I lost a whopper! It Almost solidified my skunk.

[Darth-Baiter]

What a day. Windy, hot, slow fishing.  Lots of heavy ballasted wake boats. My kayak was like a tiny bobber in their wakes. 
 

I fished all day with only that giant hit. The fish wrapped me up in timber and it was game over before it began. I couldnt turn it. The next 6 hours were brutal.  Tiny nibbles, mis strikes, cussing.    Thinking “what if?”

 

my friend announced, “10 more minutes and we have to go”. (His wife is under the weather)

i agreed. 
 

I kid you not. I put on a purple drop shot worm.  And let it soak. A big wake boat passes us uncomfortably close. He was split between us and some paddle boards. I watch the wave approach, and contemplated turning my nose to it…TICK!  What???1. Set the hook gently and a 3-lb bass saved me the quiet sad ride home thinking about my skunk.   Next cast, a hooked a 2.5…. Time go as agreed. What a brutal day. 
 

im actually looking forward to work tomorrow so I can rest my body. Haha.  Happy July 6th!

 

I think the waves from the boats kick up bait and the fish feed.  Thought?

[TheBasslayer]

Today I lost a 3 pound smallmouth in Ludington and a 3-4 pound largemouth in Portage:( But it’s always nice when you get the skunk off at the last second!

[Darth-Baiter]

True.  I fist pumped the sky. 

[TnRiver46]

I have seen boat waves ignite a feeding frenzy a time or three. One bank I know has a bunch of loose rocks inside a chain link fence on the waters edge, lots of fish seems to feed there when waves hit the rocks 

[Bluebasser86]

Boat wakes typically bother us a lot more than the fish IMO. An exemption from that would be when they're stirring up mud in shallow water and it kills either a sight fishing bite or fish that were visually feeding shut down because of the reduced visibility. 

[Smells like fish]

Bad day today for me. 93 degrees, so wet with sweat looked like I had fallen in. Caught a few on the Devils Horse and a couple on Texas rigged worms. Seem to have got a lot of short strikes and swirling on the Devils Horse, overall a disappointing day. But no skunk at least. 

[DaubsNU1]

Most of the lakes I fish around here are 5 MPH limit / no-wake. 

 

No wake-boats in this...

 

 

Fished today...hot and humid...mid 90's afternoon...sunny with 10-15 MPH winds. 

 

I was catching fish all day...mainly on NED rigs. Something turned them on even more around 1 PM...they started hammering weightless Senko pitched near trees. All were under 1lb. 

 

It was a good day...Think I boated 40 bass total, dozen 'Gills and one Crappie. 

[Jaderose]

Reading all of the problems a lot of you have with pleasure boaters make me see how friggin blessed I am to have a great little (around 85 acres) bass lake full of stumps, laydowns, points, creeks, and all kinds of interesting features available to me at all times.  a lot of the time I'm not only the only boat on the lake, I'm most likely the only human in a 2 mile radius of it.

[David 7]

Would have gotten skunked today if it wasn’t for this little guy. It’s been tough going for me the last three weeks, dog days of summer I guess. I’m moving to jigs next time, they ain’t hitting the senkos. 

[DitchPanda]

Yesterday was tough for me. Hooked a 4 lb largemouth at my first spot fought it in got her close then she surged and cut my line on a piece of rebar. Then I tried 3 more of my good spots without a sniff. Finally at my last spot I caught a 3.5 on a big worm Texas rigged in a brush pile. Decided to throw my flashy swimmer\swimbait combo thru the brush and see if there was an aggressive bass hanging higher up or around the pile. Snagged and broke it off on the 3rd cast. Called it after that.