Blow Blow Blow

Jesper & Agnes were with me this morning all the way from Sweden. They were staying with relatives and hoping to catch some Canadian fish. My thoughts were to take them for sturgeon early and spend the remainder of the day battling smallies and walleye. Well, Mother Nature had other ideas. The winds were blowing 10 to 15 out of the SW at the start and were expected to intensify throughout the day. My only chance at sturgeon would be right away so we raced over to an area and tried to anchor up. The waves were two footers and it took a while for the anchor to catch, but it did! We would have a chance if it held, so I set the rods up and began. We were unable to use the rod holders and had to keep them in our hands due to the waves bouncing the boat up & down. Everyone had plenty of nibbles and felt several sturgeon bump into the lines at times, but bites were few & far between. I can’t honestly say we had any real takers but it’s possible. Regardless, the winds picked up in less than an hour and the anchor let go. Several more attempts at securing two anchors also failed and we had to give up on trying any longer. I packed everything up and headed to what I had hoped would be calmer waters due to the wind direction. Unfortunately this was not the case and we had to endure big waves while trying to fish for bass. Jesper had multiple hits but wasn’t familiar with the soft plastics and missed them all. I tried elsewhere instead of making another drift through and it was even worse. The winds were now blowing more like 20 to 30 with gusts. It was too bad too, as this area held all kinds of bass as we found out. Both Jesper & Agnes had many fish follow their baits and some of them even committed. Jesper finally managed to land his first smallie after having missed a giant on the previous cast due to a quick hookset. We picked up a few fish from here but they were really having a hard time with this wind and I eventually relocated. By now the waves were a constant 2 & 3 foot & bigger in deeper water. I made a good run to a somewhat more sheltered area due to the mainland but we were still out in the open water and feeling the big blow. Jesper picked up a couple more bass and several more misses too. I decided to let the wind move us across open water and pocket fished our way to the next spot. Along the way a few more fish were seen and a couple more lost before I changed it up completely and tried to drop shot. This too was going to be a challenge with three & four footers moving us along at warp speed. One ounce was what they had to use just to maintain bottom contact! Our speed was over a knot and there was no way to slow us down, even with a drift sock! We spent almost 2 hours making many passes across the areas and just like the rest of the day, fish were lost. A few perch, bass & a walleye were landed but it wasn’t easy. Before 4:00 we called it a day as they had someone picking them up soon. It may not have been the day I had hoped for, but they got a taste of what we had here despite Mother Nature’s cruel sense of humor. At least they got to see and catch the bass they had wanted and enjoyed the chance of fishing other waters than the ocean back where they lived. Hopefully the next time they come here to visit, the weather won’t be as bad and I can show them what the fishing is really like. Better times ahead, I hope!!