North Cadron 7-25-09

My cousin, Evan and I went float fishing today. We tackled the long but usually productive section of the North Cadron from Highway 65 down to Highway 285. This float is 10 miles long, but the water was flowing stronger than it usually is in July due to the three inches of rain we got earlier this week. The problem is, with rain and rising water levels comes mud. The water was awfully muddy today with visibility being about 12". I know the bass probably don't mind, but it seems that they just have a much harder time finding your lure in these conditions. I've read that the reason it's harder to catch bass with muddy/high water is that they are already gorging themselves on the suddenly plentiful food supply washed from the banks. I don't know if this is completely true, but the fishing seemed a little slow. All told, I caught between 15 and 20 and Evan caught about 10. I caught most of the bass including the bigger one on a Zara Spook. I just felt that the fish could home in on all the commotion, even if they weren't particularly interested in feeding on topwater. I had a lot of short strikes, and several of the fish caught were come-backers that missed the bait the first time, but came back for more. The big bass missed the lure four times before I finally hooked up with him.