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Day on the Lake- Lake Taylorville
"Day on the Lake" is a regular feature of Bassmaster magazine and ESPN's Saturday morning programming for bass fishermen. The idea of "Day on the Lake" is to put a bass fisherman on a lake that he has never seen before and see how he approaches the challenge of fishing a new lake and how successful his decisions were at the end of the day. Tony Lynn and I decided to undertake our own "Day on the Lake" recently by visiting Lake Taylorville on August 4. Neither of us had previously fished the lake or knew anyone to ask about the lake. In fact, we didn't even have a lake map. Lake Taylorville is located on the southeast edge of Taylorville, about 25 miles southeast of Springfield. By searching online I discovered that the lake contains about 1200 surface acres, has a maximum depth of 17 feet, has no limitation on motor horsepower, and has a very murky water color. We arrived at the lakeside marina, located at the north end of the lake near the dam, at 6 a.m. on a Friday morning that was preceded by a Wednesday night/ Thursday cold front. The air temperature was 61 degrees with bright sunny skies and winds were from the northwest at 5 to 10 mph. The marina has a five lane concrete boat ramp and docks. Gas, ice, vending machines, restrooms with showers, picnic shelters, and playground equipment are all available at the marina. Boaters are permitted to arrive early and pay the $12 daily permit fee after the marina opens at 9 a.m. A campground and swimming beach are located nearby and there are plenty of shoreline fishing locations. Food and bait are not available at the lake. We launched and headed south for a run to the opposite end of the lake to get a general idea about water depth and available shoreline cover. The water temperature was 86 degrees and the lake appeared to be about one foot below normal pool.
Our slow trip down the lake showed us several things, most notable being the overall shallow depth of the lake considering its size. The deepest water we found during the day was 14 feet and typically there is only 10-12 feet of water in the middle of the lake. The southern third of the lake has only 6-8 feet of water. We saw hordes of baitfish in most areas of the lake. The southern half of the lake contains numerous coves and main lake areas with laydowns. The northern half of Lake Taylorville averages deeper water and has many homes with docks and a few coves to fish. Shoreline rip rap was the predominant cover that we fished during the day. We started our day at the southern end of the lake where there are large areas of lily pads on the west shore. This was the only vegetation that we saw in Lake Taylorville, perhaps due to the murky water color. A white lure can only be seen 6-10 inches under water. The muddy water would narrow our lures choices, but we felt that water color and water temperature would keep some bass shallow on this bright, post-front day. So we started fishing in the shallow lily pads because we didn't see any reason for bass to be in deeper water. We worked the edges of the pads with soft plastic baits, Colorado-bladed spinnerbaits, rattletraps, and wide-wobbling crankbaits. Tony worked the tops of pads with a weedless, topwater mouse. After an hour without any bites, we headed north to fish some laydowns. For the next couple of hours, we fished main lake shorelines and points on both sides of the lake, heading north towards the marina. The southern half of the lake is not only shallower on average, but we also noticed that the shoreline has a very slow taper to deeper water. Several times we got stuck on the lake bottom while pitching rattling jigs and soft plastic baits into shoreline wood. We headed to the marina at 9:00 for a break and to buy a boat permit, feeling pretty humble about how our day started. A map that outlines the lake is available at the marina, but it doesn't show any depth or contour information.
When leaving the marina we decided to spend the rest of the day in the deeper north half of the lake, hoping to find shorelines that had deeper water nearby. We motored to the east shore across from the marina and fished soft plastic baits and a variety of shallow running crankbaits. We worked north towards the dam, stopping at the final point that you are allowed to fish from a boat. There was 14 feet of water close to the point and it was here that we caught our first bass at 9:30 on a chartreuse/blue (parrot) Bomber Square A. It measured 11 3/4 inches. It took more than 3 hours, but we finally caught a bass. We worked the point with crankbaits, jigs, and soft plastic baits for 20 minutes before heading south along the east shoreline where the northwest wind was blowing directly onto the bank. We lost a couple of fish on shallow crankbaits before landing the big fish of the day at 10:30, a 17-inch bass that hit the same Bomber crankbait. It was caught directly across from the marina, along a bank with small red bricks scattered along the shoreline. We continued fishing south along the windblown shoreline and noticed that this area had steeper dropoffs near the bank and deeper water than the areas of lily pads and laydowns that we had fished earlier. In addition, much of the bank was still in the shade of shoreline trees. It appeared that fishing in the shade near steeper, windy banks was going to improve our day. Many bass fishermen believe that, when all else fails to produce bass, fish a windy bank. I prefer banks which the wind is blowing directly onto rather than parallel to the bank. Another hour went by before Tony caught an 12 1/2 inch bass on a white, Bandit crankbait along the same shore at 11:30. Then the fish started to come more frequently. We caught another five fish and lost several more on a variety of crankbaits during the next two hours. By 1:30 the wind shifted to the northeast so we switched to the west side of the lake, fishing some main lake points and rip rap. The air temperature had risen to 91 degrees and the water was now 88 degrees. We caught two more small bass on crankbaits before ending our fishing day at 2:30. At days end we had landed 10 fish in about 8 hours of fishing, most of which were between nine and 13 inches long. Along the way we made several adjustments, including changing the kind of cover we were fishing from lily pads to laydowns to shoreline rocks. We moved from shallow, slow-tapering banks to shorelines with steeper drops and deeper water nearby. Finally, we moved to banks with shade and wind blowing onto them. We had covered a lot of water and learned some things about a new lake. We also changed our lure choice and presentation. This was not a day to entice a bite, but rather a day to provoke a reaction strike. We gave up on the slow, bottom presentation of soft plastics and jigs for the fast retrieve of shallow crankbaits bounced off rocks. The fish rewarded our adjustment with some success. Overall we didn't have a great day or catch lots of fish, but our "Day on the Lake" had been challenging and fun. The next time that you tire of fishing the same old lakes with the same old lures, try the challenge of your own "Day on the Lake" by visiting new waters. DNR Fisheries Biologist for Lake Taylorville notes the following creel and size limits and said that the sign at the lake ramp is incorrect: Anglers are permitted a limit of 6 bass daily that are at least 15 inches; 25 crappies that are 9 inches or longer; 6 saugers that are at least 14 inches; and 6 catfish of any size per day. Two poles per angler is the maximum. Stephenson characterizes the lake as mostly a bass, crappie, and catfish fishery. He rates crappie fishing as good to excellent in numbers and size; bass and catfish are good for both numbers and size; bluegills are numerous, but small in size; and saugers are improving, having only been stocked for five years. Due to water quality problems with runoff, Stephenson recommends that anglers concentrate on the northern two-thirds of the lake, from the marina south to where the lake turns to the east. Tony and I found this to be true, having caught all our fish in the northern quarter of the lake. Route 29 runs through Taylorville, turning southeast about three miles before the lake turnoff. For more information call 217-824-5606 or visit the lake web site at: |
