No Show Clients

After a no show from clients today and total frustration, I headed onto the water in the afternoon with my wife Christiane, for some smallie action. Yesterday’s large total had me wanting more and she was just the person to take advantage of this easy fishing. The weather had broken from the early morning showers and was now just cloudy with light & variable winds. It was a perfect fall day! Water temps had gone down another degree since yesterday and were now 62.5 at best. The air had a damp chill in it and never even reached 60 degrees with the lack of sunshine. The first spot was a little disappointing as neither of us landed a fish in it and yesterday it had put out almost 20 bass up to 4 pounds. I had a couple of bites, but nothing landed. The second spot however, had Christiane locked up on her first cast and this was a 4.5-pound smallie. I showed her how to use the boga grip to easily land the fish and she was well on her way to safely unhooking many more after. I took a few quick pics and returned the bass safely back to where it came from. We were fishing fast current with weeds and some rock and the fish were all over the place. She managed to get into at least 10 fish in a short time by me positioning the boat so that she could hit the high percentage areas. After about 20 or 30 minutes of this, we relocated and did the same thing in another area nearby. At this time of year, all you have to really do is find a couple of fish and there’s usually a bunch more. One more area had us locking up regularly as a few doubles came aboard and these were larger fish as well. At one point, it was every cast! Tubes and some crankbaits accounted for the fish today and in just a few short hours; we had landed over 35 bass up to 4.5 pounds. I wanted to see if I could get her into another Muskie after last Sunday’s 53.5-inch monster and decided to troll for a while. It took about 30 minutes and while I was cleaning a line, the fish hit. I never got to hear the reel fire, but having the rod in my hand when the muskie ate the lure was just as good. I knew the chances of it being as big as her last one was going to be disappointing, but just getting into a muskie was worthwhile. It decided to go airborne during the fight and jumped completely out of the water with a spectacular, Olympic leap. I boga gripped the fish beside the boat and carefully removed the one hook that was in her before bringing the fish aboard for a couple of quick pics. The release was a simple one as the 38-inch fish bolted immediately when I returned her to the water. We continued trolling for about 20 minutes more and decided to call it a day. It was another successful short day on the water and we were fulfilled. Anytime you can spend 3 or 4 hours out and have these results, it’s a great day!