A bluegill kind of day, Bullhead Point in Fulton, and Lock Island in Phoenix, August 05, 2015

Well, everyone knows Lake Neatahwanta is going through revitalization after years of pollution. It is not advisable to eat the fish and swimming is prohibited (and be careful not to let animals drink the water). Today we fished Bullhead Point on the lake in Fulton. I started on the bank casting with a slip bobber and worm with a #6 hook out toward the channel heading under the bridge. I was hoping the excess of weeds were attracting mid-day panfish or bass.

I got no bites until I reeled in and my worm hopped into a rock pocket right in front of me. 

The bite surprised me so I quickly switched to a #8 hook with half a worm and just plopped it back out in between the rocks. Right away I got a small bluegill.

We continued in the same fashion and caught three more. It reminded me how fun it can be to not cast and just drop a hook into a small area. There is something unconscious in many fishers that make us think the biggest fish must be in the farthest reaching area away from us (because why would fish want to be so close to their predator?). But it is a myth. They are often right in front of us in the rocks, weeds, and quick dropping ledges leading to deeper water.

At about 7 pm, we stopped to listen to some great local live music in the pavilion and walked the pier. The whole area was very beautiful.

Later, we headed to Lock Island in Phoenix. Almost as soon as we got there, I started catching more bluegill right on the ledge of the rocks in front of us, with the same slip bobber, half a worm and #8 hook. These were a little bigger than the gills we caught in Fulton. 

The most notable thing about this area is the HUGE catfish that roam the shorelines at this time of night. I had some Wildcat Blood Catfish Bait and put it on a #4 hook but got no hits and it was really hard to get it to stay on the hook. I have vowed that someday I will catch one of those cats. We ended the night by moving out to the tip of the island, only getting a few more hits and lots of bass jumping in the heavy weeded areas.