Tougher Fishing

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June 29th 2018

 

Day two for Neville & Tony was a little different with the conditions. We didn’t have flat calm like yesterday but rather a strong SW wind gusting over 20 knots at times. In fact, depending on where we were on the lake, it felt more like a straight west in some areas. Fly fishing was going to be tough!

I decided to hit the same starting spot that had produced well for them yesterday. With expectations high, they began casting hard baits, in search of their first strike. Unlike the day before however, many casts were made before Tony finally hooked one. Too bad it threw the hooks on the jump! His second fish was almost immediately after and this too ended with the same results. He was starting out just like the day before by losing fish again! His luck changed however when he finally put the third one in the boat. Neville wasn’t as fortunate as Tony but eventually this all changed. Between the two of them, there were about a half dozen fish landed here with a bunch of missed strikes. Tony did however land his biggest fish of the trip so far, making up for the lack of bites. Time to move!

I had wanted to try an area further away but wasn’t sure about the wind direction. When I arrived, I realized that it was blowing directly on us and we were forced to fish in big waves. It didn’t matter though as the fish were here! Tony hooked up on almost his first cast, once I positioned the boat. He was on fire again today but Neville got in the game quickly too and they even had a couple of doubles. These fish were really active unlike the first spot we fished and hammering their baits. So much so that Neville decided to try the fly rod again. With the electric motor I was able to hold him in position allowing him to cast properly to where the fish were holding. If someone hooked up I just hit the anchor button and went back to net their fish without moving from the spot. I love this feature and don’t know why I never change sooner!

With Neville only managing one small bass and one really good one on the fly and Tony slowing down on his catching, I decided to move to another area in hopes of more active fish. What I thought should be holding plenty of post spawners turned out to be only having a handful of medium sized males. We also hit another area nearby and found it to be almost the same. Although there was only a small percentage of what I expected, at least they were larger ones and Tony brought to net a good fish. After another long period with only a few more bass, I decided to move once again. This time however Neville wanted to try for largemouth and I headed to where I knew they were.

We went in really shallow and once we were deep in the weeds it was like a furnace. With very little wind to help us, it was just a scorcher! They saw all kinds of wildlife along with a ton of gar but the bass were almost nonexistent. It was also a challenge for them to cast their baits and not hook the weeds. Tony finally managed to land one decent largemouth but that was the only one. We covered plenty of water, but we fished way too fast for what we needed to do. The water was 75 degrees and I’m sure the bass were tucked deep into the pockets, requiring more of a flipping & pitching technique. After about 45 minutes, we pulled out and went to another area for smallies once again.

I realized that the wind was more of a west blow when I arrived here as I was once again forced to use the anchor feature on the electric motor to hold them in position. With a SW wind we would have been protected, but we weren’t! This didn’t stop them from hooking up though and a number of good bass were landed from this place. Neville even managed a couple more on the fly and had several follows from others. With little time remaining in the day, this was going to be the last place we would be able to fish. I repositioned the boat multiple times allowing them to properly fish the entire area. They caught a good number of bass from here on a variety of soft plastics, before we ended the day.

Although fewer fish were taken today, the size seemed to be better. Neville even managed to pick up 4 of his fish on the fly rod and the balance on a variety of other baits. I think Tony still had the numbers overall once again however but Neville didn’t mind. According to him, one on the fly is worth 5 on the spinning rod! It’s definitely more of a challenge at this time of the year and one he was willing to try. In the end, they were both satisfied with the outcome of the day and that’s all that counts!!