Some days the fish come easy but today wasn't one of those days. In
fact, the last handful of times I've gone to the lake or coast the
fishing has been slower. I got to the lake early and didn't see any
other boats at the end of the lake I was fishing. By 6:00 I was working a
topwater lure. I guess it was about fifteen minutes into the morning
when I got my first bite. That ended up being my best bite of the day
but it was still too dark for a picture. It was almost 7:00 before I got
another bite and that ended up being the last fish I would catch on
top. Saturday it was too calm but today it was just the opposite. The
wind was pushing hard enough that if I cast in any direction other than
straight downwind a bow would form in the line and my lure would track
back to the boat in an arc. That made it impossible to steer through the
sparse pads. It was also hard controlling my light boat and keeping it
positioned where I wanted it. It was time to switch to something else. I
wanted to try to pitch/flip with a spinning rod so I made my way over
to where the mats start. The wind was also making that difficult and I
was getting concerned about having enough battery to get back to the
landing in the ever increasing wind. I decided I would try and flip the
same mats close to the landing where I caught a couple of fish Saturday.
I put the trolling motor on a medium speed and picked up a silver #10
x-rap. It ran a little deep and I was picking up hydrilla on almost
every cast. A floating lure like a bang-o-lure would have been better
but there is no way I would have been able to throw a light balsa lure
into the wind. I managed to catch one bass right after I started
throwing it and I thought that maybe I was going to catch some fish on
it but the only other bite I got was a bowfin as I was getting close to
the landing. The canal leading to the landing is somewhat protected from
the wind so I started flipping again. The first fish I set the hook on
came loose when he smacked into the top of the trolling motor. Had he
not hit it he would have either landed in the boat of gone over it. I
caught one more fish before I called it a morning. I decided I'd be more
comfortable at home in the air conditioning.












