Getting The Job Done

Peter was back again this year for another banner day! He was hoping to catch a bunch of different fish and I wasn’t going to disappoint him. With the weather expected to change throughout the day, I had it all planned out. Let’s hope she was right, for a change!

Our first species was sturgeon and it didn’t take long before he was locked up. In less than 10 minutes, we had a bite and he was soon battling a quality fish. Although it never jumped, it did make several long runs signifying its size was big. As always, it took about ten minutes before he tired and I was able to net the fish. I could tell by the length that it was a male and wasn’t surprised of how the battle went. A few quick shots later, it was back swimming and we were ready for another bite again.

Our second fish was short lived as it broke the leader within seconds of hooking up. Likely a smaller fish as those scoots are razor sharp! Instead of retying the leader, I just grabbed a spare rod and was back fishing in seconds. No sense wasting time as these fish seemed like they were on fire!

We didn’t have to wait long after the lines were both in and minutes later Peter was bringing in another fish. This time however it was a juvenile and quickly released without any pics.

I had made a small move due to not seeing any action for a while and wasn’t able to find anything worth anchoring on. As I slid back to where I had begun, I did see a few fish and ironically stopped pretty close to where I had been all along! It took about 20 minutes or so, but we eventually had our third fish pinned and this one felt really large! Peter was in for a battle!

Multiple runs and one good breach and I knew why it was so hard to bring in. This one was a female and pretty thick around. It was going to be a lengthy fight as Peter was about to find out!

After battling this sturgeon for close to 15 minutes, I finally slid the net under her and the fight was done. Now the hard part was about to begin! Peter held it for a couple of quick shots and torpedoed her back to the water after. This was it for the sturgeon now as we were done. He wanted to try for another species and was lucky to have had the action he did in such a short period of time. I really think that if we had of stayed longer that it would have continued!

With near flat calm conditions, I headed to a shallow area looking for smallies. I covered plenty of water trying to find fish, but we only managed a few small ones. Time to move on and hopefully the next spot would produce!

To my surprise, it was just as good as the previous one and after moving over the shoal, we pulled the plug all together. I didn’t want to waste time looking shallow anymore and decided to try a little deeper and much further away.

After a long run, I set up on a shoal and had Peter casting a drop shot rig in the current. It was a small area and this was the best choice for presentation. To my surprise, he wasn’t having any luck though and I decided to make a cast to see why. I was instantly hooked up on a nice smallie signifying that there was definitely life on the rocks! Peter continued casting the area after and may have had a couple of light bites, but never locked up. The winds were beginning to build now as expected and I decided to leave this area and move to an open water spot to do a little drifting.

We set up in the middle of nowhere on deep structure and I instructed him on how to drift the drop shot rig. Minutes later he was hooked up on a nice walleye and we were only getting started! For the next couple of hours we made a series of drifts in two foot waves and pounded on the walleye. Along with them, there were also several big perch and one northern. Oh yeah, even a musky got in the act as it bit me off and immediately went airborne just to piss us off even more!

These fish were feeding with the big winds and waves were building as well. We now had gusts and two to three footers were the norm. I had to drop the electric motor in just to slow down our drifts. Fortunately it didn’t matter as these walleye were on the feed! I was having great success on a jig and soon changed Peter to one as well. It didn’t take long before he was locked up and this lasted right till the end.

With limited time remaining, I made a couple more drifts and Peter landed the largest walleye of the day. He also brought to net several more keepers and a few of them came home with me in the end. By 4:00 we were done! This day had worked out almost perfectly with the exception of the non-shallow bass bite. I would have had to go much deeper in order to get it done!

For a change, Mother Nature was spot on today with the reports. I was able to plan the day out perfectly and looked forward to the big winds later in the afternoon. We had definitely ended it with a bang! I don’t know how many walleye we had landed but it was a lot. Several overs were released but very few unders were caught making this one of the better walleye bites in quite a while. I’m sure the big winds had triggered them into feeding and we were in the right place at the right time. The moved that I had made today worked out perfectly giving Peter a good mix of fish for his outing. He had caught big fish in a couple of different species and probably his personal best walleye in the end. Overall it couldn’t have worked out much better. Great day of fishing!