Good evening finder friends... Headed to Koontz lake with my 92 yo friend today about 11 AM. We both had earlier opportunities to accomplish some things before fishing and could not break away until 11. It is about 45 minutes east of Valpo and on the drive, he confessed that he really had never fished Koontz this late in the morning/day and this is my first year focusing on Koontz. I hope everyone had an opportunity to get outside today -- a truly remarkable, fabulous weather day -- mild temps -- great breeze-- full sunshine... Launched at the public ramp with 2 other rigs already there and motored out to the lake --- very shallow!!!! Once on the lake, headed out into the bigger lake and went to the northwest corner and set up the I pilot on spot lock in 10' of water. We cast modified drop shot rigs that are essentially perch rigs with bee moth and slowly drag the bottom. There was a lot of debris on the bottom and this had a tendency to clog up our lines. We fished several spots by timer for about 20 minutes before moving slightly deeper each time. Today, the magic depth was 19' of water. Hovering over 19' with the spot lock engaged on the I pilot resulted in non stop production of gills and perch. The gills were not beasts with the largest just shy of 9" and several small ones. We caught 7 perch over 8" with the largest right at 11". We really were not dragging our rigs at this point but simply dropping and as soon as it hit the bottom, it was time to reel up. We fished until 5 pm and could have stayed longer but respecting my friend being 92, we headed home. We kept 20 gills and released the rest and kept the perch. I would highly encourage you all to give Koontz a try. I have fished it about 5 times this year and have always had good days. Thanks for reading, stay healthy and take a friend fishing...
