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11/21/08 The day that ends my season in back started out with an unprecedented surprise. No, it wasn't the 12 degree wind chill, or the sheet of ice covering the deck of the boat or even the predicted 1" of snow forecasted, it was the water temperature and the dramatic plunge. I thought I was having a gauge malfunction when the chart plotter read 38 degree water temps but after an entire day of fishing it was true, our temps never got above 41 degrees all day which is stunning considering the day prior was 55 degrees. When we arrived at our first stop of the day I said to my client, today is a big fish day, we won’t have big numbers but we will have weight and our 2nd stop and 2nd cast proved that to be true. The magical "Fortune Fly" once again delivers the biggest bass of the season on the fly. We hooked up with this bruiser and it was immediately game on as he dug deep and rode the current with a long steady run putting us into the back in quick order. After a lengthy battle on the 8wt. rod we had a beautiful 19lb. 38" Striped specimen boatside for some photos before releasing him to fight another day. A real trophy Bass for the SJ shallows. We got back into position to repeat the process and a few minutes later we were tight again with another Bass, only this one was in the 27" 10 lb range. We fished several other areas hard but only managed to have a few lethargic strikes until the last area of the day when we picked up 1 more schoolie in the 24" class to end the trip. I will spend the next 2 weeks running out front in the big boat so my reports will continue to be updated until the 1st week in December.
11/18/08 It looks like the weather will keep me off the water today and possibly Wednesday. Next update will be on Friday.
11/17/08 There was definitely a touch of winter in the air this afternoon as predicted for tomorrow as well. It was tough sledding today. The Bass were very selective and ruthless on strikes, giving you one shot at a hook up, no exceptions. We picked a few smaller Bass early in the trip but didn't get on the bite until the 9th inning when we had good size Bass holding along the edges of the flats. Once we dialed in on how they wanted the lure presented our Bass came more consistently with more agressive strikes than earlier in the trip. The Bass today ranged in size from 18" to 27". Water temps 50.
11/14/08 Slick calm water, no wind, fog so thick we could barely see the bow of the boat and bass rolling like tarpon just waiting for a well placed fly to sweep in front of them, so that’s just what we did. It took us about a 1/2 hour to close the deal on these rollers but we finally manage to hook up after getting the perfect presentation that they could not resist, which resulted in a nice 28" Bass plucked from 10" of water, and as a bonus I managed to capture all of it on film which will be seen in my next video, and trust me on this one...you will not want to miss this! We stayed in front of Bass the remainder of today's trip which produced some fine Bass ranging in size from 20-28". There are some real monsters lurking around throughout the SJ backcountry right now as I witnessed again today as a solid 20lb+ (42") hog came boatside chasing our lure as it came up from the depths. Hold on tight, this upcoming week should be exciting.
11/13/08 Today was identical to last Wednesday with a very predictable weather window ahead of, and between, double low pressure front (aka the “Meloche Crunch”). As my crystal ball forecasted yesterday, we had great moving water, a lot of newly hatched bait and the Bass bite was on once again, in its fall fury. We started the day sight fishing so we stopped in at a "ye ole' Bass n grass" for a bite. I could see almost immediately that we had very nice fish tailing and working bait deep in the grasses, which resulted in getting the skunk out of the boat pronto. With the first fish pressure off we ran to seek out a bit of topwater action which has been hot and cold but after about a 1/2 hour of nada action we pulled up stakes and ran to work the edges of one of my favorite fall flats. It didn't take long before the action heated up delivering some real quality Fall size bruiser bass ranging in size from 26" to 35" that were just crushing assorted artificials and just as weeks prior it was all about presentation.
11/11/08 I will be out of commission for the next 2 days. My steering cable broke as I was preparing for today's trip. If all goes well with getting the part I will be back in action on Thursday.
11/10/08 Today was another day with a weather window to shoot for to avoid some big winds only this time it didn't produce as much as before. The Bass were hard to find today but we worked hard and managed to get our fair share of "ninja strikes" and managed to wrangle 3 to the boat today. I believe things will fire back up and become more predictable once again as we approach the moon and the current starts to run again. Like tomorrow.
11/07/08 Man oh man what a day, overcast skies, light winds, gin clear water and air temperatures in the mid 60's, put them all together and you get a picture perfect striper day. The only way it would have been even better would be if we had caught some Bass. I must say it was puzzling. We had our fair share of strikes throughout the day but the pattern of the bite was one not made for success. We had 1 to 2 strikes per spot, 1 strike per fish and never got a second chance at any of them. We worked hard for the bite today but in all we got the skunker #2 for the season.
11/06/08 Oh Yeah I do remember Gale. Winds are up 40 + I am off the water until tomorrow.
11/05/08 Gale who? The weather window was open so we fished on through it. Even though gale warnings where posted for today I could see the 4 to 5 hours of opportunity so we made the run and got rewarded handsomely. Angry skies and steady 20 knt + blow when we pushed off to head to our first flat of the day and it didn't take long before we could see that our efforts would pay off. The weather made no difference on the action today from our 1st flat to our last we had big moving current, clear water and a steady pick throughout the trip which included a nice 12 lb and a 15.lb specimen. As always both where released to fight another day .
11/03/08 Another bluebird day, 62 degrees sunny skies, smooth water and a steady pick of Bass. After coming up blank at our first flat of the day we jumped ship on the topwater bite (know when to hold'em know when to fold'em) but once we switched to a subsurface presentation we were line tight on Bass the remainder of the day. The Bass were a bit more challenging to find today more than likely due to the abnormal amount of boat traffic which by their boating etiquette had to be leftovers from the fair weather weekend warrier brigade. Not to worry things will be back to no boat status tomorrow. We managed to pick 9 Bass today ranging in size from 20"-27" with the largest of the day escaping us as he broke us off on his blistering first run off the flats.