Constantly Adjusting

Craig & Steve were back out with me this morning, but on a different body of water. There were just too many boats where we were yesterday and I expected even more today! The weather was almost a carbon copy with no wind and bluebird skies. Although it was a cool start to the day, forecasted highs were to hit the mid 70’s by day’s end. We spent the first 90 minutes this morning looking for a bite from the "Holy Grail"! Trolling for musky doesn’t always work out but we wanted to give it a try. I did mark a few, but was unable to trigger them into biting our lures. I’m sure that if we kept at it for the entire day, the results may have been different. I pulled the plug on them and opted for another species of similar size. We fished for a little over an hour for sturgeon but were only able to get one smaller fish to the net. Steve landed a nice one that put up a great battle, but the fishing was slower than expected. We changed it up after a couple of misses and relocated to an area I hadn’t fished in years. Just like the lake yesterday, there were all kinds of boats on this one and finding place to fish wasn’t easy. Most of them were pleasure boats however but they were everywhere. Looks like the nice weather had lots of people calling in sick today! I wasn’t exactly sure where the spot was so we casted the large area until I had confirmation. Steve had the first follow on his lure and I knew I was close. We slowed down as soon as I started seeing them and they were all over this place. Unfortunately their attitude wasn’t what I had hoped for and we ended up changing presentations, hoping to entice them. You’d think with as many fish as we were seeing that some of them would be feeding but that wasn’t the case. After several change ups, one finally took the jig barely moved on the bottom. Thinking we were on to something, I had them slow down completely and drag their baits along the edge. Still seeing them cruising but not taking had me going insane. We tried several other presentations but they all had the same results. It was like watching pre spawn bass coming in from deep water, in preparation of their spawn. When this happens, I usually change lakes but wasn’t prepared to do that here and just changed locations. We idled over to another area and saw cruisers pretty much everywhere along the way. I spot casted to them with a variety of baits and lures hoping to turn at least one. Apparently they all felt the same as none of them showed any interest. I decided to use the kicker to increase my speed and idled over the flats looking for larger concentrations and rock piles. Once I found what I was looking for I immediately shifted the small engine into neutral. I also dislodged the shifter connection once again and wasn’t happy. After 15 minutes of trying to get it back in place, I just gave up. We had fish to catch and I wasn’t going to waste any more time on the motor! They casted jigs and cranks everywhere but despite all efforts, came up empty. I had a couple of other places in slightly deeper water to try and pulled out of here quickly. These shallow fish were driving me crazy and I didn’t want to see them anymore! The next area had Craig locked up almost immediately on a jig and I hoped it wasn’t the only one. As luck would have it, it wasn’t and he landed several decent smallmouth and a walleye. Steve wasn’t fending as well and only managed one bass. Every time I mentioned last cast, Craig hooked up again and we had to stay longer. In fact, one of his fish was a rather large smallie and I remained there hoping for others of similar size. The next move had Craig locked up on a rather nice walleye that chose to go home with him tonight. Too bad it was the only fish however and we moved once more. Last stop saw us in an area that I hoped would be the honey hole. After just a few bass I decided to call it a day and headed back. This was one of those days that showed lots of fish with only a few eaters. Our season has been a roller coaster of weather and the fish have been feeling it as well. I’m sure that when the temps begin to fall, their attitudes will change and feeding will be an all day thing. Hopefully in the coming weeks, cruisers will become more active and high number days will be the norm again. I guess I’ll just have to stay deeper until then, avoiding all the sightings that drive us insane. Bring on the cold!!