By James McManus
We made it through another summer, and this has been a wet one. Usually August has been my slowest month of the year, and a few trips have been a little frustrating, but most days if you change up locations and tactics you could find fish that would hit. Bad days all seemed to have similarities; fish weren’t hard to find, just could not get them to eat. Summer means trolling most days and I troll with my live scope turned backwards, looking at my trolled baits. When you mark fish, you can watch their reaction to your baits and nothing’s worse than seeing a school come up to your rigs, swim up and down around them and then drop out without touching anything.
There are a couple of things you can do to try and cure that. First thing is try and tell if they are keying on herring or threadfins. If you are trolling larger baits and they are eating 2” shad, you aren’t going to get bit, so downsize. Speed also can make a difference, so speed up or slow down; the old walleye trick of throwing the boat out of gear for a 20 count then back in gear can trigger a strike.
Sometimes the only difference is the time of day, we’ve had a lot of days when they wouldn’t bite til 10 AM, which makes for a long morning. And of course, there are the days when nothing works, which everyone will experience from time to time.
Last thing is you have to be willing to go to new places. It may be a longer boat ride, or even a different lake, but fish definitely move around. Worst thing you can do is keep trying what isn’t working.
Well, cooler weather is headed our way, and based on what we’ve done these dog days, I think it’s going to be a great fall. Let me know if you want to catch a few.
Thank God for our beautiful lakes.
Later, Capt. James
Capt. James McManus owns 153 Charters. Give him a call for a great day on the water at (828) 421-8125