Got out a little late in the day, sometime after 8am, very overcast and cloudy with a fair amount of wind, but manageable conditions none the less. Somewhere between 20-30 boats were on the lake when we launched, lots of early birds. Noticed about midday most of the traffic died down and parts of the lake were WIDE open and after 2pm we were practically the only boat in sight.
Began the day by putting around 2-3MPH along the North of the lake with sonar working our way west along the shore, getting suckered in occasionally by recently flooded areas, tossing out different pitch and vertical jig methods, and a decent amount of time spent trying to get a spin blade bite going all along the north from the end of the shore fishing area all the way up to saddle back dam, skipping very rarely to speedup the process.
No luck once so ever before 1pm, may have missed the major fishing time or just been unlucky with the conditions this morning. As we worked the newly flooded areas near the Saddle Back dam we did notice quite a few fish down deep holding right out in front of the buoys in front of the tower suspended down around 30-40FT.
Had a couple people sitting on the west dam so we bypassed it and moved down south into the area just northwest of the Quarry, immediately we noticed the shelter the inlet it sits in provides and headed in. Our initial instinct was to stop and drop some soft plastics but after 10-15 minutes of no readings on the finder we decided to troll along the quarry shore between 1.5-2.5mph, keeping ourselves in the 15-25ft if not shallower areas of rip rap. Within 100 yards of dropping a flicker minnow(11ft dive depth.) back about 75ft to dive down just above the rocks we spotted a fish posted on the bottom directly in a transition of rock color, and before I could even alert my co-captain his lure was slammed from the shore by a bass and taken out towards the open water, fast enough for the bass to breach the water a good foot or so. We suspect this fish was hungry due to the weather conditions and was desperate for his 2pm meal, but regardless a very healthy 17' inch 4lb pound large mouth boated. Tried for a second bite but unluckily caught on 'something' and lost the lure, couldn't get it's replacement to dive properly and ended up moving off the spot.
Finished off by trolling the islands south of the boat docks( Island* one of the two is now underwater.) with a tandem willow blade swim jig and Strike King Deep diver series crank baits, had a few suspected bites and signatures on the finder but we might have been moving along too quickly for these fish to strike, I suggest a slow troll of these islands for a chance at a bite. Pushed past the island to the quarry cuts south of the ramp and continued a troll, spotted several groups of fish that seemed to be coming from the channel between Rawson Cove and the islands but couldn't manage a strike. Shut it down around 5:15pm, was still an even better fishing period coming up before the lake closed for the day but we figured a good keeper on a day like today was already enough. Especially after our live well decided to stop pumping out water while both fishers were occupied, then overfilled, and listed the boat over just enough to alert us Via course change just in time to save the boat, Thank god! We're both pretty certain the fish hatched an elaborate escape/revenge plan involving blocking the pump inlet and sinking the boat to take us both down with him for good measure.
Noticed a lack of fish presence in the 1-25ft area of depth ( or they're holding tight to the bottom ), the only one spotted in that range was the only one landed for the day. Most fish were holding off staging points in the 25-30ft area just behind humps or in a bed just after a hump and before weed lines. Noticeable increase in insect life and algae blooms since my last visit in April. Lost several lures trying to dissect the flooded areas and ultimately regretted it, even on weedless flipping' jigs. I'd recommend staying away from these areas until the weather conditions/water level is more friendly unless you are confident in your lure/retrieve and ability to navigate semi-dangerous wooded and rocky shores that in places had boat wrecking Trees and Rocks posted RIGHT below the waterline in murky water.
Conditions:
Wind -7MPH (SSW) before noon and +10MPH (NNE) after noon.
Skies - Overcast with the sun breaking through for short periods every 2 or 3 hours
Air Temp - 53-64 Degrees from 5am-12pm and 63-59 Degrees from 2pm-6pm with temp peak at 67 Degrees at 1pm.
Water Temp - In the areas of 1-50ft of water the typical surface water temp was between 58-63 Degrees.
Lure that landed - Flicker Shad MINNOW Racy Shad. ( 8lb test, snap-swivel to bait, Spinning Rod )
I have a tendency to go over-the-top with information sharing and obtaining so I apologize for the flood of text. If anyone has any suggestions for lures to use as reliable trolling baits please feel free to recommend something I should check out. I am very much into top water bites and would love to pick up on something that hones in on the fish at diamond valley more specifically. Can't wait to get back out here again, hope this report is in someway useful to someone out there! Good luck and good fishing everyone~