Taming’ em in the timber

Waking up to the sound of fish rising on the glassy calm surface of Lake St Clair had my anticipation building. Heading to a far reach of the dam, it was obvious why there was so much surface activity: Insects were everywhere, sticking to my glasses and going down our shirts as we drove along.

Finally we arrived at a heavily timbered bay. The only noise to be heard was the slurping and smacking as fish attempted to catch the bugs from the surface.

Des was first to get a cast in, the lure landing in the middle of the tree but the line unluckily skipped over a branch. He paused for a second and then wound frantically to get his lure out of there, but before his popper crossed to safety it was smashed by a good fish and dragged 3m back into the sticks and bricked solid.

While attempting to free the lure the line we could feel the fish getting dragged across each branch until, eventually, a very healthy 40cm-plus bass came to the surface with the popper down its throat.

Fishing the submerged timber of any dam can be effective from sunup until sundown as long as you change your technique when the day heats up and cools down again...