One morning a couple buddies and I loaded our poles into the car and took off to Lonetree and when we arrived there it was hot and the bugs were already biting.

A friend had told me about some luck fishing in backwater.

As we start setting up our poles I realize we had only two baitfish and there was four of us.  Luckily there was a few small backwaters down the road after about 10 minutes and I was able to head back and throw some bait in the water.

When I finally got my pole in the water that’s when the game of being patient started.

Thirty  minutes goes by and I check my bait it’s barely alive so I take the bait off the hook and put a fresh piece of cut bait on the hook and threw it out.  It is important to check your bait to make sure it is alive or there when playing patience game.

After about 30 minutes look closely at my line as the line was slowly moving at that point,  I knew I had something and I yanked my pole. t bent in a way that it would if it was something huge on the line.

So I start reeling in my line and it wasn’t a fish because there was no fight. It felt like I had a small log on my line. I gave my pole a good pull upwards and all Isee is a huge snapping turtle float up to the top. Yeses it was still alive. I was on a bridge so I had to walk down to the bank to pull it out because it was too heavy to lift out of the water.

When I finally got it out of the water the snapper had gutted the hook so I had no choice but to cut the line.

After a few days of fishing the backwaters I caught a Northern Pike and a Bowfin.  During the low water days and nice days I recommend fishing the backwaters and keeping your bait alive during the patience game.