California Dreaming
August 1, 2023
Darryl & Andrew were in from California and spending their last day fishing. We began by dropshotting open water in a good chop but they only managed a few small bass & walleye. I decided to move once the light rain started and headed to another area further away, to fish in less wind.
Our second spot wasn’t great but several good bass were landed by using soft plastics. They were quite familiar throwing these baits back home and had no problem with the smallies! I did notice however that the fish weren’t eating very well and most of them came, by almost dead-sticking the soft plastics! They wanted almost zero movement!
After working the area thoroughly, I moved to another flat and it was here that things picked up. At least for Andrew! A good number of bass were caught, but just in one section of the spot. Both of them managed to hook into some quality fish but Andrew definitely had the hot hand with most of them. He was literally doing nothing and continually catching fish. Darryl did have some action and was hooked up to a real beauty, but his line broke before it neared the net. Definitely a tough break!
We spent the day dodging a few storms and always seemed to stay ahead of the worst ones. In fact, one of our long moves kept us in the sunshine the entire time, while we watched it pass us by. More fish were caught in each place and several walleye were landed as well. Both dropshotting and casting soft plastic baits were used to slowly finesse these fish into biting. They really weren’t in the mood to chase!
After waiting out the worst of the storms, I decided to make another long run, in hopes of some bigger fish. The winds had picked up considerably from the NW and we were now running in 2 & 3 footers. I arrived and unfortunately the area I wanted to fish wasn’t what I thought it would be and only one fish was missed. I moved again to another spot close by and Andrew landed his biggest fish of the day. It was also his PB for the second time today! Between them, they managed to get a handful of bass before we headed out. Time was closing in on the day and I wanted to try one more area before we were done.
I realized just how big the lake had gotten when I headed back towards the ramp. The NW winds had increased to a point that we were in big rollers & whitecaps all the way. I wanted to get closer to the shore and stopped on a flat to finish the day. Here they managed to get a few more fish before we were done.
Darryl & his son Andrew ended their vacation the way they wanted, fishing! While the rest of the family stayed in the city shopping, they did what they liked best. This was the perfect ending to a great week of sightseeing and they couldn’t have planned it better. Numbers of quality bass were caught and they were much bigger than the smallies they usually catch back home. California isn’t really known for their smallmouth, but the largemouth grow real big over there! They were treated to great brown bass action this time though and left with some real big fish caught. A great time was had by all and it was a pleasure having them out for the day. Great fishermen and even greater company!!
