Saguaro Lake - March 9th - Swimbait & Bed Fishing

I finally got some time to go out on a Sunday and relax for a few hours. Saguaro Lake had been pumping out some great fish on beds throughout the previous week so my buddy and I decided to try it out. We were not expecting how busy the lake was going to be, it was almost full by first light, guess the word gets out quick when it comes to bed fishing. The water at launch was 58 and got up to 62 in the middle of the day. The spawn may be on but it was just starting.
We decided to make a run to an area I have been throwing swimbaits around and have had some monstrous followers but no takers. Second cast of the morning I finally had my first swimbait fish in the boat. It wasn't a monster but I will take it. Within the hour I only had the one hookup but had 15-20 followers in the area, I am still working on getting them to fully commit. Throughout the rest of the morning we decided to bed fish and could only find and land smaller males. My friend had to leave early for work and with the winds picking up I knew the bed fishing was going to be tough. I hit a few spots and caught a few 2-3lb fish but only saw one decent fish, which was not ready by any means to be caught.
By the end of the morning the swimbait seemed to be the key since had seen more follow that than on the beds I just couldn't get them to eat it. That technique is a blast but is an art form almost, it's extremely hard to learn and fine tune.

MBC Seniors - Feb. 22nd - Lake Pleasant

Lake Pleasant in the winter can be absolutely brutal or a ton of fun depending the weather. The weather was absolutely gorgeous which means it was going to be tough. I had my partner there, even though he was toughing through some serious pain. We had an early number so he could get out in cleaner water and not take so much abuse in the heavier waves, plus we were making a long run to Humbug.
We made a clean run to our first spot but being 5th boat out, we were fifth boat into that area. I couldn't believe it, all 4 boats ahead of us were going to the exact same spot. We all filed out and fished the same shallow to deep drop off with A-rigs and swimbaits. We decided to moved down a bank since we saw some fish busting, even though we couldn't tell which species they were. After awhile with no bites we decided to cover some area and noticed there was a mud line which was affecting the water clarity for the A-rigs and made a move. Come to find out we needed to go slightly further back into the cove than we did, the shad had moved back with the warming weather into the trees. We decided to make a run to some other areas and try a more finesse approach with small swimjigs and dropshots. Tons of water covered and no fish. The water was super clear in the main lake and very cold, and the blue bird skies and lack of wind wasn't helping the bite at all. Move after move produced the same thing...nothing. We decided to make a run to the marina a little early since can usually find some fish in the scattered wood even though water clarity is 20+ft there.
We fan casted drop shots while looking for bedding fish. It produced our first bite and our big fish of the day, 2.53lb largemouth. A few minutes later we had another fish in the well and another short fish. We just ran out of time, the marina area had the fish we just made the move and adjustments too late.
It was another brutal day on Lake (Un)Pleasant as most people call it. Congratulations to Pete and Rick, they only had 2 fish but they were the right fish, a 4.92 big fish and a total of 7.79. This tournament was one of the toughest for fishing but hard to beat the gorgeous day on the lake. Lessons learned every time out and hopefully next time it'll turn out for the better.