pdxfisher Posted June 24 Share Posted June 24 I think a good strategy in fishing is to take all your bad luck and pile it onto a single bad day so that all your other days good luck days. I guess it was my time to pay the piper on Friday. Nothing too horrendous just quite a few lost fish, missed bites and forgetting to turn my camera on after lunch. After my previous fantastic trip it just resulted in a big let down on what I was anticipating to be an epic day. Now, it was not a horrible day by far. I ended up with 19 bass with 5 being over 17" but it could have been so much better. I started off the day throwing a topwater towards a small rocky point that had two deer standing on it. The sun was brightening the sky in the backdrop and the water was like glass. There was a lady on the shore photographing the beautiful morning sky so I told her that there were deer on the point. I was talking to her as I was reeling in my first cast of the morning when my whopper plopper was destroyed by a really nice bass. I set the hook but was a bit distracted in talking to the lady on the shore and maybe I did not get as good of a hookset as I should have. Anyway that fish came up and made a beautiful, head shaking leap that sent my whopper plopper a good 10' through the air. Really quite impressive. I know folks say catching a fish on the first cast is bad luck, but I have to tell you that losing a nice one is even worse I then caught a small bass or two when I had another good fish on that once again tossed my plopper on a beautiful jump. So here I am on a gorgeous morning and I have already lost two nice bass. The rest of the morning I had a lot of bites but my conversion rate was not very good. It was frustrating to say the least. I am not sure if the issue was that I was using a larger 110 size (instead of my normal 90 size) plopper or if it just wasn't my day. After the sun came up a bit the topwater bite eventually died and I hit a long lull where I had a hard time finding a bite. I picked up one fish on the spy bait off of spot that is usually good for a handful. I went to another money spot and did not get a sniff. It was just a weird and frustrating day. Eventually as the morning went on I found a spot that was holding some decent fish and I was able to start to catch some nice fish in the 17-18.25" range. However compared to the previous week the bite was much slower. I was typically making quite a few casts between fish instead of getting bit on almost every cast (which is common when they are schooled up and chasing bait). Here are few action shots: They were biting pretty good on this spot until the wind died around 10am. I decided that I was hungry and so I decided to take my pills and eat my lunch. I turned off my camera while I ate lunch like I always do but I forgot to turn it back it back on after lunch. So I spent the next few hours catching bass and holding the up to the camera that was off like an idiot I did not realize I had forgotten to turn the camera back on until I went to turn off the camera much later in the day. With the bright sun and glare I could not see that the camera was off. So I did miss recording a handful of fish including my biggest of the day (18.5", 2lb 14oz). The interesting thing is the wind started out calm and I was getting bit pretty good first thing. Then the wind picked up out of the East and I found a spot where they were biting pretty decently. That spot died when it got calm. After lunch while it was calm I found another spot where I did pretty well but then the wind shifted out of the West around noon or so I did not get a bite for the last two hours. The strange thing is that the normal wind is out of the West (when I fish that area) so I did the worst under what I would consider my favorite condition. All in all it was just a day that felt off. So while the day was far from a bust it was littered with way too many lost fish, way to many missed bites, this sense that I could never get comfortable and the cherry on top was some stupidity on my part. However, I take solace in the hope that this was my bad luck purge trip and I will be running on all cylinders next trip out! Here are some pics and video from before lunch 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Bird Posted June 24 Super User Share Posted June 24 I feel for ya' I hate days where my expectations are so high and I only catch 19...... excruciating 😁 Congrats 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User GreenPig Posted June 24 Super User Share Posted June 24 That's just aweful. A lesser man would just quit. I always feel like somethings just a little off mentally and physically. 😀 I'm going tonight and will be extremely happy with 5 yes FIVE strikes. I 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxfisher Posted June 24 Author Share Posted June 24 The bass fishing out here is pretty outstanding g for numbers, pretty good for size and relatively very lightly pressured compared to most of the country. Most folks out here hate bass as an invasive species And would rather golf than have to fish for bass. The numbers I get out here dwarf what I would catch in PA or NC. Satisfaction is all relative to one's expectations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Swamp Girl Posted June 24 Super User Share Posted June 24 1 hour ago, pdxfisher said: Anyway that fish came up and made a beautiful, head shaking leap that sent my whopper plopper a good 10' through the air. Smallmouth are so good at doing that. It's hard to keep them pinned with they're auditioning for Cirque du Soleil. 1 hour ago, pdxfisher said: So while the day was far from a bust it was littered with way too many lost fish This is the story of my fishing life. 1 hour ago, Bird said: I feel for ya' I hate days where my expectations are so high and I only catch 19...... excruciating 😁 The guys josh me just like ^this^ when I only catch ten or 19 bass. 19 bass, btw, is exactly what I caught yesterday, so I was with ya, bass for bass! I likely would have caught a few more, but lightning pinned me to the shore until it was dark. 14 minutes ago, pdxfisher said: Most folks out here hate bass as an invasive species I can't say that most Mainers hate bass, but some do and the trout-loving Inland Fisheries' folks sure do. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElijahH Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 I just came on here to make a vent post! The fishing gods have struck both of us. Lost 2 5lbers back to back today in the span of 30mins on a frog. Got them right up to the dock and saw them. One got wrapped around the dock post and the other got into some lily pads. I salvaged the night by catching a little 3lber on a spook, but I'm still salty. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxfisher Posted June 25 Author Share Posted June 25 24 minutes ago, ElijahH said: I just came on here to make a vent post! The fishing gods have struck both of us. Lost 2 5lbers back to back today in the span of 30mins on a frog. Got them right up to the dock and saw them. One got wrapped around the dock post and the other got into some lily pads. I salvaged the night by catching a little 3lber on a spook, but I'm still salty. Man, that is way more brutal than my day. Sorry for your losses! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElijahH Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 4 minutes ago, pdxfisher said: Man, that is way more brutal than my day. Sorry for your losses! I'm usually pretty chill about things that happen on the water because I'm there to relax, but I was getting close to losing it after that 2nd nice one lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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