A few weeks ago I had a lung infection that I thought was going to sideline me permanently but with aggressive treatments I bounced back quicker then expected, and these past two weeks I was able to spend a ton of time on the water doing charters. As good as it felt to be out, I have never been so stressed over the bite like these last two weeks.
Over the past month the water dropped 4 ft but went up 3 ft in a week. This sudden change with added northern winds have cooled, muddied, and turned over the water. It has slowed the bite dramatically. Typically this time of the year it's hot, light or no breeze in the morning making the lake like a sheet of glass. The bait fish comes up to the surface and the bass then school up and feed. This makes for great top water action....yeah that's not happening yet. Typically by late morning to early afternoon, we change up to heavier baits and fish deep drop offs usually with Carolina rigged fluke or sinko.....yeah that's not happening.
These conditions over past two weeks has forced me to constantly change baits and techniques each hour of every charter.
What seems to be the only thing working has been Texas rigged cache custom lures 6" green pumpkin candy xtreme stix. Now I say that so specifically because that is truly the only color they are bitting. I have tried sinkos, zoom super flukes, basspro version of the sinko, and tons of hard baits....but the only thing that has consistently worked is the xtreme stix.
Fishing areas extremely slow, and fishing areas at a specific time in the morning is what's getting my clients on fish. It's taking a lot of patience from my clients but they all have been hammering out fish. The numbers are lower then normal and same goes for size. The winds will be dying down and the rains will be letting up in the afternoon so hopefully I will start seeing that normal June pattern this weekend.
Lee from the UK (white shirt) did manage to catch a 4 lbs bass, it was his first time ever bass fishing, his second time ever fishing, and his first fish of the day.
Today Jose from Texas landed this 3 lbs bass late in the morning. Today was probably the toughest day of fishing in the last two weeks.
I am excited to have more charters this week and hopefully the fish will be just as excited and bite like normal.
