UP - July 4, 2007, Windy and a Monsoon

muskalungee 07/05/2007 - 12:51 Trip Reports Potomac

Got out with my brother Steve and The Captain for a "quick" float on the UP on the 4th. We launch at daybreak, but were met with some serious wind gusts that made yak navigation difficult to say the least. The wind varied in direction and but was strong most of the AM, finally taking a break around 11AM. During the windy times we caught some fish but mostly on steady moving baits which we could keep a tight line on (grubs, buzzbaits, hard/soft jerks).

After 11AM the wind seemed to break as the front really rolled in. We took full advantage of the front and the clouds that came with and really tore them up on Buzzbaits, focusing on current seams behind eddies and shoreline dropoffs with swift current. Most of the fish were decent in size (15") with very few small dinks mixed in.

At about 1230 or so the monsoon arrived. Thunder and some serious rain fell on us, but we kept going. The most suprising thing for me was that the quality of fish actually improved as we were still catching good size fish on Buzzbaits in the middle of the downpour. I'm talking about the kind of downpour that you can't even see the gurgling of your buzzbait with all the of monster rain drops falling. I just casted out to what appeared to be a good spot (it was even hard to pinpoint a good location in the driving rain) and just looked for the big splash or smallie launching itself out of the water in pursuit of the buzzbait.

I know that many people don't have experience fishing in that kind of weather in general, but has anyone ever had a similar experience with topwater in a driving rain?

Muskalungeeeeeee!
-Mike

Fishing in the Rain

TightLine 07/07/2007 - 07:07 I've never had much luck when it was pouring rain, but during a sprinkle, or even snow flurries, I've had some great days. The one exception I can think of was a time I took a week of vacation in the fall, and it rained three days in a row. By the third day, I said to heck with it I'm going anyway. I caught a bunch of nice sized largemouth fishing beaver huts with a spinnerbait.

Looks like you guys had a great day fishing, and the scenery looks awesome too.

-TL

Come on now!

Captwalleye 07/05/2007 - 13:26 Fishin' in the rain just gets you closer to the fish.I've fished in the rain before,but not while floating and didn't get that kind of action.It was different and we terrorized.Next time....I'll have to try scaling down and oops I shouldn't tell you that stuff.Got to keep you guessing.Especially after you made fun of my hail mary buzzbait trailer.It worked though.

Fishing in the rain

ogbudha 07/06/2007 - 04:34 The distorted surface during the rain makes the fish WAY more comfortable to roam and surface feed and with all the oxygen and cooler water they get frisky. Many a summer day have been spent fishing in a rain suit banging them on topwater plugs and buzzbaits. It is truly a great time to be on the water and you guys hit it right.