Big Green Lake Fishing Report June 5th, 2019 – The struggle continues

 This week I was able to fish on Big Green Lake on both Sunday and Wednesday.  There was a big tournament on Saturday…and the usual pleasure boaters. That combined with the decreased visibility due to the remaining dying weeds (they sprayed about a month ago) stirred up the waters and the water was a brown stained yuck.  Instead of the usual blue/green water, it looked like toilet water that had been sitting a while after not being flushed (if you get my drift).  

Most of Sunday I spent scouting. It’s a big lake. I checked out most of the normal spawning areas and found few on beds, and caught one nice post spawn female.  I know that Big Green lake, due to its size and how long it takes to warm up, is usually behind other lakes.  So my theory on Sunday, was that with the warmer weather, by Friday they would be pushing into the shallows to spawn.

I also noticed while scouting late on Sunday that I could get under Cty Hwy A into “The Slop” with my boat.  I was always unsure what kind of carp barrier they had there, but on Sunday I saw 2 boats bigger than mine make it.  

With this in mind, the Slop was going to be my focus this week. Large protected shallow bay…low fishing pressure…good weed cover.  What’s not to love for a spawning location?

When I arrived on Wednesday, I had a different partner this week, my nephew Tyler Fink. (Ryan had personal matters to attend to).  Tyler just graduated from high school and is as obsessed with fishing as I am. We immediately headed to the Slop, and made it through with ease. Things looked pretty good. We found some nice sized males on beds, and had some massive blow ups on top waters (it was practice so we were not looking to hook up).

Conditions on Wednesday:

• Mostly Sunny… first 3 days in a row of nice, warm sunny weather in a loooooong time
• Water temps in the main lake were in the mid 60’s, found water as warm as 74 in the slop (across Cty Hwy A)
• Water clarity was brown, stained in the main lake ( < 4′ visibility), but clear in the slop
• low/moderate winds

I was very hopeful going into Wednesdays event. I mean just look at what we pulled up last year!

This is from last year, where we placed 3rd with 7.99 oz…which would have been good for 3rd in 2019 had we been able to repeat.

Instead, this is all we weighed this year at the same event….

2 lb spawned male. Barely worth bringing to the weigh in. … 2019 has been a rough year

But… when league started at 6 and we went back in to catch the fish… we only managed one bite. Not only were their bass back there, so was the carp (lots and lots of big ones… like 20+lbers).  They worked up the areas we saw beds on pretty good and we only managed one.  We also managed a nice pike… but we weren’t fishing for pike.   We were also only 1 of 2 boats from our league in there. Not a good sign. We have guides and some really good tournament fisherman in our league. Not a one was by us. Not good.  I couldn’t shake the feeling that with 74 degree water that we were too late and that the Slop was the place to be… about a week or 2 ago…. not now.  This was later confirmed by Greg Haut, of The Hautdoors guide service.   🙁

I’ve fished in the same events as Greg, but never got much chance to talk to him before. I ran into Greg for a while before league began.  He was also out scouting and launching his boat when I ran into him and we got talking.  Very friendly and knowledgeable. All around good guy. He gave some great advice on how to tweak my Humminbird Helix 9 SI GSP G2N for better side imaging visibility and overall good fishing talk. (The man knows fishing!)  I talked to him again AFTER weigh-in, and yes indeed, we missed the Slop bite by about 2 weeks.  (Damn it!!!!)  With water temps in the mid 70’s the fish in the Slop are finishing the spawn, not starting it.  So we wasted about 1/2 of our time in an area that was not going to product the 2 fish we needed.  DOH!

Greg Haut and Randy Stibb with 9lbs+ of largemouth for the win

After limited success in the Slop we hit the main lake and ran to some spots we thought the fish would be pushed up shallow on.  Totally wrong. This cold, wet spring has everything way behind.  There were some huge bags of fish caught this week in league… all fishing way deeper than we were.  Most of the guys who did well found schools of pre-spawners staging for the spawn out deeper than we were looking.   Greg Haut and his partner won with 2 bass that topped 9 lbs total.  There was one more bag in the 8 lbs, with several in the 7 lb range.  Us… we weighed one bass that was just under 2 lbs… for I’m pretty sure the lowest weight weighed (although some teams didn’t weigh a fish)

This year has been a struggle.  I’ve been reflecting on my struggles this year and I’m trying to fish how and where I think the fish should be.  This spring as been different. Fish will do what the fish will do. I think I need to take a step back, re-asses and re-approach things.  When it clicks this year… it’s going to click.  I feel like it’s close.

We are on Fox Lake next week, with my first ever weekend bass tournament on Saturday.  Tyler will be with me again on Saturday.  No fishing report on Fox Lake next week… until AFTER the tournament is done. Wish us luck. I need to get out of this slump.