Spent an afternoon on Portage Lakes fishing West Reservoir a couple of days ago. The frog bite was ON! There seemed to be an algae bloom leaving green “cheese” on top of the water between docks. Everywhere this stuff was, there were quality bass like the one in the picture. I lost a BIG one right at the boat – a good 4 pounder! The water temperature was 65- 70 and seemed more stained than usual. We even made the comment about going elsewhere if it continued to look so dirty. Well, when we started catching fish on the third and fifth cast, we changed our minds quickly. The color did not seem to matter, I was throwing a black frog, my husband was throwing a white one.
We tried throwing swim baits and crank baits to no avail. Hooked a few on a wacky rigged worm (baby bass color), however. Bluegill are now on beds, as are some bass, so the bite was pretty shallow – around 3 – 4 feet. There were several bluegill anglers taking advantage of that, too. Portage Lakes has some BIG bluegill!
All in all, the stingy bite of the beginning of the month seems to have gone away, and Portage Lakes has returned to its normal high quality bass fishing. It continues to turn out big bass despite tournaments 4 days a week. High pressure does NOT keep the bass from biting on this lake!
