Forward facing sonar has made for some tough fishing to watch at times. Yes, the Elites are keeping an eye on their graphs today, but the first couple hours of fishing have been far from boring. Keith Combs is aggressively working a jerkbait, while fan casting around in the wind trying to intersect roaming smallmouth. Hank Cherry has been popping what looks like a tube. Then there are a lot of anglers like Bryan Schmitt, tossing around the predictable dropshot.
But there are a couple factors this morning that are preventing the anglers from being completely reliant on their graphs. One being the wind. With a stiff wind blowing already, the bobbing up and down of the boats makes it hard for anglers to lock on with their graphs. The nomadic nature of the fish right now is also making it a little more difficult than usual to really key in on a spot and stare at your graph. Mixed with the wind, we’re seeing the guys go a little more old school and just get in a good area and fan cast around, still stumbling on a school that visibly shows up on the graph from time to time. But relying more on blind casting for smallmouth than we’ve seen in recent years.
