Only Big Bites
September 2, 2020
Dimitri and his friends, Petros & Stamatis joined me this morning for a half day of fishing. After yesterday’s outing, I gave them the option to fish for sturgeon, but they opted to go for bass. Bass it was and away we went!
I decided that if we only had a few hours, I would begin on an area holding only quality. Bigger is always better and this place had the goods! Two of them were tossing blades looking for an aggressive bite while the other one was using soft plastics and a slower presentation. Hopefully both would work!
It took a little while to locate where the bass were positioned, but they finally contacted with a beast. Stamatis had hooked into a giant and as it took to the air, his line went limp. I knew he had lost the fish but didn’t know why until he reeled in. As it turned out, the smallie had broken his lure, leaving him with only the top half. This was a very disappointing start to his day!
Not long after retying another lure for him, Dimitri slammed a monster from the same general area. His was also huge but I think the previous one was even bigger! At least this time it stayed pinned and made it into the boat! I think the fish was his personal best and several good pics were taken before the release.
A few more bass were missed and lost but eventually Petros landed one of his own. This was also a really good fish and definitely bigger than anything he’d caught. He had managed to take it on a slower presentation with the soft plastics. More pics were taken before another quick release and now everyone had sampled the power of the smallie!
I remained in the area for quite a while and several more good fish were caught and or missed before relocating to another spot further away. We were hoping for more big fish action and covering water to get it!
The winds were blowing pretty good this morning from the south and I was limited to the areas we could fish. Add to that the dark skies from heavy cloud cover and visibility in the water wasn’t great. I was trying to stay pretty shallow in hopes of intercepting roaming schools but finding only isolated singles or small pods. At one spot, Dimitri even landed a walleye from less than 3 feet of water!
Time was passing quickly as these guys casted both rocks and weeds, anticipating their next big bite. Unfortunately missed fish were more common than the actual landing of bass and I decided to take a few casts as well. Big mistake, as I immediately hooked and landed another beast! Petros also had another giant hit him and get off when it took to the air!
One last move before we were done and Dimitri was hammered as soon as his lure landed, on a very long cast! I think his fish must have jumped four times as he reeled it towards the boat. He was able to bring it aboard though and we had the final fish of the day. We did hit one more area before we were done but with the big winds and waves, came up empty!
The short day overall was just about as I had expected. Not lots but quality! They had opted to fish for bass instead of sturgeon and due to the winds, I was glad. I’m not sure if we would have been able to anchor up in the conditions we were dealt. In the end, the results were as good as they could have been. A couple of personal bests were had and they got to see the power of the smallie. The cool nights will only make it better in the coming weeks as the numbers increase in the shallows. Hopefully the weather will allow us to get out and take advantage of the big bites that the fall brings! I can hardly wait for more!
