All of the fishing reports have indicated that Pickwick has been very slow lately.  I had the day off so I went anyway.  It was a wet, windy, rainy, cold day and I searched every point and creek I knew of.  I never did find any bait.  It's crazy.

Just after 3 PM I looked to the south and saw huge flocks of Black Headed Gulls pounding the water.  It was windy and they were darting downwind, floating stacked up on each other, and flying in all directions.  Every few seconds one would crash down to the lake and grab a fish.  Then, eight other gulls would come down and fight to take it from him.  It was mayhem over there.  I thought I'd better go take  a look.  

The gulls were over a huge patch of open water.  It was hundreds of yards from anything.  When I got there I split my time between watching the birds and watching the graph.  Gulls were splashing down, loons were popping up left and right from the runs they were making on the bait, and it felt a bit like the animal version of a WWII naval battle.  Chaos and violence surrounded me.  

The graph lit up and showed me the answer to my question about where the bait was.  Bait was scattered EVERYWHERE out here.  Most of it was on a gigantically wide "shelf" in 13 feet of water.  It seemed like every fish in the entire lake was right here.  I knew for a fact all the places they weren't because I'd just spent 4 hours trying to find them.  Now I had my answer.  

It was late in the day and I wasn't able to take advantage of it, but I certainly learned something new about my lake.

Below is a shot of some of the action.  The bottom gull actually has a fish in his mouth, and another bird is fighting him for it.