Thunderstorms limited boat traffic and catching

Steve Osborne and his son, Jim, fished with me Saturday and we spent more time running from storms than fishing.  The first one roared across the lake much earlier than usual and sent all of the sane folks packing early on.  We ran back in to the River Rat because of the lightning, but returned to the lake as soon as it blew through, only to get drenched by the next two storms.

In spite of the unfavorable conditions, the trout tried to work in basically the same areas they had been in all week long.  We were forced to abandon the lake most of the day, but we still found solid fish chasing shrimp over 2-3 feet of shell.   The fish we caught prior to the first storm hit She Dogs.  Jim caught the largest, a 3-4 pound trout, that literally beat his lure up before finally taking it down.

The fish we caught prior to the third and final monsoon hit plastics.  We found those fish in the open lake blowing up without any birds around.  We caught them on glow chartreuse and pumpkin Sea Shad.  Jim really wanted to fish school trout with his fly rod, but it was a losing battle fighting gale force winds out of a drifting boat with no stripping basket.

He managed to  somehow catch one undersized trout in the morning session on a Clouser he tied the day before.  It was a chartreuse pattern that included a few hairs from a family pet that will observe fly tying sessions from a greater distance in the future.  We finished the day with a very nice flounder and missed a few more smaller fish while riding out our final soaking on the Intracoastal side of the Islands.  They also hit the same colors in the Sea Shad.