6:14 a.m. It’s 72 degrees and raining as Monti and I pull into Lake Q’s deserted boat launch. He dons foul-weather gear and pulls an assortment of Denali rods from the Skeeter’s locker. “This is just the leading edge of a big storm system,” Monti says as he preps the boat for launching. “It could get real nasty out here today.”
7 HOURS LEFT
6:30 a.m. We launch the Skeeter. Monti checks the water temp: 80 degrees. What mode does he predict Lake Q’s bass will be in? “Even though bass have already spawned, there could still be some big fish up shallow, since bluegill are probably on bed now and they’re a favorite meal for postspawn lunkers. So, I’ll spend some time checking shallow areas with a topwater bait. Many bass could already be offshore, too, and I’ve found that deeper fish aren’t as negatively impacted by stormy weather as shallow fish are. Right now I’m going to drive around the lower end of the lake for a while to get the lay of the land.”
6:43 a.m. After idling around, Monti makes his first casts of the day to an offshore rockpile with a bone colored Reaction Innovations Vixen topwater stickbait. It’s raining harder as he dog-walks the plug across the shallow structure.
7:05 a.m. Monti races uplake to a large cove choked with lily pads and emergent shoreline grass (aka “water willow”). He attacks the cover with a green pumpkin Zoom Horny Toad weedless frog and a white 3/8-ounce Dirty Jigs swim jig with a matching Zoom Skinny Dipper trailer.
7:10 a.m. A bass nips the swim jig in the shoreline pads but doesn’t hook up. “The swim jig is my go-to shallow-vegetation lure in early summer; you can cover a lot of water quickly with it, then once you find them, you can slow down and flip or punch the grass, which often yields bigger fish.” The wind and rain have picked up considerably as the storm front intensifies.
7:21 a.m. Monti is working along a big pad field with the swim jig. “Bass gravitate to something different in pad fields. They’ll concentrate around isolated pads; the outer edge where the pads meet open water; holes, points and pockets within the pad field; and other irregularities in the cover.”
6 HOURS LEFT
7:30 a.m. Another short strike on the swim jig. “They’re just pecking at the trailer. Must be small fish.”
7:37 a.m. Monti ties on a homemade 3/8-ounce buzzbait with a gold blade and a green pumpkin/black/blue Reaction Innovations Spicy Beaver twin-tail trailer. “Hopefully, they’ll be able to hear this bait above the noise of the raindrops hitting the water.”
7:39 a.m. Monti spots a 2-pound bass cruising along a grassy shoreline and runs the buzzbait past the fish, which follows it a few feet before turning away.
7:41 a.m. Moving along the bank, Monti sees another keeper cruising; it ignores the buzzer. “At least there are some decent fish up shallow, even though I haven’t spotted any bluegill beds yet.”
7:52 a.m. Monti abandons this cove and runs back downlake into another cove; it’s thick with shoreline water willow but no pads. He probes the emergent grass with the swim jig, reeling the bait quickly through the cover while shaking his rod tip to activate the trailer. “I’ve caught a lot more big bass out of water willow than I have pads.” The rain has reached monsoon level, and my wet camera has quit working; Monti runs me back to my truck so I can attempt to dry it out while he continues casting.
8:16 a.m. The rain has finally slacked off. I text Monti to pick me up; my camera is dead, so I’ll be taking photos on my iPhone. “I graphed up some juicy-looking offshore brushpiles with fish on them,” he announces, grinning.
8:21 a.m. Monti runs to a nearby cove with multiple docks and shoreline water willow. He ties on a flipping rig consisting of a Spicy Beaver, a wide gap hook and a pegged tungsten sinker, then pitches it to the grass.
5 HOURS LEFT
8:33 a.m. Monti flips the Spicy Beaver into a thick patch of water willow on a steep point in the cove. “This little point drops off quickly to 12 feet. They could feed in this grass, then shoot back down deep.”
8:35 a.m. A bass taps the Beaver; Monti slams back his rod, but the fish shakes free. “That was a 2-pounder. Notice the bream beds against the bank? That’s why that fish was there.”
8:41 a.m. It’s stopped raining, and amazingly, blue sky is beginning to show through the clouds. “Wow, the air temp has dropped 10 degrees! Summer cold fronts are weird; on some lakes they’ll turn the fish on, but they’ll absolutely kill the bite on other lakes.”
8:44 a.m. Monti catches a short fish on the Beaver. “Little sucker hit it like a 6-pounder!”
Photo: Don Wirth
8:50 a.m. A small bass slaps the buzzbait.
9:03 a.m. Monti hooks a 6-inch Roboworm finesse worm in the morning dawn pattern on a drop-shot hook, lowers it to submerged rocks in 12 feet of water and shakes it. The wind has picked up out of the west.
9:07 a.m. Monti catches an 11-inch bass off a submerged brushpile on the Roboworm. “I’m seeing a bunch of fish on that brush on my electronics.”
9:11 a.m. Monti moves to another submerged brushpile and bags another nonkeeper on the Roboworm.
9:13 a.m. Yet another small bass hits the Roboworm on submerged brush. “I could probably sit here all day and load the boat with these little guys, but this is B.A.S.S., not that other circuit!”
