I played hooky this week

[pdxfisher]

I took off this week from work and ended up going fishing on Wednesday due to the nice wind forecast for the gorge. Man, what a difference a week and a half makes. Last trip out the bass were chasing bait (smolts) until noon. The bass were schooling and busting bait until at least noon. The river felt alive and thick with life. Gulls and osprey everywhere. 

 

This week the river was dead quiet. I guess the smolt have out-migrated and nary a ripple disturbed the surface for most of the day. After an early flurry of topwater action that only resulted in two bass the rest of the day was quite a grind for me. I threw my usual favorite spybait quit a bit but only caught one fish on it all day long. I switched techniques constantly throughout the day and would have a sudden flurry when I changed things up and then things would just go dead again.

 

I only caught 18 bass with the biggest probably going 16" or so (did not bother measuring).  I had three times during the day when I caught fish on back-to-back casts and one of those times it ended up being 4 bass in 6 casts. Those three flurries accounted for 8 of the 18 bass I caught on the day. Thus, you can tell that otherwise it was a slow grind of an occasional fish here or there.

 

I think the fish are just set up really differently compared to all my other recent trips. Spots that have been consistently loaded where ghost towns. I would have to say that I never really figured out a solid pattern. Every time I though I had something going for a few minutes the bite would turn off and I would not be able to repeat that short success. Very frustrating on both size and numbers.

 

I finally decided at noon to go back to the ramp to grab my drift sock to try and stop the breeze from pushing me around. That ended up not working out very well since there was not really enough current to counteract the wind. Once I got that drift sock I decided to head East even though the wind was out of the West. That was big mistake. The wind seemed to pick up as I headed East and the conditions were too tough to fish since the fish were not very active. It was really hard to keep touch with my Ned rig and drop show while bouncing around like crazy. That ended up just being a bunch of pedaling exercise. I spent probably an hour and half of pedaling without a single bite.

 

I did talk to one guy how had done better than me on size. He had two 19s and an 18 (which he caught in short order off one spots_ but otherwise he said the bite was really show for him as well. 

 

Anyway, I will have to make sure I bring my thinking cap on my next trip I was not ready for that kind of a day and it really through me for a loop. I look forward to figuring them out next time.

 

Here are some pics and my video from the day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

Quote

I only caught 18 bass with the biggest probably going 16" or so (did not bother measuring).

 

We had the same success: I caught 17 with the biggest going 17.5" or so.

 

On 8/11/2024 at 5:44 PM, pdxfisher said:

 I had three times during the day when I caught fish on back-to-back casts and one of those times it ended up being 4 bass in 6 casts. Those three flurries accounted for 8 of the 18 bass I caught on the day.

 

I've experienced the same flurries with droughts in-between. 

 

On 8/11/2024 at 5:44 PM, pdxfisher said:

I look forward to figuring them out next time.

 

That's the fighting spirit! They throw me for loops too sometimes and I sit at home and think, "How about if I........next time?"

[pdxfisher]

3 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

We had the same success: I caught 17 with the biggest going 17.5" or so.

 

 

I've experienced the same flurries with droughts in-between. 

 

 

That's the fighting spirit! They throw me for loops too sometimes and I sit at home and think, "How about if I........next time?"

 

It's funny how we mirrored each other, but I really want to mirror you on one of your monster days: )