My buddy is a bass boy and I'm a trout nut, so we've been introducing each other to new species and techniques this summer. On this particular trip, things got off to a bad start. Long story short, we just barely managed to somehow get a rental boat thanks to a last-minute cancellation, so we didn't get out on the water until around 9AM on Saturday.

We checked out the various features around Goose Island and then headed up to the dunes. The rental boats don't have fish finders so we periodically checked our depth with the anchor, shocked to find it only 2 feet or so half the time. Pretty weird place. We got a bite or two around Crab Creek but it seemed pretty clear that there is no mid-day bite. The lake was covered in fishing boats and we didn't see a single fish taken, so we decided to break for a long lunch and try the evening bite later.

That proved to be a good decision. We returned around 3:30 and not too long afterward an evening bite picked up along the dam. It wasn't easy fishing, though - the wind was up well beyond the comfort zone, so holding position was nearly impossible, and I got drenched from head to toe in blue-algae-infected water. Both of our eyes burned really bad - that water is poison right now. Gross.

Nevertheless, my buddy managed to pick up a largemouth in the 3-4lb range, and we reeled in a few smaller fish as well, so we called it before long and splashed our way back in for dinner.

Sunday morning we got up excited for calmer waters, but were dismayed to see that it was still windy. But we got into a nice rhythm trolling into the wind along the dam and managed to participate in the morning bite, including another 3-4 pounder that jumped for the sky and then fought like a barn door.

Around 8:30 the bite ended and never came back. If we ever make it back I'll definitely focus on the early mornings.

We tried a handful of jigs, crankbaits, a spinnerbait, and a paddlefish, but by far the winning offering was a good ol' ned rig. In total we landed 7 or 8, the largest two pictured.

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