Lake Somerville @ Welch Park 10/27 - 10/28

I went out to Welch Park at Lake Somerville yesterday evening after work. The lake is up higher than I've ever seen it. It looked as though it was actually back up to it's "normal" state. I ended up fishing an area where I had previously parked my truck when I took my son camping there about 6 weeks ago. I can honestly say that you can now actually fish from the bank at Welch and stand a chance of catching something (as opposed to putting rod holders out in deeper water like I usually do).
You can see in these photos the newly submerged vegetation:





I put out five rods with JPigg, Sure Shot, DK, Premo and Catfish Charlie. The bite was nice and steady from about sunset until almost midnight. I caught 9 keepers in the 1 - 2.5 lb range and threw back probably 6 or 7 dinks. All the baits were getting bites, even ol' Catfish Charlie!

As to my experiment with the tripe, I put out a couple rods with tripe dipped in Sure Shot and JPigg. I got bites but had trouble hooking anything because the tripe was too thick and covered up too much of the hook. I decided to remove the tripe and just fish the bait as normal since the bite was so good.

Here's a shot of my little GTMO Bay:


Once it got late I switched the rods over to my "overnight bait", which consisted of beef heart sprinkled with garlic powder and Redneck soap bait. Then I put out some throw lines with Redneck, Zote, Catfish Candy and Shelby. When I got up the next morning some of the soaps and beefhearts were gone and I only had a 12" channel hooked up (caught on Redneck), which I let go.

All in all I think this was an unusual occasion with the cold front (which is usually bad for fishing when it first arrives?) and the newly risen water level (which must have had a net positive effect).

Here's another shot of the Somerville 9. Upon closer inspection while cleaning it looked as though one of the larger cats might have been a flathead and another a blue, but I'm not sure.