Deal Lake 5/24/12

[Lard Almighty]

I hit up Deal Lake after work figuring the dingy skies would have the fish on the move. Well, they were on the move alright. Problem is, they were all carp. Big ones, too. I wasn't even trying and almost snagged a few, including one that left behind a scale that was the size of a half-dollar! I managed one bass about 1.5 lbs. on a Rat-L-Trap in three hours.

Once the fog started rolling in thick I saw pods of small baitfish moving around near the outflow, with nothing on them. If there were any bass around, I would think they'd be blowing up all over them. Nary a ripple. I know the majority of the bass are in the east end of the lake, but I was utterly shocked that there wasn't more activity along the sea wall.

Deal Lake drives me nuts. I'll go through stretches where I barely catch anything, and when I'm just about to give up on the place it gives me a 4 lb. bass, or a bunch of stripers, or easy pickings on giant carp feasting on mulberries. Such is fishing, I suppose.