Candleweird lake 7/22 / 7/24 / 7/28

I took a year off from the big lake and now ive been 3 times in a week and every trip is getting progressively worse. Trip one on the 22nd caught 18 bass in a short trip which was a great day with half the bass being green the other half brown. Then last wednesday me and Josh fished from 3pm to 9pm and it was a struggle but we did manage 3 largies and 3 smallies. Josh got his smallie on a super fluke on a 1/2 oz jig head in about 25-30 feet of water and missed a few fish on jumps. I got my 2 smallies on drop shot in 10-20 feet. Had more pan fish hitting us on the drop shot than anything. Very annoying. As we went back to the launch we caught our 3 largemouth. Last fish being the fish of the day on a black chatterbait. Wasnt a terrible day but it felt like a struggle the whole time.






Then yesterday morning alarm set for 2:30am i was on the lake for 3:30 and man i could not get a bite before 5 am. The black buzz bait that i killed them on last year this time didnt get a single blow up, black chatter nothing, black spinner with colorado blade nothing.. Then 5:00am hit and i threw a over sized white bladed spinner bait and bam fast action in 2-4 feet of water. 2 largies and 2 smallies. As fast as it started it was over. Managed to lose a smallie as i was going for the lip that was probably just over 4 lbs. Oh well. Once the sun was up i tried drop shot in my spots that normally produce and got just perch. I tried 4 new spots that i marked the night before on my gps that look amazing but held zero active fish. It was odd. From 5:15 to 10:30 when i left i didnt have another bass. Threw tubes, senko, jig, chatter, flukes, spooks... nothing! Lets just say i will be taking a break from that lake for a little while. Also doesnt help when pleasure boats are going with 30 feet of your boat all morning. Talked to 2 other boats and they caught only a few rock bass. Water temps are down to 78 on the surface after being 85 last week. Could be the fast drop thats making them inactive but i would have guessed it would have been the opposite. Live and learn.

Cossayuna Lake... trailer problems

 After waiting 8 months to finally get back to this lake we went this past Saturday for Josh's birthday trip.  3.5 hour drive to Argyle New York we were there but not without a serious problem. After launching the boat we noticed that one of the tires on my trailer was riding on the rim. Both bearings gone completely. Not sure how long we drove like that and to be honest i dont wanna know... So we went out on the lake knowing later in the day was going to be a project.. We started off fishing right by the launch and each missed a few fish pretty quickly. Working our way to the north end i get a 23 inch pike to get us started.. Fishing all around the lake with little happening we went to the hot spot from last fall and bam... fishing got hot. As soon as the fish finder read 7 feet we would get hit. We got 7 pike and 10 bass. Mostly on spinner baits. also had some great hits on some massive lures josh was throwing. A 9 inch money minnow on a 1 oz chatter bait head... got smashed twice and left some teeth marks in it that were huge. Was it a musky.. who knows. We caught 2 of our pike and 2 of our bass trolling. By 3 pm we were off the water. No pike over 28 inches.. no bass over 2.75 pounds and No musky. Also had no possible way to make it home with that trailer. We tried calling some places for parts and or service.. and had zero luck. We decided to try to drive to the next town slowly with hazard lights on only driving 20 mph until we found a body shop where the people let us leave the boat and drive to a nearby town for parts. These guys let us use any tools we needed but we didnt know what we were getting into. After 5 hours the job was complete but not done properly and we headed home stopping occasionally to let the bearings cool down even pouring water on them to help cool it down. After another 5.5 hours we were home.. dont know how we made it. Bringing the trailer to Pete at fishing factory today the bearings didnt even make the trip one town over so id say we were extremely lucky to make it home the other night.