Short Strike Day

June 26th 2018

 

A morning trip saw Brahm & his two grandsons, Max & Sam in the boat with me today. They were hoping for anything that swims and I knew just where to go! We hooked up around 7:00 and were running minutes later to our first spot.

With lines in, I instructed them on how to remove the rods from the holders when the fish hit and began the troll. I was liking the sonar and was sure it wouldn’t take long to lock them up. The first fish to hit turned out to be a walleye and while I was clearing the other rod from the same side, I set into another fish. Now Max and Sam both had one of their own. First double and hopefully not the last! We took a few pics of the walleye and released the pike back as it was rather on the small side. I put the walleye in the livewell in case someone wanted to take it home and resumed the troll.

Although I was marking fish, they didn’t seem to want to move on the baits. I covered plenty of great looking water and finally had a rip that went silent almost as fast. Short striking, no eating fish are hateful and I hoped it wouldn’t continue. The 65 degree water temps had these fish very lethargic and not wanting to move. As I continued covering water we did manage to get another small pike that didn’t even fire the reel. I was checking lines and felt weight! It was going to be one of those days!

I had began deep and gradually moved towards shallower water, changing lures as we trolled. It didn’t seem to matter as water temps were pretty much the same everywhere and so were the fish. We did have a few more bites and landed a couple more fish, but it wasn’t great. I decided to pull the plug on this area and go to the second spot.

After a long run, I set up and began trolling deeper water in hopes of a better bite. Not long after the long line screamed and before Max could get it out of the rod holder, it went silent. Three trebles and it still got off! A little while later another long line went off and I grabbed it quickly. Sam had another northern and at least this time, it made it into the net. Barely though as it came unpinned almost immediately. We continued trolling the area and had only a few more hits. They never even got hooked up so I decided to cover more water once again.

From deep water to the shallows, everything was the same. Short strikers or fish that fall off in the net, or even worse, before! This was becoming an issue and I was sure it was due to the water temps. Nothing was active and it was next to impossible to get something to eat. A couple of times while checking the lines, we even had a rider attached!

I kept moving to different sections of this area and changing up lures to try and get a bite. I finally had another reel fire that had Sam locked up on one of the better eyes I’m use to seeing. Unfortunately while bringing it to the boat, it just came undone. Another one that just fell off! With time running out quickly I decided to hit some water closer to the ramp as they needed to leave by 11:30. Dirtier water had the temps at 69 degrees and hopefully the fish active. Well after trolling for almost 10 minutes without a touch I decided to check the lines. There were a lot of nymphal shucks on the surface from a big hatch last night and this made me also wonder if the fish had fed heavily during the hatch. Something was definitely off and I couldn’t put my finger on it! When I got to the second rod, I realized that there was a fish on the end and handed off the rod. It was small, but it was a walleye and also the last fish of the day. Brahm was ready to go and we were officially done!

Although this wasn’t a normal day for numbers, the kids still managed to catch several fish each. I strongly believe that today the afternoon bite would have been much better if we had more time. The cold nights have slowed water temps from rising and at 65 degrees in most areas, it has a long way to go before these fish become active again. I’m crossing my fingers that we get south winds and hot weather for this week, warming the water up more. With many bookings ahead, I really need to find active fish. I guess I’ll be mixing it up more between casting, trolling and possibly deep drop shotting in the coming days. All I know is that bass is looking pretty good right about now. Might have to mix the species up a bit in order to get the numbers I’m use to seeing again!!