Fishing Forum

Hit Lincoln Beach this morning with a buddy from work. This time he didn't stand me up. We arrived at 6:00 and launched from the boat ramp just after it began to get light. Skies were mostly overcast, it was warm and muggy and the gnats and midges were out, but not as bad as they were a couple of weeks ago. Water temp. was 76.6 degrees.

I started out casting a floating jointed rapala and a prizm shad producer along the edges of the rocks and the doc in the "harbor" and channel that leads out from the boat ramp, hoping to score a Largemouth bass or other nice fishy. There were quite a few fish active in the water, possibly baitfish being chased by predators or possibly baby white bass cruising around, but they would hit the surface in mini boils once in awhile. That got me excited hoping there were lots of predators around herding them around. Didn't get a single strike.

After I left the channel and headed into the main lake, I switched to a 2-way swivel with one hook holding a fresh piece of carp meat and the other a half a nightcrawler. I slow trolled out North of the jettys into deeper water. Didn't mark very many fish till I was quite a ways out in about 7 feet of water. I stopped there and let the bait sit for awhile with still not a bite.

My buddy was casting small spinners ang jigs for white bass with no luck either. I then decided to head west towards the reeds to see if any kitties were cruising along the outside edge. I haven't fished much at Lincoln, but what I found out about the bottom contour was pretty cool. As I headed west towards the reeds, I passed over several "humps" where the water depth would rise from 6 or 7 feet sharply up to about 3 feet deep for maybe a distance of 10-15 feet, then drop sharply back down to 8 feet again. It was weird. Then, right against the reeds is only 2.5 feet deep, but 20 yards out from the reeds is a channel that is 8 feet deep.

I thought with all the nice dropoffs and rocky bottom contour it would be a good fish holding area, and I did mark some fish there, but still did not get a hit. Not in the deep, not in the shallow. Headed back in around 8:00 am to go home for work, and ironically, I finally got some hard hits back in front of the docks near the boat ramp!! It felt like either a bluegill or baby white bass was trying to shake the worm off the hook, cause it never did fully take the bait, and if I'd stop moving and let it drift to the bottom the fish would let go, but if I started up again after 30 seconds or so I'd feel a succession of nibbles. The little guys ended up robbing me of half or more of my worm but didn't stick a single one.

It was still fun to get out and enjoy the lake, even though my legs were dead tired by the time I paddled back into shore. I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of folks at the Aug. 19th Lincoln Beach Flotilla at night.
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[size 1]"As I headed west towards the reeds, I passed over several "humps" where the water depth would rise from 6 or 7 feet sharply up to about 3 feet deep for maybe a distance of 10-15 feet, then drop sharply back down to 8 feet again."[/size]
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[size 1]The very reason many props are dinged or worse around Lincoln Beach.[/size]
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[#505000]Lincoln is one of my favorite holes but it has been crap lately. I don't know what the deal is (I suspect the baby carp/whities/walleye are in the lake now by the bajillions and are making for heavy forage for the larger fish) but I hope it turns around here soon.[/#505000]
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Sorry to hear the bite has dropped off. Might I suggest you try the evening bite. This year I have found it to be FAR more successful if your targets includes kitties.
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Thanks for the info. everyone. I agree with what has been said. I think this entire year there have been far fewer mudders and far more channels being caught (not complaining about that). I too noticed the floating clumps of green algae on the water. Inside of the two jettys by the boat ramp it is especially thick because the wind cannot disperse it there, so it gathers more thickly. Out in the open lake it is not as thick.

I also noticed that there were few or no carp anywhere to be seen in the channel or along the shore. I'm sure some of the deeper fish that I marked were probably carp, but usually in the early mornings you find them sunning near the surface. Now if a CARP won't even hang around, you REALLY gotta wonder what's goin on! They could live in motor oil and still survive I think!

I still plan on hitting the night gorilla flotilla regardless to hopefully score a kitty or two.
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[cool]Hey Don, I know that you target those monster K's at UL pretty often, so I was wondering if you've gotten any nice ones this summer. When I say nice, I mean anything over the 5 lb. range. Maybe everyone's just keeping a tight lip on it this summer, but there haven't been any reports on this site of 10 lb type cats being caught by themselves (other than one from CBR a couple months back of getting a couple of 11 pounders).

Have you caught any over 5 lbs this summer?
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