Warm Weather, Wind, and A Big Fat Skunk!!!!!!

Ready for a strike!

Last week was tough because of the cold temps and just not finding fish. This week however, was different because the temperature warmed up and I had high hopes with Sam gave me a call and said that he wanted to hit the river on Saturday. This was the plan and the weather held up and the water temps were sure to be warmer. This was encouraging, and my hopes were high for the day. I picked up my daughter from dance and was jacked up and had the boat ready to go. Dropped her off and away I went.

Now, at the time I left, the wind did not seem to be furious at all and I was thinking, this is great because I like some wind while fishing. I figured the temps would be up, I knew shad were moving up, and I thought the bass and eyeballs would be on the move. I got to Sam's house and could not believe the way the wind picked up. This could not even be considered moderate wind and surely the river would be severely blown up with the wind out of the South. Sam asked if I still wanted to go, and needless to say, we were off to the launch.

Got down to the river and could not believe my eyes. The wind was right down the main channel and there were full one footers with a two footer with whitecaps. I have never seen The Fox or any other river with this type of wave action. I still thought we would be able to find some fish with the warmer temps. It was tough just to get the boat off the trailer and I should have known what kind of day it would be. We trolled at first and our speed was perfect to no avail. We tried running down the river but it was reminiscent of the North Atlantic so I could not even do that. We found a stretch of river that went East, West and thought this would be the ticket for some action. The current was fast but the bottom was nice with chunk rock. We tossed square bills and lipless rattle baits again to no avail.

You can't see the height of the waves from this angle!

It was after fishing this stretch for a good while we decided to run the gauntlet back down stream to a bridge to flip the bridge pilings. Surely, there would be something hanging around the pilings waiting for baitfish to be blown into striking range by the current. Fished all the pilings and zip, zilch, nada, nothing!!!!!

We trolled a bit more and than readied to recover the boat at the launch that was right in the teeth of the wind. I knew this would not be an easy task and made the decision to drive the boat on because of the wind. I proceeded to back the boat out and she died. Something the Yammie rarely does and now I was at the mercy of the wind. I had no camera rolling at this time but sure wish I did. I know now the reasons for a bilge pump. The current spun me around and the waves were directly hitting the back of the boat and all it took to put about 3 inches of water in the bottom of the boat was two big waves and they crashed over the transom and got me soaked. I restarted her and made it to the trailer and miraculously got the boat on the trailer on the first try. My bilge was running full on and pumping a lot of water out of the boat and we made it. Another tough, windy day and for some reason this year the skunk will not leave me alone. Another great day to be out and I promise next time, Sam, we will get into em out there. Thanks for reading.