A Limit for The BBQ
October 4, 2020
Chad & his son Charlie had rescheduled a bad weather trip a while back and today was the day. We would be going for walleye as they were hoping to get something for the BBQ. Hopefully the fish would cooperate!
Although the winds weren’t big, they were bad for a drift. Blowing at about 5 knots from the north had me adjusting with the electric motor to cover the area I wanted. It wasn’t easy but it got the job done!
With only a morning to fish, I wasted no time getting to an offshore area and set both of them up with a drop shot rod. Charlie managed to catch the first three fish consisting of 2 big perch and a keeper walleye. I was marking all kinds on the sonar and thought it would be easy to get a limit, but I was wrong. Many bites were had but not much was coming aboard. Chad did catch his first walleye on one of the drifts but they weren’t jumping in the boat today!
I decided to try another presentation and made one cast to see if it would work. Immediately I was tight to another walleye that joined theirs in the well. A quick switch to the same baits had them both landing another fish apiece. I really thought we were on to something but unfortunately that was all she wrote. The winds had died completely now and I was seeing fewer fish, with almost all of them pressed to the bottom in a negative feeding mood. It was about to get a whole lot tougher!
We spent a bit of time trying to persuade something to bite by casting the area instead of slowly moving over it and Chad hooked into a nice smallie. Great fight but only one! Time to try something different!
With time passing quickly I decided to hit another area for bass and had them casting soft plastics. Surprisingly only a couple of bass actually were seen hitting the baits but none of them got pinned. It was almost like they did it with a closed mouth!
One more move had us washing baits again until I decided to go back to where we had begun. I kept them out almost an hour longer than expected, due to an afternoon cancellation and managed a couple more walleye before we were done. At last they had a limit of fish for their half day!
It may not have been the easiest to get the fish to bite but with the conditions and full moon period, I wasn’t surprised. After a small flurry of activity in the morning, the fish just went dormant! Despite the tough fishing, Chad & his son still had a great time on the water and a few fish to eat. Who knows, maybe they’ll be back again during the hard water period for more!
