Since coming back from South Carolina I've been out a handful of times trying to get that August bass. Why? Who knows. A bass a month just makes me feel like I'm some kind of successful striped bass fishermen. The weather this year has been nutty. Drought-like then flooding. Nuclear heat then below normal temps. Wildfires, like in Canada and now Hawaii having people run for their lives. Theresa and I were going to head up to see my sister in Saranac Lake this weekend but it looks like the rainy summer they are having is still going. Yesterday was a surprisingly nice day for early August, it felt more like September. I'm ready for the fall.
The rain has been both widespread and isolated. Down here we're just starting to see the crest from the heavy rains of a few days ago up north. That has the river bumped up a bit, which is good for volume and in keeping the water temps down a bit.
While I haven't put a fish in the tank since my return I did hook and fight for a few minutes a tank, no pun intended, of an over 30" bass. That was a surprise. My usual honey hole has been dry for some time so I was giving another spot a shot.
So yes, it is starting to feel like fall. I'm getting ready for the start of the fall semester on August 23. We drop Erin off at St. Joseph's that week. It's almost time to start cutting back the trees and bushes and getting the lawn all thatched up, aerated, and re-seeded. Yesterday the heating guys came and serviced the oil burner, the last thing you want to here is, "You ready for that $25- $30,000 job?". And for me fall always means the perfect time for some lead-paint burning and painting somewhere in this monstrosity of an house.
As far as fishing. The YOY bass hopefully have been busy chewing and growing. These mild winters and nuclear hot spring seasons don't do a striped bass spawn good. But the other nursery fish, herring and shad in the river, and spearing, rain fish, and peanut bunker in the bays and salty rivers, are growing each day and are starting to move in and out with the tides. Not the pouring out, but ebb and flow kinda movement. Hopefully, there will be and I'll be able to catch one mullet run morning this fall. I love Snake Fly mullet mornings. The problem has been, there hasn't been good numbers, and with the fall migration happening later, and out further, the intersection of bass and bait just doesn't happen like it used to.
It's time to start looking at time of day and the tides, especially in the salt. It's creepin' while your sleepin' season. Outgoing tides in the rivers and bays can be a hoot as bass, blues and fluke, set up and hunt under the cover of darkness for that bait that moves in and out with the tides. The thing is, and I don't know why, it's so hard to commit to going fishing say after 8 pm to 6 am. Maybe it's the one hour ride. Maybe its too many rides-of-shame home. Maybe it's not wanting to do it alone.
I'll have to shake that because when I'm there it's fun and usually at least a fish or two to hand. Maybe I'm just getting old or think about it all too much. Just go fishing!