9:18 a.m. Monti casts the drop-shot worm toward water willow growing on a steep bank, then slowly drags the bait into deeper water. “I’m just reeling the sinker slowly along the bottom, then when I feel it bump into something, I’ll stop and shake the worm a few times.”
9:24 a.m. Monti switches to a generic green pumpkin 3/4-ounce football jig with a matching Strike King Rage Craw trailer, “so I can probe that heavy brush without constantly getting hung up and spooking the fish.”
4 HOURS LEFT
9:30 a.m. He hangs the jig in a wad of fishing line in the submerged shrubbery. “Looks like I’m not the only one who knows about that brushpile.”
9:31 a.m. Monti gets a solid tap on the football jig; he swings back his rod but misses the fish. “Typical early spring cold-front strike, yet here it is, almost July!”
9:34 a.m. Monti switches to a 10-inch watermelon/red Bruiser Baits worm with a 3/8-ounce tungsten weight and fishes it around submerged brush. “If there are any big ones hiding in that brush, this ought to work.”
9:40 a.m. Monti abandons the brushy cove and returns to the submerged rockpile where he started his day. This time he drags it with a green pumpkin/blue Zoom Baby Brush Hog on a Carolina rig.
9:46 a.m. It feels more like October than June on Lake Q as the wind howls, cloud cover moves in and out, and the air temp plummets. Monti is still dragging the Carolina rig around the rockpile without success. “This crazy weather isn’t helping any.”
Photo: Don Wirth
Photo: Don Wirth
10:07 a.m. Monti cranks a summer sexy shad Strike King 2.5 squarebill around the rocks. 10:11 a.m. A blue heron is stalking surfacing baitfish in the nearby shallows. Monti casts the swim jig into the minnows and the bird takes off, squawking in protest.
10:20 a.m. Monti tries the buzzbait around the murky inflow. What’s his take on the day so far? “I found submerged brushpiles holding bass, but they were too small. Shoreline grass and pads haven’t panned out yet, but they may attract more fish as the sun gets higher. There’s definitely a cold front moving through; although summer cold fronts aren’t nearly as severe as spring fronts, they can still negatively impact the bite. I’ve seen some wood cover I need to hit, and I want to idle around and look for more offshore cover with my electronics.”
10:28 a.m. Monti combs a shallow pocket with the swim jig.
Photo: Don Wirth
10:33 a.m. Monti moves quickly along Lake Q’s shallow shoreline, hitting scattered pads and willow grass with the swim jig.
Photo: Don Wirth
10:44 a.m. Monti runs downlake and locates a 15-foot-deep brushpile on a vein of rock. “This may be a submerged roadbed.” He confirms his suspicion after examining the target from several angles with his electronics, then cranks the structure with a purple and green Strike King 6XD diver.
Photo: Don Wirth
11:08 a.m. He drags the football jig across the roadbed. “I’m seeing some fish here on my electronics; the trick is getting them fired up enough to bite.”
11:16 a.m. Monti bags a 10-incher off the roadbed on the 6XD. “There’s just no size to them.”
11:17 a.m. He catches a bass barely longer than the lure on the 6XD. “What was this fish thinking?!”
11:20 a.m. Monti exchanges the creature on his Carolina rig for a black 6-inch Zoom Trick Worm and drags it across the roadbed, immediately catching a small bass.
2 HOURS LEFT
11:33 a.m. Monti catches another undersized bass on the Carolina rig; it spits up a spoonful of guppy-sized minnows. “So that’s what these little bass are feeding on!”
11:36 a.m. An entire school of immature bass follows Monti’s 6XD to the boat. “There must have been an incredible spawn on this lake to make all those babies.”
Photo: Don Wirth
12:01 p.m. Patchy dark clouds are forming as Monti cranks the 6XD around the hump.
12:12 p.m. Monti resumes dragging the Trick Worm around the hump but can’t shake up any action here.
12:21 p.m. Monti runs a half-mile uplake to a pad-covered flat and alternates between flipping the Spicy Beaver and reeling the swim jig. “With the sun high and this weird cold front, fish should be moving beneath overhead cover.”
1 HOUR LEFT
12:32 p.m. Monti tries the Horny Toad in the pads.
Photo: Don Wirth
Photo: Don Wirth
12:50 p.m. Monti moves to the bank and catches a nonkeeper on the Horny Toad.
Photo: Don Wirth
1:24 p.m. “I’m not seeing nearly as many fish around this brush as I did earlier,” Monti says as he dangles the Roboworm straight under the boat. He gets a couple of nibbles on the bait but no hookups.
1:30 p.m. Time’s up! Monti has had a tough day on Lake Q, boating a lone keeper weighing 2 pounds, 4 ounces.
THE DAY IN PERSPECTIVE
“I believe the volatile weather knocked this lake totally out of kilter today,” Monti says. “The pressure change must have been huge; it was like an October day once the skies cleared. It may take a couple days for conditions to stabilize, but if I were to fish here tomorrow, I’d spend more time looking for deep offshore fish since they are less likely to be impacted by a frontal passage than are shallow bass.”
WHERE AND WHEN MONTI CAUGHT HIS KEEPER BASS
2 pounds, 4 ounces; 10-inch green pumpkin and red Bruiser Baits worm; rocks near runoff; 10:04 a.m.
TOTAL: 2 POUNDS, 4 OUNCES
Photo: Don Wirth
