6:58 a.m. Jocumsen rounds a point leading into a cove while dog-walking the Vixen. 7:03 a.m. Jocumsen ties on a blue and white Molix WTD weedless surface rat. âMolix is an innovative Italian lure company; this is a prototype frog-type lure Iâve been testing for them. WTD stands for âwalk the dog,â which is easy to do with this cool bait. Iâm still tweaking it, but Iâve already caught some monsters on it.â He retrieves the buoyant lure through a patch of emergent grass, then pauses to squeeze water from its soft, hollow body. âYou need to get that water out straight away every time; otherwise it wonât have the proper action.â 7:10 a.m. Jocumsen rounds the point and enters a cove with several docks. Here he tries a shad colored River2Sea Whopper Plopper, a noisy surface bait. 7:15 a.m. Jocumsen switches to a shad colored 3/4-ounce Bassman spinnerbait with a Molix swimbait trailer. âIâve won a load of money back home on this Australian lure; itâll catch anything that swims and is ideal around deep docks like the ones on this bank.â 7:24 a.m. Jocumsen moves to Lake Lâs dam and tries a Molix RA Shad, a small swimbait with a 3/8-ounce head and a belly spinner. A bass bumps the lure as he retrieves it out from the riprap. âThe dam is always a good bet on a strange lake because there will usually be fish somewhere close by.â 7:28 a.m. The RA Shad dredges up a wad of grass. âThereâs a shallow ledge jutting out from the riprap, then it drops off into 22 feet.â 7:33 a.m. Jocumsen tries a purple pumpkin 3/8-ounce Molix jig with a craw trailer around the riprap. âIâm seeing a few fish on my electronics, but theyâre really scattered.â
6 HOURS LEFT7:45 a.m. Still hitting riprap with the jig. âI saw some baitfish surfacing earlier, but thereâs been less activity since the fog lifted.â 7:52 a.m. Jocumsen rockets uplake to a tributary arm, where he finds an abundance of pad cover. He begins casting the weedless rat to the vegetation, shaking his rod tip while reeling to dog-walk the lure across the cover. âThe water up here is just 78 degrees, so the fish should be active.â
8 a.m. As Jocumsen retrieves the rat across some pads into open water, a bass sucks it under but doesnât hook up. âThat was a good fish!â 8:07 a.m. Jocumsen bags his first keeper of the day, a 1-pound, 4-ounce largemouth, from the pads on the rat. âThis skinny guy was way back in there. If heâd been eating properly, heâd weigh 3 pounds!â 8:10 a.m. Jocumsen resumes casting the rat to the pads. âIâm all about a stealthy approach, and when fishing pads, Iâll move to the spot I want to fish with my trolling motor on low, then wait to cast until the boat is sitting still. Besides being less obtrusive, this keeps my line dead straight during the retrieve instead of in an arch, which guarantees more hookups because thereâs less slack.â