Another Cold Start

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After yesterdays heavy rainfall, I was back out this morning, not knowing what to expect. Scott & his son Tristan would have an interesting day to say the least! The waves were crashing on the docks as I dropped the boat in and I knew the ride was going to be a little bumpy. Along with the giant winds, the temps hit an all time low for July, starting the day at a balmy 56 degrees. Thankfully I had all kinds of extra clothes in the truck and I layered up like the fall. With the winds coming from the east, I headed somewhere that hopefully would be protected. Getting there however was a different story as 2 to 3 footers were what we had for the run.

I thought we’d begin the day with a little trolling to see what had happened from yesterday’s weather. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the water temps had fallen from almost 74 degrees all the way to 67.5. I knew that this couldn’t be good! Let’s just say that our trolling didn’t last long when I spent 45 minutes and only one reel fired! Nothing was chasing and I quickly made a move to a different area and began fishing much slower. Here too, it was nothing like the previous time I had fished. I realized that if we were going to get bit, we’d have to slow down even more. It almost required a dead stick presentation to entice the bass into biting. Once I changed everything up, they started catching several good sized smallies on soft plastics. This one area yielded about a half dozen or more nice fish before I moved to another spot a little further away. Here too they landed several nice bass and I decided to try an area that I hadn’t touched all year. It was a good move as Tristan managed to land a couple of giants along with many other quality sized bass too. Scott also hooked into a good number of brownies and we hung in here until they stopped biting. I think we may have spent close to 3 hours on this spot before finally relocating. The sun had come out while we were here and the fish had really turned on. I hoped that the next location would be the same!

After a long run, I stopped in another similar location but wasn’t happy to see how dirty the water had become. All the rain and wind had muddied up the area, but were the fish still here? I needed to cover water a little quicker to find out so I had Tristan throw a crankbait and he hooked into a bass on his very first cast. The fish threw the hooks on a spectacular jump, but I had the confirmation I needed. I switched back to a slower presentation and it was one fish after another for these two for quite a while. So much so that I was running out of time and eventually left them biting. I wanted to dropshot a deeper spot before we ended the day and headed there with less than an hour remaining. On a demonstration cast, a really nice smallie hit the bait and Scott was locked up! Tristan was having a tough time getting use to the technique but with a little coaching, he managed to land three nice smallies in the time remaining. In fact, I think there were at least 7 or 8 fish boated before we called the day. They had experienced all kinds of weather today and had worked through the difficult times. Although the fishing was tough at the start, it definitely turned around once the sun came out. High numbers of bass were caught by both Scott & his son Tristan once we switched presentations & techniques. This day was a birthday gift for his son and a win, win for everyone involved. I can’t think of a better way to spend a B Day!