Hottest Day of The Year
July 11, 2020
We had an earlier than usual start of 6:00 today, due to the forecasted temps for the afternoon. Rob joined James and bass were the targeted species. We would be spending the entire day in search of the old bronzeback!
Our first spot wasn’t what I had expected as only a couple of fish even showed up! James unfortunately missed both of them and despite our efforts, we were forced to move to another area. I was hoping it wouldn’t be the same!
The second stop saw Rob getting on the board quickly and James still struggling. It wasn’t for a lack of trying as they both had missed chances! The fish weren’t really feeding by the looks of their follows and I tried several different baits with similar results.
Another move was made to a different location and I was beginning to see a pattern. Rob had the only fish here and we covered the area entirely! Even the seagulls were sleeping on the rocks! Definitely not a good sign!
A couple more moves were made with plenty of other chances, but most were failed attempts at landing the bass. It wasn’t until I ventured offshore to a reef that things started to change! On Rob’s first cast, he connected with a quality smallie and it had plenty of friends!
I had switched locations so much that I was about to go deep when we hit a place that seemed loaded with good fish. To my surprise, some of them actually wanted to eat! For almost 2 hours, we had action and despite many, many missed strikes, they still managed to land a good number of our targeted species. The action was just insane as there were fish competing for their baits!
With less than a couple of hours remaining in their day and still no wind, we made a long run in search of something different. I had found an area absolutely loaded with sturgeon a couple of days back and brought all the necessary tackle to fish for them today. Hopes of raising the roof and dropping the lines in for a final kick at the can were soon destroyed however, as the fish were gone. I ran all over looking for them but could only mark one fish here and there. Not worth anchoring on!
In the end, we were forced to drop shot another area for bass & walleye. Although it wasn’t great under these conditions, they still managed to get into a few smallies and a bunch of small eyes. Ironically with about 30 minutes remaining, the winds started to blow from the SE and they picked up pretty good. Too bad they were from the wrong direction, creating a two foot chop on the water and making boat control harder. After a couple more drifts, we packed it up and headed back.
Although we got an early start, it really didn’t matter as we were in the heat all day. It may not have been the best fishing, but despite the struggle they managed to catch a bunch of nice bass. The bonus walleye at the end were all released as nobody wanted to take any of the keepers home, including myself. Overall, a tough but rewarding day!
