Cold Water Beasts

I finally got out with Norm today after many failed attempts this season. Hard to believe that he hadn’t wet a line all year! I knew we wouldn’t get many fish but they would probably be big today. His first hookup turned out to be a real beast of a smallie and he was thrilled. I shot several pics to get all the best angles before he released it back to continue growing.

We had been working extremely slow due to the 43 degree water temps and I was also fishing to locate the fish. My quest was for walleye and I definitely found some beauties. The first one was probably the largest, but every other one I hooked into was also sizable. Although I had hoped for a keeper, it wasn’t meant to be today. They were all well over the slot and returned after a few pics.

This time of year never gives me too many bites but today wasn’t one of those days. Between Norm & I, we had over the expected number of chances and monopolized on every one of them. Yuup, 100% of the fish came to net! This also doesn’t happen when the water dips down to almost 40 degrees!

Although there were mostly walleye landed today, the bass that we did catch were all big. In fact everything we landed today was on the large size making it a very enjoyable outing. In the few short hours we actually fished, we definitely made the best of it. It’s always nice to get out this late in the year and with the predicted weather ahead, I think I will be out right into December. I’m definitely looking forward to fishing more soft water before the hard water season begins!