Rice Lake July 4th Weekend

[diggyj]

For the first weekend in July, I must say that the weather is still yet to be where everyone expects it to be. After getting up to the cottage on Friday afternoon, the wind was pretty strong and the waves were whipping up. I knew that this was going to be a busy weekend on Rice as the CSFL was having there 2 day tournament running. Normally the start from Bewdley but this year they started from Hastings. I thought that was cool as I never ventured to Bewdley to catch any tournament action. Friday nights sunset was nice as usual.

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

Saturday morning was pretty cool and the wind was very strong and the waves where once again whipping up wth some small whitecaps. Just after 7am the first wave of boats came thundering through my area and then again 15 and 30 minutes later.

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

I can recall seeing one boat in particular get airborn and I thought it was going to flip.

I didn't venture out to fish on Saturday as fishing was tough due to the high winds and waves. This is what some of the anglers said when I talked to them from my dock. The ones I talked to said action was slow and some caught nothing to that point in time. I went for a drive to Hastings and saw all the boats in a line come in around 3 pm. Pretty cool sight but I forgot my camera.

Saturday nights sunset was nice but still didn't venture out. Casted my Clackin' Rap off my dock for a bit and managed to land a Rock Bass.

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

Finally made it out on Sunday morning for a couple of hours and the wind was still there but conditions were much better than on Saturday. Here are a few shots from some of the action. Asked a boat about day 1's leading weight and they said it was 19 lbs, WOW.

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

After being on the water for about an hour and a half, I decided to change over to a 5" Berkley Hollow Belly Split Tail Swimbait in the Arkansas Shiner Colour. I was casting in about 9 FOW and all of a sudden I get a hit but I miss it. I see the flash swim away slightly so I quickly pitch underhand to the same spot and as soon as it hits the water I see it just engulf the swimbait. Turns out to be a nice 17" Smallmouth that weighed in at 2.12 lbs. What made it more gratifying was the fact that there were 2 tournament boats right beside my and I was proud to catch something in front of them.

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

Capped the pre-lunch hours off with a couple of cold ones. Happy 4th of July.

By diggyj, shot with DSC-W5 at 2009-07-05

Dirk.....

 

[ec1]

awesome report dirk! I just can't believe you could stay at the cottage and not fish for two days that you were there 8)
I would have probably driven around to a bunch of shore spots to fish

We were there early in the morning at that spot right?

 

[frozenfire]

nice report!
I wanted to hit rice on the weekend too, but read that there was a tourney going on and said "forget about it!"

 

[diggyj]

Yes we were at that spot but it was nice on calm on Sunday morning.

Tournaments really aren't that bad, I kind of enjoyed seeing all the boats and chatting with the pros. It really is over-rated from a busy stand point. Sure there are lots of boats on the lake but the lake is so big you really only see a handful at a time and you never have more than a couple close by.

They stay out of your way. Give good tips which I like. I usually ask them all what is 1 tip you could share and they all oblige.... 8)

Dirk...

 

[frozenfire]

It's from more of a 'there are less fish to be caught' standpoint hahaha
I find that the fish throughout the lake get hammered and need time to recover after a tournament.
Experienced this the last 2 years fishing on Rice and found way less fish during/immediately after tourneys.
Best day on Rice last year me and the girlfriend landed 30-40 2lb and up largemouth in a few hours of fishing 8)
Figured out the pattern and started hammering a weedline producing fish endlessly it seemed like!

Worst days were when we didn't know a tournament had taken place and we would sometime be close to being skunked. That's why I always try to do my research and try to figure out tournament schedules before heading out... to save headache.