Big Green Fishing Report – Late July 2020

CONDITIONS

• Water Color: Clear
• Water Visibility: 8′ to 10′ visibility
• Water Temp: Upper 70’s surface temps
• Weather: Mid 80’s, humid, Storms, moderate winds
• Wind: 5-15 mph

Covered a ton of water in practicing for an upcoming tournament. Put together a pattern of smallmouths chasing schools of baitfish in 6′ to 15′ of water (up to the drop offs). The minnows  were all 3″-4″ long, with black backs. The would be between the shallower thick weeds over shorter seagrass. The key seemed to be that the seagrass was patchy with occasional blank areas where you could see the rock/sand.  The smallmouths were cruising along the bottom in wolf packs.  When you hooked one, the others would follow.  It was not uncommon to see several from the school also chasing the hooked fish.

Best bait was an alabama rig, and a drop shot.

Then Friday afternoon into Saturday hit.  Holy boats Batman.  It was like the 4th of July thanks to Covid.  I’ve rarely seen that many boats on Big Green. They were everywhere… and at least 1/2 of the docks seemed to have people on them or swimming in front of them.  The lake was busy as hell.  One of the best spots we found during practice loaded up with anchored pontoon boats Friday afternoon and during the tournament rendering it unfishable…. which sucks because Friday AM that place was on fire. By Saturday AM (due to the boat traffic Friday afternoon) the wolfpacks that were hanging out took to the hills and were no where to be found.

Many teams struggled. Many didn’t waste time weighing fish.  The only consolation is that several local guides did as bad as we did during the tournament