Hot, hot, hot, that's about all I have to say about Wilhelm, and I don't mean the bass fishing. Yesterday I spent 8 hours fishing my usual summertime haunts and I can honestly tell you it was a grind. The largemouth bass are definately in a summertime "funk". Air temps were in the upper 80's and water temps aren't too far from that. I participated in a Bassmasters of Crawford County club tournament, and before you hear what my 5 fish weight was, I swear, it was a grind.
I had a total of 9 bites in 8 hours of fishing. I put 7 of those bites in the boat, the 5 I would take to weigh in just happened to be big. Generally, I can be found fishing off shore structure this time of year at Wilhelm. I must have hit 5 of my best off shore places and never had a bite. I know they had been biting, in the previous weeks I heard many stories of big fish caught deeper with summertime structure techniques, this recent hot weather must have something going on. At 10 AM with only 2 fish in the livewell (one being a solid 4 pounder) I decided to switch things up and hit a few places that I consider mid depth, maybe even shallow. Unbelievably, I pitched a jig under a shady tree with 1 foot of water under it, and the line beagn ripping as soon as it hit the water. I set the hook and was dumbfounded with the 4+ pound fish on the other end! I did boat that fish which ended up being my lunker of 4.84 lbs. I ran a few other places and by 1 PM had the 5  fish which would make it to weigh in. At 2 PM I headed in and weighed my 5 which resulted in 19.36 lbs, my heaviest 5 fish tournament limit at Wilhelm.
Quite frankly, I got lucky. I stumbled on to a few really good fish and they bit. Like they say, I'd rather be lucky than good.
In speaking to other club members it was evident that fishing was difficult. Bites were few and far between and places that had produced numerous bites are now seemingly void of fish.
Summertime fishing is here. Check back soon about Wilhelm. I'll be there a few more times this week. I'm fishing an open "buddy" tournament there next weekend so me and my partner are going to try and dial in on a few things.