Thursday August 26th Solo Trip
Got out on the lake today after being away to see Mom for a few days. It’s been a full week since I was last on the water and for the most part, nothing much has changed. Fish are still scattered from Browns Bridge down to the dam. The surface temps were a bit cooler compared to the beginning of August but that’s to be expected considering how much rain has fallen the past week.
I started the day by looking in the no wake zone of Aqualand. Much to my surprise there were a few fish around and I was able to bag one on the “going away” troll. As I exited the buoy markers, he bit and it was a nice way to start the day with a nice 10 lb Striper.
I proceeded to troll out to the mouth of Flowery but didn’t see much. I then turned up lake and cruised to Orr. Here I found lots of fish in both deep and shallow water. Doug told me he boated a 30 lb’er Monday from this location so I worked it hard. After trolling up two fish in the deep water, I jigged for 45 minutes and managed 4 more. 6 fish in just over an hour wasn’t bad but they were small; 7-9 lbs isn’t anything to get excited about right now.
Leaving fish in search of something bigger, I headed over to Shady Grove. Here I didn’t see anything till I got to the shore back in a deep water pocket. Sure enough, the fish were stacked, aggressive and BIG! My first two were 12 -14 lbs like this one:
The really cool thing about these fish is they were strong. I could barely stop them when they first bit and they were taking 30 lb Spider like it was 8 lb mono. The 4th fish I hooked must have been really big. I was using my “heavy” rod spooled with 40 lb Firewire and I couldn’t stop this fish. He grabbed my big Daredevil and never quick taking line. After loosing quite a bit to him I turned the drag a little tighter and he snapped the braid like it was thread. I’ve never had that happen before and generally I don’t like to mess with the drag when fighting a big fish but he was headed for the trees so I didn’t have a choice.
After boating 5-6 at this spot I ran down to the dam, Bald Ridge and Shoal. I spent some 30-40 minutes doing recon but didn’t mark much of anything. Heading back to the Sisters and the mouth of Flowery to finish the day, I trolled one fish in front of Flowery out by the channel and then jigged one at the end of my dock bringing the day’s total to 14-15 fish. Not a bad effort all things considered.
Some key points that made the day a success:
1) It was cloudy most of last night and around 10:30 this morning it started raining. Clouds lingered all day which I’m sure helped my cause.
2) The full moon was this past Tuesday and though the fishing was tough that day, clouds rolled in Wednesday and most guides did all right. I think we may have missed a bad “cycle” this full moon with the cloud cover keeping the fish from “feeding out” during the night.
3) The fish this summer have hung tight to the timber like I don’t ever remember. Though I’m finding fish out in open water, they aren’t nearly as cooperative as I’d like. This could be moon related but no doubt todays fish were more aggressive when they were in shallow water and over or in the trees. This makes fishing harder but somehow easier too (more bites) so you’ve got to choose your poison. You can spend a lot of time with the big open water fish that aren’t aggressive or you can go to the trees and roll the dice with a lot more bites but unfortunately, a lot more risk!
As September rolls around, I expect more of the same pattern. With the water temps still warm, I fully expect there to be some awesome fishing the next few weeks. With any luck this pattern will hold through till October so I’m thinking we still have a 3-6 week window of great fishing.