Finally something worth reporting!

[bluebasser86]

Peter and I got to Belcher Branch around 5am Wednesday to give that lake a try. Nice little lake with lots of weeds and standing timber. It was a little slow until it got light enough to see what we were doing, then we got on them pretty good with a buzzbait and frog. I got a good fish on the buzzbait at 19 inches and 3.34lbs.

Caught them pretty good until the sun got up higher, then they shut down almost completely. After catching maybe 5 in 2 hours we tossed the boat back on the trailer and crossed over state lines to try Warnock Lake in Atchison. I hadn't fished it in a few years but it used to have good numbers of solid fish. The bright green water and stink from the local hog farms didn't inspire much confidence but we were quickly catching fish, although they were much smaller than I remembered they were very healthy and scrappy. It's only about 30 acres so it didn't take long to make a lap and we did good enough to go around a second time. I picked up a crankbait for the first time and got smacked while I was pulling through a brushpile on the dam and landed a very fat 18" fish that went 3.9lbs.

After getting that one I was inspired to try for a bigger fish so I put a 10" black and blue worm on and started pitching it into the numerous brushpiles. Towards the other end of the lake I stuck a good fish on the worm. Almost 19" long and 3.8lbs.

That was it on the bigger fish but I had a fish that felt really solid come off on one of my homemade jigs right before we left. She was big enough to make a big boil on the surface despite being 2 feet down in a brushpile that I couldn't get her out of. It was nice to get more than one good one for the first time in a long while!