Another Day of Missed Fish
September 11, 2017
Philippe was with me today along with his dad & sister Sarah. We headed directly for sturgeon as he was hoping for a big one like last year. Light winds from the SW made it easy for the anchor to hold but the bite wasn’t great. We moved several times and were always on fish, but they didn’t want to cooperate! One bite and one fish hooked was all we had and unfortunately it came off during the battle. A little disappointed, we kept at it a while longer, but that was all she wrote! More boats were moving in and we were heading out.
The next area had them casting for smallmouth bass and Philippe got it rolling with a nice chunk. His dad and sister also landed a few as we slowly moved through the area looking for a bigger bite. Philippe hooked and landed a couple more before I decided to pull the plug and head for walleye for them to be able to take home to eat.
The boat traffic was insane today and I had to pass up a couple of areas along the way due to all the boats. I finally settled on a spot as far away from the others as possible and it looked great. All three were drop shotting but after several drifts with only perch, I switched them over. They were now throwing jigs instead! I explained how to work them and made several more drifts over the fish with the same results. I couldn’t believe that they weren’t hooking up and decided to make one cast to see why. Immediately I was into a fish and it was the right species too! Unfortunately it was an over and I tossed it back. I thought they would have better success after this but only one small walleye was landed. We eventually pulled the plug here and I headed to another place for them to drop shot.
In the last couple of hours we fished two different areas and managed to pick up several more fish. Although they had a rough time getting use to the presentation and technique, they did have the bites. Philippe managed to land bass, walleye & pike while his father and sister caught perch, bass & a few walleye. I even helped them out by fishing a bit and passing off the rod when hooking up! In the end, they finally had 4 walleye in the boat that they would be taking home. Fish was on the menu for them tonight and it would be fresh!
Although the day didn’t go completely as planned, it worked out in the end and plenty of fish were caught and lost. The bite is changing slightly with the cooling temps but the fish are still active in many of the areas I fish. In the next few weeks I expect a shallower bite as the overnight temps drop more and easier fishing as well. In the mean time, I will be fishing deep, mid and shallow in order to maximize on all the zones the fish are in. Hopefully in the coming weeks, the boat traffic will diminish some making it possible to cover more areas as well. Only time will tell!