The old saying “Embrace the Suck” is a term that was widely used in the military shortly before I retired. The term basically meant suck it up and do your job, however crappy that job may be because the job had to get done. Sometimes I feel the same way about this time of year. It’s hot out and we’re still a few weeks away from any relief but we need to suffer through the bad fishing days to get to the good fishing days therefor I need to embrace the suck.

Some years we have it and some years we don’t. I call it the “Stank Bubble” because we have been sitting under this funky humid air bubble throughout the south for what seems like weeks, and no air is moving to push this humid air out of here. It’s a little too early for a strong cold front and just a bit early for a tropical system to make its way up from the gulf. With no air moving and getting the same old humid rain showers every afternoon or evening it just seems like we’re in a bubble right now. I didn’t spend a lot of time on the water this week because it just feels like Groundhog Day over and over again. I’ve been going out early, popping a few good fish on top as well as missing a few good fish on top and then settling into the spybait and drop shot routine for the rest of my day, which has usually been around lunchtime. By that time I’ve got a pretty good case of butt hurt and swamp*ss and I’m ready to head in for the day.

Lisa was off on Monday, so she came out with me for a while. We made a very interesting observation on Monday while fishing with Lisa. She wanted to try the Choppo after seeing me catch a couple fish on my chrome Choppo so I rigged her up with a shad pattern Choppo and she threw that around. It was a 105 size just like mine but mine was chrome while hers was a more solid light-colored shad pattern. It didn’t take long for us to notice that they would swirl on Lisa’s bait, but they wouldn’t commit while they were more committal on the chrome. We caught 6-7, all on the chrome Choppo including the 2 in the picture above. We had a pretty good time throwing the topwater and we were rewarded with the occasional blow-up.

That’s pretty much been how my week has gone, I’ve been out early throwing the Choppo around brush out on the main lake and around the creek mouths and I’ve been scoring a few fish here and there. The biggest factor to my success this week has been the wind and setting up on spot lock up wind of my target area, whether it’s a brush pile or just out on the end of a point. In past years, according to my log, the whopper plopper or Choppo have been pretty successful during this time period in past years, so I’ve been throwing the Choppo and looking for the blow-ups about 75% of the time this week. The other 25% varied between the spybait and drop shot.

The best plan I had this week to put a sack in the boat was to seize the opportunities early for surfacing fish. There is a pretty good early morning topwater bite and being in the right place at the right time is key to catching these early risers. They are pretty forgiving as to what you can throw at them to trigger a reaction early in the morning. I don’t think you can go wrong with chrome right now and if I wasn’t throwing the chrome Choppo I’d probably be throwing a chrome sexy dawg. One of the main reasons I’m throwing chrome with success is that the fresh dead bluebacks I’m seeing on the surface have a shiny chrome look to them on the surface. I’ve been lucky enough this week to find some schooling fish early and mainly it’s been out on the ends of points on the main lake or creek mouths and some humps out on the main lake. Not all of these points and humps are holding surfacing fish but keeping a sharp eye out on the surface around you can tell you which areas have active fish. The most important thing is to have your topwater bait ready if the fish start coming up in the area you’re fishing, and they are within casting distance. Get that bait in there as quickly as possible because once they leave the surface you only have a couple seconds tops to get them to come back, after that they are back down into the thermocline. Most of the fish I’m catching right now feel cool to the touch, cooler than the 80+ degree surface temps so that tells me they are coming up from the cooler depths to eat.

Also, definitely use the wind to your advantage and set your boat up wind of the target structure and take your time working the area. I like making my casts with the Choppo down wind and bringing the Choppo back against the grain of the chop. I believe you get the most surface disruption doing this and there is a little better bubble trial in the baits wake. I like to use the same upwind technique with the little spybait because I can get a much further cast throwing the spybait down wind. Another important factor, whether it’s the spybait or the Choppo, be patient. Both baits require a slow and steady retrieve for it to be successful so don’t get in a hurry with either bait on the retrieve. With the Choppo I’m using a steady retrieve just fast enough for it to slowly chop and with the spybait I’m using a 20 count with a very slow retrieve.

There’s a lot of different ways to catch fish right now and being in the right place at the right time has a lot to do with it. This week I’ve just been swinging for the fences with the topwater baits so I’m not much help to the tournament guys this weekend. It’s going to be a grind no matter how you look at it so capitalize on those opportunities for topwater fish early and throughout the day and use the drop shot for fish under the boat.

Water temps this week have been in the lower 80’s and the corps is generating for a couple hours in the evening. The lake level is a little over 2 feet below full pool and falling. If you’re fishing the BFL 2 day be safe and good luck.