trying to capture
our buzz baits. Oh yeah - we got more fish - most in the 9-11 inch
range.

The BARF came to a halt, the skeg of the TM grounded in the shallows.
We turned SE, and watched the fish rise among the slop. I brought us
around a clump, and got a solid strike on the outside edge. This fish
went 16".

The S shoreline showed some rock at the edge, and a narrow band of
slop. Jon had several strikes, and missed, I made a back handed cast
that I thought was for not, no where close to the slop, and well out
in to the "deeper" water - about 8'. Half way back, a LM came up and
slammed my buzzbait. I set the hook, and it went airborne, our only
arieal fish of the day, clearing the water by a foot and half. Then it
went deep, and finally came to the boat. Another solid 16" fish.
With its picture taken, it went back in to fight another day, as did
all the fish we caught.

By this time it was 8.45, and we both had other things to do, so we
headed back to the landing. Jon picked up one more small fish in the
shade line of an oak tree along the shore. It was number 20 of the
morning.

Admittedly most the fish were small, but they were fun to catch, and
4 were good ones. The 16"s I would have been happy to weigh in
anywere.

Was a good morning to be out.

Jim