Crushing Big Eyes

Today was undoubtedly one of the best late season outings for walleye, ever! Stephano just happened to luck into it, as he had booked several weeks back. In town on business, all the way from Italy, I had hoped for light winds and decent temps. Lately the weather has been the deciding factor in whether or not, I can even get out! Fortunately today, Mother Nature took a break and shut off the fans allowing me to actually fish comfortably.

We met up shortly after 8:00 and headed out to fish. I wasn’t sure what to expect as it had been almost two weeks since I had been on this water and many changes had occurred. The water temps at the launch were 37 degrees but I was sure the lake would be warmer. Turns out they weren’t much more but were at least 42 degrees where we were to fish.

After a quick explanation on how we were going to fish, the lines went in. Moments later, Stephano hooked up and was tight to a good walleye. He had caught them back home before, but not this size. We boated his catch and took several pics before the release. I don’t think he went 3 minutes, before he was locked up again! This one was also an eye and almost the same size. In less than 5 minutes he had already landed the two biggest walleye of his life. I knew we were in for a great day!

I had decided to fish as well and ran a second rod, hoping to bring up the numbers. As luck would have it, that’s exactly what happened! It seemed like every few minutes, one of us got hit. I didn’t need to reel anything in so immediately the rod changed hands. The whole day went like this and Stephano put an unbelievable amount of fish in the boat, including some bass & pike. He had slammed without even trying! All that was missing was a giant of an eye and I really hoped he would be the one that caught it.

We fished for almost 7 hours and boated all kinds, with the majority of them overs. In fact it was very difficult to catch keepers! I was hoping to take a late fall limit home and it took almost the entire day to fill it. Fortunately we did though and I would be having fish for dinner tonight! Stephano on the other hand had a flight to catch and wouldn’t be able to enjoy his catch. He would have to settle for the memories and many pics of the fish he landed today.

We fished right up till 2:45 before heading back to the dock to take out. He had caught fish from the time we started all the way to the end of the day. We couldn’t even remember how many were landed and that’s not a bad thing! This morning he had said that he would be happy if he caught one or two fish. I don’t think he ever imagined having a day like this!

Flying back home to Italy tonight he will have plenty of time to reflect on the day he just had. He would also have loads of pics to look at as there were many shots taken of some of his better fish. With any luck the next time he comes to Montreal for business, I’ll be getting another call. Hopefully it will be in warmer weather and somewhat earlier in the season. This way we might be able to fish for some other species and possibly one of those dinosaurs. His original trip was scheduled for October but was pushed back to today by his company. After missing out on the sturgeon I don’t think he was too disappointed with today’s results. I know I wasn’t!