A Really Full Boat
August 29, 2020
Avi & his family were with me this morning but we got a later than usual start. We met at 8:30 and I headed out, looking to get his kids into some trolling action. Hopefully it would all work out!
The run to our starting spot was less than smooth as we were in 2 to 3 footers most of the way. It wasn’t going to be easy as the water temps had fallen almost 10 degrees since the last time I fished the area. Regardless, I was going to give it a try!
With all four lines in, it took a bit longer than I hoped to hook into the first fish, David battled his pike to the boat and the skunk was officially out. I knew it was going to be a grind this morning with the cooler water temps, but stuck at it for a couple of hours anyway. In the end, everyone landed fish and we missed several more as well. When the bite died, I decided to switch gears and head somewhere else to try for walleye & bass.
The conditions were pretty good for what I wanted to do but I wasn’t sure how it would be with this many people in the boat. We began drop shotting an open water shoal and despite marking all kinds of bait & fish, only one perch was caught. I’m sure they missed a few, but these fish were reluctant to commit suicide and just refused our offerings all together.
With very little time remaining in their trip, I moved to one final area in hopes of hooking up. Five rods in the water drifting over a rocky bottom wouldn’t be easy! One smallmouth was caught but many weights were lost by the others. I always say that if you drag, you will snag and that’s exactly what happened! We made about three passes and although a few more fish were missed, that was all she wrote!
It was definitely a tough 4.5 hours but everyone landed fish and that’s all that counts. They all left happy and had great memories along with many pics of their day. This was definitely the most people I have ever had in the boat! Although there were 7 of us, at least 4 of them were children. The overall weight was still less than having 4 adults! Tough to move and fish but we managed to make it work and everyone had a good time. I think however that the next time Avi comes, he’ll be bringing a few less bodies with him. Just saying!
