Just for FUN

Just one of the many 15 inch bass we caught

Saturday morning, friend Ken Lunsford and I headed toward Hawthorn Lake.  There was no upcoming tournament there, this trip was purely for fun.  The lake was recently renovated by the IOWA DNR.  Fish were stocked 4-5 years ago, and the fish are plentiful and numerous.
We knew going to the lake that we wouldn't catch any big bass, but again, this was simply a fun fishing trip. 
Ken and I were able to use multiple lures to catch bass throughout the day.  Crankbaits, swimjigs, and slower baits like plastics and jigs worked very well.  The weed growth in the lake is taking off, but we could not convince the bass to come up and hit frogs or swimbaits. 




Ken reeled in a rare feet, one cast,
one crankbait, 2 BASS!!!

There were a few key areas that held a lot of fish.  Windy points seemed to be great, as well as any bank that fell into about 10 feet of water.  On these areas, the coontail weed was starting to grow off-shore, and the fish were there.  Moving slower baits through and around this coontail certainly was a pattern we picked up on.  Every time we found this coontail growing off shore, we were able to catch a few bass off of it.  When this key area was on a windy bank...WOW, just hold on tight to your rod, because the fish were really piled up with both of these key features present.
It was a great day, we never caught any bass over 16 inches, but the number of bass we did catch topped the 100 mark for sure.  If you are looking for a little F-U-N, Hawthorn is the place to go!