I have been fishing our local Tuesday and Thursday night derbies each week. The offshore bite is where it's been happening lately with our water temps in the 80's now in Iowa. I can never seem to get a good draw, launching second or third to last each derby. My big fish spots were all taken up by the time we launched, so rather than pounding the shoreline like the rest of the boats, we slid off to some uncharted territory. Upon arrival, some great structure started to appear on side imaging and it was loaded with fish. We spot locked and I did my best to determine where to pitch my bait to run parallel to the down logs in 13ft of water. My bait of choice was a 1/2oz Football jig rigged with a black and blue Berry Bug. Jig hit the bottom and I may have drug it a total of five yards before it was inhaled by a 5.14 pounder.
Good enough for the W and some extra cash for my tackle fund.
