Into the Evening

May 24th 2018

A late day booking had me heading out early today, to scout a few new areas again. Andrew had asked if we could start at 4:00 due to his work schedule and fish till about 8:00. No problem! Mother Nature was expected to show her cruel side with a big SW wind by mid day and I needed to find an area that we would be able to fish, comfortably!

With the water warming slowly and the spawn all but done now, I decided to search a few post spawn places in hopes of finding some aggressive fish. The 57 degree water wasn’t what I wanted, but I covered plenty of it, hoping for better temps. Eventually I hit above 60, topping out at 62 degrees and began hooking up. It’s always difficult getting a good idea when you’re only one rod! I located both pike as well as walleye and fished till about 3:30 before heading back to await Andrew’s arrival.

As luck would have it, he was able to get out a little early and arrived by 3:45. We departed shortly after and began a close troll. Within 3 minutes he was tight to his first fish and it was just the start! As there were only two of us in the boat, I decided that rod in hand was a better choice. Regardless of who was to hook up, he would take the rod to land the fish! Some of the areas were quite rocky and it was very easy to snag up if they were in the rod holders.

For the first hour or so it seemed like he was fighting a fish every few minutes. Both walleye and bass were eating and Andrew was having a blast! I covered plenty of water searching for a big bite but all I could locate were keeper sized walleye. Eventually we stumbled into a few overs but barely! Despite the bigger fish eluding us, there was still plenty of action. At one point I was even able to place the rod in the holder, allowing me to concentrate on the troll. He now had to jump back & forth between lines as they were hit about equally. Mother Nature even cooperated for a change with light winds from the SW instead of the expected hell. We fished comfortably in only a one foot chop the entire time out!

The fishing really went by fast as the sun set and I knew it was about to end. After several more fish, we pulled the plug on the last one of the evening. Andrew had landed perch, bass, walleye and northerns, giving him a 4 fish slam! I’m not really sure of the numbers for his trip, but they were high! Walleye made up the bulk of his catch and I even managed to take a limit home in the end. Too bad he had no way to bring any of them back with him, but he was flying out the next day. Oh well I guess he’ll just have to come back again this fall and enjoy it all over again! Great day of fishing all around!