November Heat Wave

Matt was back again today and this time he was with Sam & his brother Hassan for more smallie action. We met up around 9:00, ready for whatever this day had in store for us! Unlike the last time out when we froze all day, this one was a whole lot warmer. Little to no wind, sunshine and temps in the mid 50’s was what we were dealt and it felt great. The water temps fell to barely 50 but climbed up to 51 by days end. It’s amazing what a little heat can do at this time of the year! As with most days, Matt wasted no time hooking up and boated one over four almost immediately. The fish weren’t real active where we were, but everyone was getting bites, making us stay. Matt seemed to be the only one landing anything though and this wasn’t going over well! Eventually this all changed and everyone started catching. With flat calm conditions, drifting was quite difficult. With a lack of current aided by the wind, we had to resort to casting and hits weren’t always noticed. The bites were really light and unless you were tight lined all the time, you missed fish. So much so that several hook sets resulted in swinging at air. These fish were dropping the baits, so I decided to try something a little different to try and increase their hookups. I experimented with a drop shot rig in the same areas and immediately was tight to one over four pounds. I gave Sam the rod after landing the fish and instructed him on how to present the bait. It didn’t take long and he too was landing a fish, but unfortunately it wasn’t the bass he was looking for. Instead, it was a small perch and the others had a good laugh! With Matt & Hassan hooking up on the jigs, Sam quickly returned to his as well and abandoned the drop shot like the plague. It wasn’t fast & furious but they were catching some real nice fish and stuck with this presentation the rest of the day. Although we had a few dry spells and lost plenty of tackle, things did pick up in the afternoon. At one point, it was almost every cast that someone was into a bass and they were all big. Sam managed to get the largest ones of the day but they weren’t quite fives. For some reason we were unable to break that mark today except for a late afternoon fish that gave Sam one hell of a fight. It turned out to be a small muskie, under 10 pounds. On light tackle it fought like a real champ though and was the icing on the cake for him today. Along with the muskie, Matt landed a nice walleye and Hassan caught a pretty decent northern, making this a multi species day. There may not have been the numbers I had expected today but the quality was there and they even had a few bonus fish to add to their list. Overall, it was a great day to be on the water!!