Difficult Times
July 8, 2025
After many great trips, today was one of the most difficult days spent on the water. A cold front moved in overnight and turned yesterday’s SW into an even bigger NE wind. The waves made it more difficult to get a trolling bite going with even more floating vegetation, everywhere. Absolutely impossible to keep the rods clean!
After trying to find water that wasn’t just choked with grass, we finally had a rip that lasted about one second before it was gone. Eventually I did get another to stay pinned and Amy reeled in her first ever smallie. I thought we might get another but unfortunately that was the only one. I tried for about another 30 minutes without anything and eventually pulled the lines out of frustration. I had probably cleaned them over 100 times already and had enough!
I decided to try something different and switched gears completely. I had all four of the guests, casting lures in another area, in hopes of bass bites. John was the first to lock up with a dropshot, but slack line caused the fish to get off on the jump. Mike also lost his first fish on the jump, but at least we had action. They did however both manage to land their next fish and things were starting to look up. It wasn’t easy fishing here with the huge waves and a few more missed strikes were had before Mike finally landed the biggest bass of the trip. We were limited to time with only a four-hour morning trip, so I remained here until it was time to depart. Unfortunately, Mike had the last bite before we packed up and headed back to take out!
Our run back was in three footers and not pleasant! Although we remained dry, it was still a rough ride, with the wind against the current. We made it back to the ramp without incident and were all glad to be out of the cold wind and waves. Fortunately, everyone had caught fish today in these extreme conditions, despite the poor trolling bite. I just hope that the conditions change soon and that the weeds float away allowing me to get back into the troll once again. It has been a great bite for both quality as well as quantity and definitely the best method when I have a full boat, like today. Hoping for better days ahead!
