Wind Rain & Fish
July 13, 2020
After a weather cancellation/postponement yesterday, I was back on the lake this afternoon with Val & his wife Julie. We hit the water a bit earlier trying to beat the heavy rains and barely managed to get set up before the skies let lose.
First order was the roof and I set it up as soon as we reached out destination. With lines in, we began our troll in a light drizzle and big west winds. I guess the cover wasn’t going to be 100% waterproof today!
I don’t think we were trolling for even 3 minutes before the first reel screamed and Julie was into a nice northern. Not having done much fishing before, I instructed her on how to fight the fish and soon after, it was in the net. She would be having plenty more practice in the rest of the day!
The action really picked up just prior to the storm and pike after pike were reeled in by both Val & his wife. When the winds grew, the heaviest downpour also happened and I was forced to turn the boat and troll downwind so as not to have as much of the horizontal rain enter the boat.
With all this happening, one of the reels howled and Val fought a really heavy fish. When it stayed down, I knew exactly what he was into and soon netted his catch. It was a giant walleye and definitely his personal best! After a few pics in the miserable pouring rain, she was released to grow again. Yes, fish do bite in the rain!
We fought through the worst of the weather, all the while catching fish. In fact, they were even able to put a few keeper walleye in the boat that were destined for their dinner table tonight.
Just like most weather systems, the post frontal conditions saw an increase in the winds and the lake grew even bigger. I stuck it out with the troll for a little longer than I had wanted, knowing that it would be worse elsewhere.
After landing many more fish of both species and not much time remaining in their trip, I shifted gears and went somewhere to cast. Val had hoped to catch bass and I brought him somewhere that was holding plenty. Too bad the winds were worse here and the waves weren’t making it any easier. Just feeling the baits while fishing was next to impossible, but Val did manage to land one nice bass from this area. Julie was still working on her casting skills after I instructed her and was fending quite well, despite the big blow.
After realizing that this casting in 3 footers wasn’t working out, I pulled the plug and headed back towards the boat ramp. The run was exactly as I had expected and I took it easy along the way. Threes soon became fours in some areas and I tried to remain in the troughs & crests instead of going with the rollers.
With time remaining, I thought I’d stop in the open water and try a little drop shotting. It may not have been easy with all the floating weeds but we somehow made it work. Val missed a couple of bites and Julie landed a nice keeper walleye before we were done.
Today may not have been the nicest for fishing, but at least we were alone everywhere we went. The fishing was pretty good and that’s all that counts! Julie & Van enjoyed another great day of catching and even managed to take a few fish home too!
