I will start by telling you the lake I am in question about is our local lake Mendota in Illinois. The surface water area is 18 acres and the shoreline is 1.5 miles. The max dept is 11 foot. I have looked all over for maps of the lake for the contures and any and all structure. I even went to city hall without any luck. Ok on with my question we have seen all kinds of little bait fish in the last two weeks but the bite has been almost non existant. Can the bass be overfed? It doesn't even look like anything is chasing the bait fish. I was getting really hard bites on the senkos and little four inch whirl tail worms and now nothing. There is no topwater action although some big ones have jumped in the middle after probably bugs is all that we can tell. My wife is not even catching them or getting bites on her pre-rigged worms and you can almost always catch fish on this lake with those. Any and all help on this would be greatly appreciated.

MDM,

I'm about an hour south of you and I've noticed in the last week or two the bite as slowed down a fair amount. I'm still trying to figure it out myself. I know we've had some different weather fronts coming through, so maybe that is partially to blame. I have found a work around. The bass around here seem to be very active when its dark. I don't mean dusk and dawn, I mean before sunrise when its still dark (<5:00) or after dark (>9:00). Tuesday night, I picked up a 4-5 lb bass after dark and had some plastic riping hits before being drove off by mosquitoes. I wasn't prepared for the bugs, since I didn't plan on staying that late. The last 3 times I went fishing (2 mornings and 1 night) the fish were noticeabley more active when it was still dark. Its also a blast catching fish in the dark. I need a headlamp or something to make it easier to unhook them.

good luck

I wouldn't fish at lake mendota anymore, try kakusha throwing a spinnerbait down the shore you will at least get one I got a 4 lber last week doing that will post pics soon.

Chandler

Welcome aboard!

If there are alot of bait fish present I would try throwing some shad colored crank baits at diffrent depths or I would throw some weightless flukes.