More Difficult Conditions

After a little break I was back on the water today with Jack & Fahib. They had booked a morning trip on line and looked forward to catching some fish. Cold front conditions weren’t going to make it easy and especially with the north winds we were receiving!

Our first stop had us drifting sideways while the current took their baits downstream. After about 20 minutes with no hits, I decided to move to another area a little further away. They doubled up almost immediately with one bass and one walleye! This area wasn’t any easier as we were still going sideways and missing all my waypoints! I decided to relocate once again as I would have a better chance of making short drifts out of the current.

This turned out to be our last move and for obvious reasons! It was loaded and I was marking all kinds of fish and bait. Unfortunately it was pressed tightly on the bottom and getting anything to bite was tough. It didn’t get much better either, as they were both losing just about everything they hooked. For whatever reason, the fish were just coming off! I had to slow them down on their hook sets before some of them actually started coming to the boat! I think by some of the bent rods they previously had that several of their fish were pretty big! For the next few hours we made short drifts in the wrong direction, over specific areas, and they hooked several species. Perch, walleye, pike & bass all came aboard, giving both of them slams! The bite wasn’t a great one but at least now they were landing more than they were losing. I had hoped to get them into more fish than they had lost but that didn’t happen. We even tried a troll over the fish, but I knew the result before I even started! We eventually just ran out of time and after a couple more fish, headed back to take out.

The half day trips are always more difficult as inactivity usually changes at some point during full days. Today they had to endure poor wind direction and a cold front. I’m sure that by sometime this afternoon, the fish would have cooperated and actually fed. Unfortunately it was over for us and we were done. Despite the slower than usual day, they still caught a bunch of fish and had a really great time. Fahib will be heading to the eastern provinces next week and who knows, maybe he’ll catch some saltwater fish to add to the list of species he landed here in Montreal today!