6-20-21
Hello Fellow Anglers! I hope all of you are doing very well and enjoying the summer, as I have had an amazing summer thus far.
Fishing at Silverwood Lake has been so refreshing. Each night I have had the ability to fish, the weather has been so much warmer and the fishing has been slowly heating up. In the past two weeks, I was able to go night fishing five times. During all of these trips combined, I caught a total of seventeen fish.
At the Vista Point location, I spent four-night sessions fishing this area. It was in this large area that I was able to land fifteen fish (14 Striped Bass & 1 Largemouth Bass). All of these fish were caught on jerk baits in a variety of colors/sizes. Once I hike down to the shore, I usually hike as far as I can go to ensure that I can fish a lot of coves before making the hike back out. Sometimes, I fish coves as I hike in, and those coves do not have any fish in them until I come back around.
2 lb. Largemouth Bass caught on a jerkbait. 
If you have been following my fishing adventure blogs, you would know that I have heavily relied on fishing with jerkbait lures to catch fish. This lure has produced a lot of fish for me this year including one five-pound Largemouth Bass, as well as two double digit Striped Bass (15 lbs. & 17 lbs.). In my mind, there is no reason for me to switch up lures when I am catching at least one to two fish on any fishing trip.
With that in mind, I always resort to using jerkbait lures to land fish. Now, during my most recent fishing session to the Marina, I knew two things: 1). I only had one Largemouth Bass catch in the past two weeks (2 lbs.), and 2). I was only using jerkbait lures. As the night began to wind down, I could feel my chances of catching a fish beginning to slip away. As I casted and reeled in my jerkbait lure, I could not get any fish to react to it at all. Usually, I can feel a fish slightly nipping at the lure, yet this night had produced no strikes. I had to think quickly as I had at least an hour more left to fish.
In the next minute, I removed the jerkbait lure from my line, and I switched to a jig-headed fluke (color-white/size-4 inches). Honestly, I haven’t fished the jig-headed fluke in a while, but I knew the fish weren’t interested in jerkbaits. Within the next ten minutes of casting and reeling, I hooked into a really nice Largemouth Bass (4 lbs.). As I was slowly bouncing the fluke off of the bottom the strike occurred, and I was very surprised because the strike occurred so very close to the shore. I kept thinking to myself, Did I just catch a really nice bass on something other than a jerkbait? In a few more casts, a small Striper ended up latching onto the fluke and I landed it as well. I know that I would not have caught any fish that night if I didn’t switch up my fishing techniques. I’m glad I listened to my intuition because sometimes I am too stubborn to make minor changes, especially when a specific lure has been working so well.
Don’t be afraid to be flexible in your fishing strategies. I know I tend to get stuck on one particular type of fishing (using jerkbaits) to catch bass, but when it’s not working other techniques might just be the ticket for success. I will continue to switch up these lures/jigs (Flukes, Rat L Traps, jerkbaits, & Megabass Dark Sleeper Swimbaits) on my upcoming fishing trips. Best of luck out there to you, and have fun!