Escaping The Storm

James was back again with Randall and this time the brought Chuck along for a day of bass fishing. We were in for another scorcher and it looked like a windless one again too!

I didn’t expect it to be difficult catching bass right after the opener but today was a shocker. The water had fallen so much that the spawn seemed completely over and all the shallow fish had vacated the usual haunts. What should have been a crap shoot turned into a difficult morning. Plenty of smaller fish were landed but the good ones were few & far between!

It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had to change up presentations and tactics in order to get the bites I wanted. We hit a few off shore places and finally started to catch better fish! One of the areas saw aggressive bites from several good fish just before a storm. Just after noon, we actually had to pull off the water with as it got closer. We remained on shore for close to an hour as thunder and high winds added to the heavy rains.

When the storm had passed, we were able to head back out in more scorching heat! Limited time remaining had me trying a couple more areas and one of them produced quite well. Several fish were missed and caught with Randall getting the best one of the day. James almost had his second lunge with me too, as another big toothy critter took a swipe at the bait he was throwing, only a few feet from the boat.

Time had run out and 4:00 hit fast in the afternoon with the weather break. We were done!

Despite all the changes, I was able to make the necessary adjustments to turn this slow morning into a decent day. Some good fish were caught and Randall even managed to add another species to his bucket list. He landed a drum in the morning that was his first ever! Hopefully in the coming weeks, the summer fishing will be in full mode making for actively feeding fish all over. Great days ahead!