Scoring Big Eyes

June 23rd 2018

 

I had a full boat today with Dan & his family. His wife Sonya and their two daughters, Ashley & Gabby were also along, looking for more great fishing. We headed out around 7:30 on almost flat calm waters, different from most days lately! With this many people I was definitely going to be trolling and I set the 4 lines quickly when we arrived.

The bite wasn’t fast like I had expected, but rather on the slow side. I had began in an area that usually puts out big fish and numbers as well, but not today as we were seeing. We were just picking at them and I wasn’t sure exactly why! I moved around plenty and even changed to some deeper water to only experience the same thing. Although they had boated close to a dozen fish, It wasn’t the numbers I had expected. I decided to switch up baits and bumped up the speed a bit to cover more water. I was now in the hunt mode and determined to find them fish!

The overcast skies had me wondering if maybe the big eyes were a little shallower today and I moved in that direction. Reels finally started to fire as they began to fight fish. The only one that hadn’t gotten on the board yet was Dan and it was about to change. When his rod finally went off, it did for the next five fish in a row. He went from zero to hero in a few short minutes! It was from this point on that everything changed. Reels were screaming every couple of minutes and many fish were being boated. Big northerns and walleye were coming aboard and doubles were common. In fact Sonya landed the largest walleye, only to be taken out by Ashley a few minutes later. The fishing was finally what I had expected!

Sometime early afternoon, the winds began to pick up but the fishing remained the same. We were still catching plenty and even had a few walleye in the livewell. Most of the ones landed were overs and it was difficult to find keepers for them to bring home.

With waves building from the south wind, turning became sketchy for the lines. At one point a pike hit the down rod and sent the line right into the small motor. You want to hear a reel scream! I pulled all the lines and had to remove the prop to get the line out. While doing so, I also hand lined the northern that was still attached to the lure. Another disaster diverted! I never want to have line behind the prop of either motor for fear of chewing up the seals!

We were back in business soon after and also back on the fish. For the remainder of the day, the action was constant. Every few minutes someone was tight lined with either a pike or walleye attached. As it was nearing time to leave, I decided to troll my way out of the area to see if there were any more fish on the outside. There were and Dan took advantage of his two daughters sleeping by reeling all of them in.

I was almost completely done when we heard someone whistling nearby. At first we all thought it was a bird but soon realized that it was a person in distress. They were on mainland with no other houses or boats around and broke down. His jet ski wouldn’t start and he was stranded. I made my way over, and managed to boost him, getting him going in the end. We were done for the day now and headed back as well.

The overall day may have been slow to get started but really picked up afterwards. Everyone landed plenty of fish and had a great time. We even managed to do our good deed by rescuing a jet skier! This day definitely ended with a bang !!