WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER

Writing these columns is kinda like going to church. I just have to be as honest as I can be. My point is, if the bass were hitting on hard boiled eggs and you asked me what they were biting on, I'd have to tell you hard boiled eggs. Now you might look at me kinda strange and I'd understand. But I would also tell you to go to the bank with it. They're biting on hard boiled eggs. Period. And please understand, there aren't any egg producers out there looking to sponsor me. That could change this whole story.
 
This past week-October 7th to be exact-I did my weekly check of my spots on Lake Harris and, while I didn't find anything waiting for me to toss them an egg, I did find a whole lot of tournament size fish in numerous locations ready to inhale my fourth offering of the day.

October has been, and continues to be, a month I look forward to every year.It seems that in October, hurricane-active or not, the waters finally begin to cool a little, the fish begin moving a little more in the early mornings, and a reaction strike seems just a little easier to provoke.  On this trip the air was cool, the surface temerature right at 77 and the water was dead calm. I started out with some topwater stuff; A Booyah Frog worked quickly over some pad areas, a white Zoom froq twitched and paused, and a trailer-tipped silver spoon. I got a couple of nice blow ups on each
but missed them all. I'm still not sure if I had a case of the early morning caffeine enhanced YIPS or if the fish were just near sighted. A good way to wake up no matter what.

My next move was to work the edges of the pads with a lipless red eye shad in chrome and blue. I got two decent keepers in rapid succession and both came nearly the second the bait hit the water. Might I be on to something here? Hmmm.
Two more smaller fish on the shad. But what I did next  clearly goes down as what I will call "my move of the day".

I'm not normally a big thinker when it comes to a morning out on the lake by myself but this summer I've really been working hard at recognizing the subtle changes that can lead to an amazing day.  Today it was finally, finally coming togoether.

Lake Harris has some totally awesome areas along its shorelines, canals, and residential areas. Not all hold quality fish but some are scary good. Today I was an area that's produced before but this was different.The summerlily pads had grown thicker. The water levels were higherand the vegetation had come back. Eel grass was back and it looked like it hasn't in a long time.It was time to put it together.

My final bait of the day was a Strike King KVD Caffeine shad. It might as well have been a cast net.
In the next thirty minutes I would hook and land 6 fish that would weigh about 30 pounds. I broke one off that seemed larger when it jumped and spit the hook. And every fish except one hit within two feet of where I cast. It was absolutely scary good and it was absoultely a reacton strike pattern like none I've seen before. 

Now,  I could tell you exactly where this place is and you could even go there. You could even work it exactly as I did. But ya know what? It could be a dead day the next time out and not a thing could be biting. That's why we call it fishing.
Then again, who knows? Maybe today is the day they finally inhale those hard boiled eggs after all.