I was trying to beat the heat and decided to take the boat out this past Saturday evening. Plan was to get out on the water before sunset and stay out for most of the night. Lake surface temperature was 99 degrees when I got on the water. The next 7 days show highs around 105*+. I think around 3am Sunday morning it got down to 83*.

Got the boat launched and started having trolling motor issues shortly into crappie fishing...great. Tied off to a bridge pillar and put out the under water light. Within minutes I had thousands of baitfish arrive...hours later I had possibly millions of shad and ghost minnows.

Managed to hook a freshwater drum pretty quickly and started jigging below the bait ball. Eventually hooked into a 9" crappie and a strong healthy 18" Channel cat. Lost a larger fish later on in the night after it wrapped me around a bridge pillar...felt like another good catfish.

Next time I'll have some live bait poles rigged up and will have to torture the catfish. It was nice being out on the lake again and reminded me why I love boating and fishing so much.