Prairie Lee Fishing Report August 1, 2019

Trip Details:

• When: 8-1-19 from 5:45pm to 8:45pm on Prairie Lee Lake
• Air temp: low to mid 80s
• Water temp: 84.5 degrees
• Water clarity: Stained, 10-12 inches of visibility
• Weather conditions: between storm fronts moving in and out of area, mostly cloudy, slight E/NE wind for most of evening
• Target species: Largemouth bass

Baits used:

• Topwater: frog, Strike King Sexy Dawg
• Finesse: Ned rig with PBJ Zman TRD, jig and pig, plastic worms

Equipment used:

• Lews Speed Stick Combos ranging from 6’7 to 7’4, light to heavy action
• 50 pound braid for topwater frog (no leader), 8-pound fluoro for Ned rig

Notes:

Major cool down compared to earlier in the week. We were in-between storms moving around the area. A very enjoyable night to be out with not many bugs.

Going into it, I had a feeling it might be tough. We missed the really good window of fishing right before the storm that came through the night before.

Prairie Lee has always been a great Ned rig lake, or just general finesse, bottom crawling baits. We began on the east bank where the docks begin. Almost immediately, I had a decent channel come up and attack the Strike King Sexy dawg topwater bait I was throwing. I had never seen a catfish do that before on a topwater bait. He missed it twice, but that was the most action we had along that bank. Interestingly, small white bass were coming up intermittently chasing shad in front of the first couple of docks. No takers there either.

We transitioned to the dam pretty quickly and caught a couple sunnies in the west corner. As soon as we came around the corner of the bluff, we started to have some action on small bass.

The outlet area was unproductive unfortunately. I think we may have hit it a little early around 6:30pm. Seems like after 7pm is when bass move up in that area. I have caught numerous keepers there with swimmers who hang out in the corner. Literally have caught nice bass when the people are just lounging in the water less than 20 yards away. The same swimmers have been there the last two times I’ve fished Prairie Lee.

The first big bite came at the right yellow pin in the photo above. It was sitting on a drop off in about 7-11 feet of water. I drew a white line where the ledge is approximately, but it’s not exact. Use your electronics to find it. He smoked the PBJ Z-man TRD paired with the 1/10th oz Z-man Ned head.

The second big bite came at the left yellow pin on the point. It was also along the drop off of the point on the same Ned bait. Awesome fight, but it was the only nice one to come from there.

Tyler’s Final thoughts:

The bite was tough, but I expected that in the middle of these storms. The smaller profile baits again outperformed the larger ones, like jig and pigs, by a long shot. No topwater bite to speak of whatsoever.

Luckily, boat traffic was at a minimum, but there were two boats pulling skiers on the north end that created large wake for the better part of an hour.

The Jackson County Parks ranger was waiting for folks to get off the water by about 8:45pm. He was very friendly. I asked him the reasoning for the gates closing so early and opening so late in the mornings. He just said in the past there have been lots of “riff raff” that like to hang out there that put boats in late and end up bothering the residents.

However, he did say the county parks director is very open minded if a group of people submitted a request for the park to open earlier during the summer. It sounds like there may be potential to get some signatures together and petition for an earlier open time for a limited number of days. May have to utilize LSAF to pursue something like that if folks are interested.

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