Well I got to Lake Paho today with the wife. It got pretty hot and I didn't want to keep her out in it for too long but still spent about 6 hours on the lake. Very well kept little lake and ramp. Trailer never touched gravel the whole way there and it was easy to get to. Water was stained to muddy in some area and the banks were pretty much either rock or mud. Not a deep lake at all, deepest water I saw as I was idling across (no wake if your motor is bigger than 10hp) was 22' with a majority being 6' or less within a cast of the bank. Lots of willow trees hanging over or growing in the water and lots of brushpiles in the lakes in some areas. There's also a little bit of weeds growing in the water but not very thick yet. If I wasn't around wood I wasn't catching fish. I caught my first bass of the morning on a KVD squarebill on a fishing pier and that was it for moving baits and catching fish on anything other than wood.
Now to the good parts. Like I said small one on the squarebill, couldn't buy a fish on a jig like I thought I could. Got to the first laydown and flipped a YUM wolly bully into it and caught another little chunky 14 incher. Flipped a couple really good looking trees and nothing. Got to thinking the water was pretty murky for color I was fishing so I switched to a black and blue Havoc Pitboss. First tree got a tick and stuck a good one. She was hung in the tree for a minute but I leaned on her pretty hard and she popped loose and the fight was on. She wallowed around on the top a little before I got ahold of her. 4.40lbs from the big nasty cedar tree behind me.
Hit a couple other brushpiles and caught another 3lber. Flipped to a laydown and when I lifted I felt nothing. Cranked like crazy and caught up with the fish and hit her hard. Almost exactly a pound smaller than the first one, 3.39 on the same bait.
Caught a few more small ones flipping trees before I ran out of good bank and putted across. Tons of willows with bass fry everywhere on the other side. I stuck another one in the 4lb range that wrapped up in the tree and came off. We got into the back of a cove and I saw a couple big fish in a willow tree. I could tell one was a carp, the other looked too green to be a carp. Pitched my bait and it caught a leaf and landed right on top of the fish. It was obvious that it was a bass that shot off and I thought I ruined my chance when she spun around, tipped down and inhaled my bait. She shot out of the water as high as I've ever seen a fish that size go and gave me a heck of a fight. 4.80lbs on an Okechobee craw Pitboss (ran out of black and blue).
I caught another 3 pounder off the same tree I caught the 3lber earlier in the morning on a black and blue Rage craw. I had to fish the first couple brushpiles from the morning before we left, since I had the right bait now. The first one was a huge dead cedar, nasty real estate for a big fish to be. Pitch, shake, shake, thump! Slammed the rod back and she didn't budge. Seesawed back and forth on the limb, saw a big white side flash then she was gone. Don't want to guess a weight but without a doubt bigger than anything else I caught. Made a couple more pitches to that tree before I spun around and flipped into the smaller cedar behind me. Pitched in and lifted into weight. Crossed her eyes and the same thing happened. Tug of war, flash, gone. Another one that was bigger than the rest. Disappointing but still good to see that the monsters are there since it was the first time on the lake.
. If any of you guys that have never fished Melvern has any questions about it feel free to PM me or if they're questions that you think everyone should know the answer too just post them on here and I'll be glad to answer them. I'm by no means an expert on the lake but I have fished it a bunch of times.
