The Big Grand Slam

I hit a new lake with Norm this morning, in quest of a dinner walleye and succeeded in spades! We began trolling around 7:30 under sunny skies and N/E winds blowing at 5 to 10 knots. I could feel by the morning air that this 70 degree temp would climb much higher by afternoon and wanted to take advantage of the low light period early. Water temps were 63 degrees and really stained from all the cross current winds from yesterday making visibility just terrible. Norm’s first scream on the reel ended in a northern pike of 3 or 4 pounds and we were on our way. The next fish was taken when he picked the rod from the holder to clear weeds from the lure and ripped the bait. It just stopped and he had some weight attached to the end of the line. As with most of the walleye, this one stayed down until it neared the boat and we caught a glimpse of the beast. It looked to be 7 or 8 pounds in the stained water and I thought he had a real giant for this lake! When I finally got it into the net I realized that it was big. It was 27 inches long & I put her on the scale for a second to know for sure. She pushed the 6.25 mark and after a few quick picks I slipped her into the live well for a later release. I wanted to make sure she was in good shape before letting her go back to the lake and pumped plenty of water and oxygen into the tanks. We went back to trolling and managed to get 3 more good walleye and many, many more northerns trolling stick baits. Norm wanted to try for some largemouth bass and I decided that the mid day period would be a good time to see if I could get him a few, so we headed to the jungle after releasing the walleye & began. I had him throw a scum frog due to the pockets of open water and sparse vegetation and apparently it was the right choice. He had a few missed explosions before he finally contacted with something way in tight. I told him to winch it out of there and soon slipped the net under his personal best largie. It weighed exactly 5 pounds on the nose and was a surprise after the big tournament held this weekend. I guess they left one out there! We saw several other fish in the 3 pound class spooked as we covered the water and managed to get a few more up to about the same size as well. Smallmouth were the next ones to target and it didn’t take long before Norm was tight to a real blackie on a senko. When it took to the air I knew it was at least 4 pounds or better and oh what a fight. I eventually netted the fish and took a quick weight and a few picks before releasing her back again. It went 4.34 pounds and completed his “Grand Slam” for the day. We stayed a little longer and he caught several more slightly smaller bass before we called it a day. I don’t think he expected to have the combination that he had for this heat wave of a day as the temps reached around 90 degrees under scorcher sunshine. I was glad for him as he now has another great memory to add to the already many from all the previous trips on different lakes. It seems that there’s always something special each day to remember and this day definitely would be the “Big Grand Slam”!