The Elusive Eyes
August 29, 2018
August 28th 2018
Marcia booked a half day with her husband and two nephews and we met up at the usual time. She wanted them to catch fish and pike & walleye were the targeted species this morning. I wasn’t sure what was in store for us but headed to some of the usual areas to give it a try.
After setting the lines, we began our search by trolling big flats. It wasn’t even three minutes when Ziad was into the first pike of the day. They had wanted to take some fish home with them and decided to keep the northern. Minutes later, his brother Amar reeled in another fish and things were beginning to look up. We covered the water and I managed to get everyone into fish pretty quickly. Marcia and Yassar had also landed northerns but I was still in search of the walleye.
We spend a couple of hours covering plenty of water but all we could come up were pike. I think Yassar had a walleye on briefly but unfortunately it came off while reeling it to the boat. We’ll never know! They had all caught several fish so far but I really wanted to get them into something other than pike and decided to make a move to another area further away.
The winds had picked up from the SW and were now blowing 10 to 15 knots, with more to come. I was hoping they would hold off at least until we were done! I reset the lines and started a downstream troll over productive walleye waters. Unfortunately after about 45 minutes of washing lures, I put an end to the troll. I was going to try something different in another area further away. They were about to learn how to drop shot and hopefully catch a few fish in the process!
When I arrived, I could see that it wasn’t going to be easy. The winds had picked up more and the waves were pretty big, but I was marking fish! I wasted no time in getting their lines in the water and instructed them on what to do. Yassar also wasted no time as he hooked into a pretty good smallie not long after missing a couple of bites. This may not have been what I was looking for but it was worthy of a few pics. Marcia hooked up soon after the release and brought a small walleye to the boat that unfortunately had to be released. They had hoped to bring a couple of them home along with the pike from this morning.
I made a couple of drifts, but everyone was still having a hard time getting the hang of things. Bites were being missed and some fish were even getting hooked and immediately lost. I informed them that they were pulling too hard and setting too quickly! Soon after, a few more fish were landed, including one keeper walleye and a really nice perch. They even boated another slightly smaller bass that gave Amar a great fight!
With this many fish marking on the sonar I decided to extend their scheduled time, in hopes of getting into more. I could also see that the winds were growing and didn’t know how much longer we had. Eventually after a few more bites, the waves got too big for them to fish comfortably and we were forced to call it a day.
The run back to the ramp was a treat as I had to take it really slow and keep the nose up in order to stay dry. Some of the rollers were three & four footers and we were going with them. Definitely a recipe for bringing water over the bow if not done right!
The fishing may not have been what I had hoped for today but I was glad they only had a morning scheduled. When I looked back on the lake I realized just how big it had become and It was only going to get worse in the afternoon! They all had a great time regardless of the fishing and conditions and were bringing home a few for dinner too. Everyone managed to land fish both trolling as well as drop shotting and had learned a couple of new techniques in the process. Tough day but good finish!!
