Opposite Winds Again

James was back with me again today along with his father Joe. We were going to attempt sturgeon fishing one more time but wouldn’t spend the day trying for them. Hopefully this time they would cooperate!

We ran to the area in a NE wind, through some pretty good rollers! Wind against current is never fun and today was one of those roller coaster rides. In fact, I even had to use a drift sock to anchor, just to keep us from getting blown up current!

Well, the sturgeon didn’t cooperate once again and all we managed to get for our time spent was a perch, a drum and one big ass catfish! I really didn’t mark very much either and it wasn’t for lack of trying. I idled all over this area and many more as well as re anchoring several times in the 3 hours we tried. Time to pull the plug while we still had plenty of day left!

I decided to switch to casting a drop shot on the first spot and despite the conditions, only managed to get a few bites. The fish were hitting weird and not getting pinned. Even the ones that actually got hooked fell off either at the boat or in the net! Another attempt at a spot close by saw similar results with only one bass coming aboard, on the very first cast.

With the winds creating giant rollers now, I crossed through the channel and second guessed my decision along the way. I wanted to hit an area that was holding some nice bass and literally surfed through the troughs and crests! It was definitely big!

I had them both tossing blades and James hooked up almost immediately. It was worth the run when I saw the size of his fish! Joe also hooked into something shortly after, but it turned out to be a northern. I think it was the first one I’d ever seen from here!

I made a couple of passes over the area afterwards, but we never saw another fish. Time to pick up and go elsewhere! I wasn’t sure where I was going to be able to fish in these winds but I would find somewhere to go.

I made a long run and wanted to try some deep areas that I would normally drift over but with the wind against current, it was like we were anchored. We did manage to get one small walleye casting but the fish being marked just didn’t want to move. I quickly pulled the plug here and moved on to another area.

The next location saw a couple of fish landed but just like all the other spots, it was tough! Despite marking plenty of fish under the boat at times, they just didn’t seem to want the offerings. Even with a couple of bait changes, they still wouldn’t bite!

A couple more moves were made and one or two fish were caught in each, along with a few missed strikes. Our last area was close to the take out and I decided to use the main engine to slowly go down current over the rocks. In & out of gear was necessary to ensure proper speed against the wind! Here they managed to boat 3 more walleye before we were done. I had pulled out all the stops on this difficult day!

Today was an exhausting one, both physically & mentally and I was glad it was over. We had tried so many places and only picked at the fish from each stop. The wind against current thing is never easy and today was a perfect example of its difficulty. Although fish were had, I didn’t expect to have to fish so many areas in order to make it work. I know it will get better, but hope it’s real soon! Fall fishing should be starting with the cooler nights and the fish will be biting much better, if Mother Nature can only cut me some slack. She usually waits till at least the end of October before she craps all over me. I guess she’s getting an early start this year!