Another Day & Another Blow

Craig & Steve were back again this morning and the winds were even stronger. They were blowing out of the NW once again even though they were listed as SW. Same thing only different! At least the sun was shining and it was suppose to stay all day! We began working offshore and although I was marking all kinds of fish, they just weren’t very active. I decided quickly to change it up and slowed down drifting jigs on the bottom. First pass, they had a good double and I thought we were on to something. A couple more passes later and still nothing to show for our efforts, I changed it up once again. I now had them casting a different area as I somehow managed to plow through the intense winds on the electric and Craig hooked into a real giant. It even cooperated by coming directly at the boat, allowing me to get a quick net on her. She was a monster and comparable to his first fish caught several week s back. We knew the bite was going to be tough with these winds but worked through it and Craig was rewarded with a beast like this. It deserved to be released immediately after a few pics and not livewelled like most others would have done. We continued with the same approach and Craig boated another smaller one not long after. It was definitely the way to go under these conditions. I now had the two of them up front with me and as difficult as it was charging into the wind, Steve set into another good one almost immediately after Craig’s was released. This was also giant and fought like a champ in the cold water. When I finally got her in the net, we realized that it was even bigger that the previous one Craig had landed. Things were beginning to happen and although we weren’t catching numbers of bass, they were definitely the size we wanted. We once again shot several different angled pics of his catch and released her right after. They had both managed to catch a trophy already and there was plenty of time left for even more! I stuck with this approach and covered lots of water hoping for others, but it was a while before it occurred. Craig eventually set into another giant and had it coming to the boat when it decided to take to the air. All of a sudden the hook was tossed and his fish was gone. Too bad too as it looked just like the two other monsters! Although a little heartbroken, we carried on and soon after, he hooked into another. This too was large, but not as big as the one that he had just lost. We were on to a pattern that was giving us only quality and weren’t about to change unless we had to. Well, the winds switched direction and seemed like they were letting up slightly now, so I decided to go back to the deeper water and resume drifting. I think it took Steve about 3 seconds to hook up and another big fish came to the net. Quite a switch from yesterday’s numbers game! I made a few more passes and both Craig & Steve landed several more beauties before we were crushed with yet another wind switch. It went from a hard west to an even harder SW increasing our speed to almost 2 knots. This was way too fast and I had no choice but to change up once more. I needed boat control and this location wasn’t going to allow us to have it. Another move and a new technique had us right back in the game as Steve wasted no time hooking up. For the remainder of the day, it was fish after fish and very little time in between. They were of all sizes but several of them were the calibre we wanted. We stuck at it until about 3:15 before we pulled the plug and called it a day. Despite the insane winds and direction changes, I was able to make all the right moves, keeping them on fish throughout. These last two days were challenging to say the least! I was happy to have a couple of good sticks in the boat with all the difficulty and the results showed it too. They had come here in hopes of catching big fish and had done just that! I know Craig is looking at coming back soon and I hope the fishing is a little easier. If not though, I know we can get it done! After seeing their success these last couple of days, we’ll just have to make the necessary adjustments to make it happen once again. Tough fishing but very rewarding!!