Had less than an hr to throw top waters this morning so I picked a spot nearby that’s a close walk from the car.  I started with a smaller version of the chubby lure we’ve been using. The water was high and cloudy and didn’t look promising.  There was a bit of chop on the water but the smaller chubby lure was still able to gurgle and pop nicely. About 20 casts in I hooked something 10 ft from shore.  Turned out to be a 10.5 inch white.  Photograph – Tag – Release.

That was the smallest papio I’ve tagged and don’t plan to go any smaller since the tag may inhibit its swimming ability.

I switched to a wooden, smaller version of the narrow faced lure. It was given to me to try because it wasn’t swimming right when made to dive. Even after heavier split rings and hooks were added it still tumbled clumsily on the retrieve so I gave up on it.

There was a bit of time left so I put on an unusually thin, top water lure from Japan that was designed to walk in a wide, zig zagging, bobbing pattern with minimal splashing.  Masa had contacted my through this blog and recommended it. After watching some videos I was eager to give it a go. It cast very well and was easy to walk. It even dove well if I forced it too.  Nothing came up for it though. Maybe it was the bright orange color or maybe the tagged white papio took his friends and left the area? I’ll have to throw that lure on some hungry fish that like flashy food.