Spectacular Global Fishing

Today was going to be an interesting one as I had three clients from all over the world. Jan was from the Netherlands, Ian the U.K. and Jaakko was from Finland. They were all in Montreal for a huge convention and wanted to try some local fishing. Everyone had fished, but with limited success back home and were hoping to catch something today. Let’s just say, I wasn’t worried! We began shortly after 7:30 and within 5 minutes Jan was into the first pike of the day. Although not big by my standards, it was plenty large by his. Pics were taken and once the fish was released, two more rods fired giving the others a shot at their own. One walleye and another pike were landed and before I could get the lines back in, a third one went off with a bass. These guys must have thought they died and went to heaven! We hadn’t been fishing for 10 minutes and already four fish had been landed. They were pumped for more and more was just what they got. For a couple of hours it was nonstop and everyone had their shot at a variety of fish. Walleye, pike, bass & perch were landed and several of the walleye were kept in the livewell for a dinner on Sunday. Seeing as they were all huge soccer fans, they wanted to have a meal with a bunch of their friends for the final game. They planned on getting a chef from one of their hotels to take care of everything and needed a few more for the dinner. I managed to stay on the fish as long as I could before they just stopped biting. Time to move on and cover more water! I jumped around from shallow to deep and contacted fish all over. We were fortunate this morning with overcast skies and a nice chop from a SW wind, but that eventually ended. Now the sun was shining and the wind had died completely causing me to raise the top once again. It was nice to be in the shade and the comfort level went way up for everyone! It didn’t seem to change the fishing either as they were still biting pretty good. Sometime after lunch I decided to change it up a bit and give them a chance to try a different technique. We were trading in the trolling rods and pulling out the drop shot rigs with a relocation. Now they would be on their own and all I would do was try and keep them on the fish. The lack of wind was the only drawback as it almost felt like we were anchored. We were moving but real slowly over flats and patience was necessary. This was the first time they had ever used this technique and a little coaching was required. After several lost fish they seemed to get the hang of it and we kept at it for the remainder of our day. All three of them were catching fish but Jaakko definitely had the hot hand. It was like he was putting on a seminar! He must have caught 75% of the fish and most of them were walleye. They would have no problem eating fish tomorrow! I had mentioned something to the gang earlier in the day and we would be quitting at 3:00 because of it. Being giant soccer fans and having the Netherlands playing Belgium at 4:00, they took me up on the offer. We would be heading to a regular restaurant/bar of mine where they could watch the game on many big screens while eating fish and drinking beer. Who could say no to that offer? As I always like to end on a high, I decided to make one last attempt at a final fish while I packed things up. Right on cue Jaakko hooked up and he had a screamer on the line. I knew this wasn’t a walleye and then we caught a glimpse of the fish. He had hooked into a small musky around 8 pounds and it was pissed off! This would make his total for Canadian fish species five, if he landed it. After several aerials and a few good runs, I was finally able to get it in the net. This was the icing on the cake for Jaakko today! We shot a bunch of quick pics and released it unharmed to grow into the beast that it could. These guys had flown halfway around the world, never imagining fishing like this! We pulled out, headed back to my place and raced to the restaurant for the game. For the next few hours they were in their glory watching the match and Jan was elated with his team. Many drinks were drank and a great time was had by all before they headed to their hotel. They had definitely chosen the right day to go fishing and topped it off with a great meal and relaxing evening at a local watering hole. Who could ask for anything more!!