Can you feel it?  The tide has turned. The blitz to make America Great again is on!   Lessens learned from last night,  Let success be your revenge. Trump wins and its the dawn of a new era,  but more about fishing – specifically fishing Blitzes.  October through December is Blitz time on the lake and forebay mainly because of the peak of the baitfish populations .

The other day, I was telling Don that the key to finding fish in the Forebay isn’t just about waiting for the obvious signs — the big blitzes with birds diving and fish splashing everywhere. It’s about keeping an eye out for the little, often subtle, clues that tell you something’s happening beneath the surface.

Birds are one of the best indicators. But not just any birds — I’m looking for seagulls, cormorants, and cranes. I especially like seeing those white birds, looking like they’re waiting in line for a buffet, either perched along the shoreline or gathered in concentrated groups over deeper water. The way birds fly is also a big giveaway. Hungry birds will circle high, scanning for bait. When there’s more bait around, they’ll drop lower and tighten their circles. And when the bait is really close, you’ll see the birds hovering, flapping their wings rapidly and flying erratically, just 10 to 20 feet above the water. As soon as a blitz breaks out, birds from way off can take flight and join the frenzy, too. Birds are the next best thing to having a drone in the air — their behavior is like a language, and understanding it is a powerful tool for finding fish.

When you’re scanning open water, always keep an eye on the sonar when you are around birds. Fish often behave just like the birds, waiting for bait to come close enough to ambush. You’ll find large schools of fish near the bottom, right where the birds are, poised to rush upward when a school of baitfish swims by. After a blitz, these same fish will patrol the area, looking for stray or stunned baitfish. That’s when blind casting becomes effective, especially when you have a tool like Livescope to help you track the fish’s movements.

I also think fish can be attracted to the sounds of birds blitzing. I’ve had times when it felt like the fish were coming to the sound of my boat engines. Bait often reacts to boats, too — hiding underneath them in open water, which can draw feeding stripers right to your boat. In some cases, the boat wake will push baitfish toward the shoreline, where fish will pin them against the bank. The key is always looking for those little signs that point the way to the action.

I love seeing individual baitfish breaking the surface, especially in the weedy flats or close to shore. I look for what I call “nervous water” — areas where the water is disturbed or where you see subtle shifts in current direction. I pay attention to mud and algae lines, especially along downwind shorelines, and I’m always looking for the edges of weed beds in relation to the current. Fish love those areas, particularly around depressions and current breaks, where baitfish tend to hide.

While all this is helpful, the real secret is understanding that even once you find a blitz, it’s not always easy to load up on fish. How much you get depends on a lot of factors. The longer your fly stays in the water, the more fish you’ll hook, but there are some key things to consider:

1. How quickly can you identify a blitz? You have to see it before you can fish it. I try to keep scanning the horizon while I fish. The sooner you spot a blitz, the faster you can get to it and start casting.
2. How quickly can you get to the blitz? If you’re not within casting range when the blitz starts, you might miss the window. I’ve found that chasing a blitz with a trolling motor set on high only works if you’re already close.  I seem to be late most of the time chasing with a trolling motor. . What I do  now is  raise the trolling motor out of the water,   power up the outboard and speed to the middle of the blitz if its open water.   Once there, Gun the engine in reverse to stop the drift and lower the trolling motor.   Check the down sonar and hopefully I’m positioned right on top of the action. Even so, this process feels like an eternity when the fish are busting like crazy, but it’s better than drifting in too slowly and missing the whole thing in my opinion.
3. How fast and how far can you cast? One false cast is a necessity if you want to get out there fast.   Nothing frustrates me more than watching someone scramble to get a fly in the water, stripping line out ,  messing with the and making lots of false casts  the fish are feeding all around us.   Its more important to get the fly in the water sinking than to try to get as close as you can to the last surfacing fish.
4. How fast can you land a fish? The average blitz lasts just a couple of minutes, and if you take five minutes to land a fish, release it, and then recast, you’re only going to pull one fish out of it. The key is to land and release quickly. A blitz can give up more than one  fish if you stay on top of it.    Stories of guys taking 20 fish out of a blitz  in San Luis or the Forebay are rare in open water.

If you can stay with the moving blitz, you can double or triple your catch. This is where Livescope really comes in handy. While I’m landing a fish, I’m keeping an eye on the birds. I’ll point the boat in the direction the blitz is moving and power up while im landing the fish.   I’m ready to cast again as soon as the fish is released.  But with two fisherman  in the boat, things slow down a lot.  It’s harder to move the boat and land fish simultaneously.

Another tactic is to troll flies when chasing blitzes.   When the first guy hooks up.  Spot lock and the other blind casts.  As soon as both anglers go fishless on two casts resume trolling.    Repeat.

If the blitz ends, don’t just pack it in. Look for the fish still cleaning up the area. Sometimes you’ll see wounded or dead baitfish, and birds will hang around if the bait has gone deeper. That’s when Livescope comes into play again — you can search and destroy.   Fish will look spread out and moving around in circles vs in strait lines.

Lastly, something I learned from Ken Oda: When fishing a blitz in the ocean, a slow, deep retrieve is the key to catching bigger fish. Smaller fish tend to chase on top, but the larger ones are usually hanging deeper. After a blitz has passed, it’s better to go with a long count and a slow retrieve. I found this to be true recently. During a blitz on Monday, I was stripping fast and getting a lot of light hits but couldn’t hook them. It wasn’t until I slowed down that the fish started deep-throating the fly. On the boat with Don, I found a slow troll at around 1.5 mph kept him hooked up constantly. Whenever he was on a fish, I’d stop the boat and blind-cast .   When we both went fishless I chased the blitz with Don trolling.

Finding fish is all about being patient, watching for the subtle signs, and being ready to move fast and fish fast when the opportunity strikes.   Those who fish with me know Im not a fan of storing rods in sleeves broken down and unstrung.   I use to joke with my buddies that if I catch a fish before they take there rods out of their bags and are ready to cast.  They have to pay for the days gas.   Fishing a blitzIt’s a dance of observation, timing, and skill  and when everything clicks, it’s magic.