Hello, Dwight Norris of fishingatwork.com here on another day at the Charles River. Today we're gonna be talking about zoom mini lizards or zoom lizards, whatever you want to call them. I'm focusing more on the smaller ones right now because the bass aren't exceptionally large. If we catch a five or six pounder that's a really big bass for right next to the ocean. I haven't really heard of anybody touching anything bigger than seven pounds here. So I'm going to presume that there may be a lunker of 10 pounds roaming somewhere.
Zoom Mini Lizards
I'm gonna stick with traditional zoom lizards that are smaller. That's why I have a new list of smaller lures I'll be going through reviewing, testing and presenting on this video. So we're going to be using the zoom mini lizard that is four inches long and has the watermelon watermelon seed color, which should work pretty well. It's also the super salt plus version so it adds an extra salty flavor and that might actually work well for me since I'm close to the ocean. I'm not sure that tricks fish. It gives a little bit of flavor. You put salt in your food.
The Environment
Right now I still have my zoom trick worm on so let's take that off and put it back in the bag. I'm gonna be using this weightless because this is the heat of summer and I want to fish where you would normally find lizards. They'll be near trees, logs, overhanging bushes, rocks, lily pads, and underwater grass as you've seen her lately the cyanobacteria bloom that has created a great environment for the underwater grass around here.Â
A portion of the Charles River Esplanade is all overhang trees and lily pads. I will see if I can get a random largemouth bass there. I can't wait till they come back from their exodus of the area. Small fish have been gone for quite some time, but are starting to come back. I went five or six days ago with my son to go fishing and we caught blue gills amd pumpkin seeds every cast for like two hours. I mean unbelievable fishing but I don't work over there so I can't fish at work there but I can fish during the weekend. We were in a canoe fishing and it was fantastic.
However we have problems here and maybe you see this now more than you have in the past. Maybe you live in Florida and you're dealing with a more serious issue. They have the red tide. They also have the blue green algae cyanobacteria as well and it's gone airborne in that movie "Outbreak" and everybody's getting sick, coughing, headaches, etc... The overall effects look bad.
Rigging Up The Zoom Lizards
So back to what I was doing. Let's get this lizard. I'll be doing the same thing I traditionally do with all plastic worms. I want to hook up through the head using the full straightened point of the hook so I can hide the knot. This technique helps the zoom lizards stay on to make it nice and level. Remember this is a smaller zoom mini lizard so be pretty careful where you do it because if you do it toward an edge, which is almost like I just did it could easily get damaged. It could just rip the lizard in half but that's why you buy more than one. I paid $10 for another one lure and had to get another one pretty soon after I used it.
So we're all rigged up. We got a green zoom mini lizard trying to camouflage itself. Fish will see the silhouette. They'll see that it's zoom lizards, but they're used to that. They are around here because I've seen them. They are abundant in many places, but there's snakes and bugs.
Why Am I Talking About Fly Fishing?
I totally forgot about fly fishing. I haven't gotten the fly fishing gear. I haven't gotten the lures. I haven't learned anything. I've been more focused on the fact that there's nothing here that would eat a fly.
I am hoping in a couple weeks, September, mid September, October to get the ball rolling. This stuff will go away because the heat will go down, which will stop the cyanobacteria, which will stop the underwater grass. That will clear up the water and all of the fish will come.
Zoom Lizards Fishing Techniques
So here are overhanging trees and a little bit of water depth. I'm gonna slide some  zoom lizards under it and see if there may be something there. I never gotten a bite here before for anything, but it's always possible. I should always be trying new things as well as yourself. Something just bit the tail. I actually saw it for a second as it rolled on the zoom mini lizard. I'm not really sure if it will bite again. I am going to throw it back in there. Hopefully, it hasn't given up on it. There's something biting it again.
The fish are back I can't see them all but there's something over there. So whatever bit my zoom lizards didn't come back again. I know that it's able to elicit bites or at least anger fish enough to take a snap at it. So I'm gonna move over to lily pads and see if there isn't something there.
Reaction Bites
The vantage point from the video is good, but it is possible to see the zoom lizards fall off the lily pad and into the water. I can cast on top of the lily pad about a couple feet in and give it a shake. The fish is able to see that there's something above them thats smaller than them.Â
Dragonflies are smaller than the zoom lizards. Anything that's smaller than largemouth bass will be tracked across lily pad until it drops in the water. They're waiting with their mouth open at the edge of the lily pad. Snap they engulf the lure without even thinking about it. That's really what I'm looking for here.
The reaction strike is based upon a perception of a great deal. They don't know what it is. They know it's edible. So I'm going to do that a little further down here on the lily pads. I can't show this well on camera, but I will see if I can get a strike happening. If I do you'll see it first because I'm gonna put it on here live and tell you what happened, when I hit it, and what kind of technique I use right now
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The Panfish Are Back!
Are you serious? Over on the other side of that section. I didn't get over there, but I did see a whole bunch of big blue gills. They're starting to come back. Something good is happening. Maybe I'll come with my live worms next time. So I've been playing a nice game of tug of war with most likely a pumpkin seed or blue gill. Their mouth is small and he snaps at the tail every time I cast over the same spot like nine times in a row.
I don't have time to play games right now, but I do have time to move to the spot over here on the underside of the tree next to the overhanging branches. Maybe a bigger bluegill big enough to grab this big boy will come alone.
I am gonna wrap it up today. Tomorrow I'll either be doing some grub on jig heads. I will be doing basic fishing and not spending too much time on topic, but we will see how it goes. This is the Dwight Norris of fishingatwork.com telling you try out some zoom mini lizards at your local watering hole and see if you can get yourself a big bass.... not like me.
