During spring and summer, I normally prefer to start on the east shore as this area tends to hold shade well into late morning. On my previous trip, the fish had been holding in 10 to 20 feet of water, so I started on a popular point adjacent to a creek channel. A few casts into the 10 foot zone and my Bill Norman crankbait was hammered by a 1-1/2 pound smallmouth. "Looks like they're right here where we left them," I said to Paul and Phil.

As we rounded the point and headed back into the cove, I explained to my angling partners we were on a shallow flat and most of the fish would be well offshore just past the weedline. Phil proceeded to fire a grub right against the shoreline and a chunky largemouth was on top of it before he could even get a turn on his reel handle. "I don't think you realize how shallow that fish was," I said to Phil. "The boat's sitting in 7 feet of water and it can't be more than a foot deep up there."

Phil went on to make another cast a foot or two from the bank and quickly hit a second largemouth. "Looks like the fish made a serious move to shallow water," I said. Then all three of us began casting into the heavily weeded flat and hooked several more bass, a mixture of largemouth and smallmouth. Phil continued to catch fish on the grub while Paul boated one on a tube bait and I took a couple fish on a crankbait and one on a spinnerbait.

We headed north and found more of the same as we worked another shallow flat in 5 to 10 feet of water, then one of my favorite walls that quickly drops into 18 feet of water. The steep wall produced our first quality fish of the day when I hit a two pound smallmouth while Carolina rigging a Yum lizard in 22 feet of water.

We sped across the lake to the mouth of Putah Creek where we worked a couple rocky points and shallow bays. The Norman crankbait continued to produce well for me, but Phil had the hot hand chucking that Yamamoto grub on a 1/4 ounce dart head. It seems every time I turned around he was hooked into a fish.

While Paul and I were fishing off the front of the boat and casting into deep water, Phil was fishing in the rear position and was forced to cast straight to the bank. Those fish were holding up tight in the weeds and he was throwing the grub right on top of their heads.

As the day progressed, it seems more and more fish moved up to the bank and it turned into one of those magical days that can only be experienced a few times a year. It really didn't matter where we fished, we found plenty of action tossing a combination of grubs and crankbaits into the top five feet of water. I was actually amazed we didn't manage anything over three pounds considering the sheer numbers of fish we put in the boat. Of course, it's hard to complain when one to two pounders are hammering your bait every five minutes.

All in all, the day brought everything we could have hoped for. This has been the most incredible "winter" weather I have ever experienced (It hit 85 at mid day). The scenery is absolutely breathtaking with the hillsides in full bloom and numerous sightings of coastal blacktail deer and bald eagles throughout the day.

Oh yea, we also had non stop action on a mix of largemouth, smallies and an occasional spotted bass for a total of 59 fish boated by the time we made it back to Markley Cove. It was one of those rare days you hate to see come to an end.