Double Slam Day
August 28, 2020
What a difference a day makes! Yesterday I had 3 & 4 footers all over the water and today, flat ass calm! No chance of anything ever in between lately!
Neil hooked up with me this morning and we ventured out on a mirror like surface to fish. I would start on an open water spot, looking for a few walleye to bite. The question was, would they?
With practically no flow going on, I had to idle over the area in order to mark the fish. Once I did, we were forced to toss back and slowly slide over the schools of perch and eyes. Even by doing this, we were still only able to get a few to bite and gave up after several attempts!
Neil had brought a few rods with him that needed a little fine tuning and I was happy to help him out. He even brought a baitcaster outfit, in hopes of learning how to use it properly. A few adjustments later and he was casting like he had been doing it for years! All the reels needed a little backing to cinch the braid to the spools and we were on our way!
I bypassed the next area I wanted to fish due to another boat nearby and ran to a spot much further away, to fish for bass. I wasn’t sure how it would be after yesterday’s big winds but decided to give it a try anyway.
Neil’s first fish came on a soft plastic bait and although a little smaller than I had expected, it was a welcomed sight. I knew now that they would bite and fished the area thoroughly. In the next hour he managed to miss a couple of bites but still boated several good smallies before we were through. This place had met my expectations, giving him some really big bites!
We hopped around a little after and tried dropshotting a couple of other areas without much luck. Another change of locations was soon to follow!
Our next spot was a deep edge and Neil told me to fish while he did a little business on the phone. I made one cast and instantly boated a good over walleye! I decided to wait for him to finish before making another!
We spent close to an hour trying to catch a few other fish and managed to get several bites while we were there. Unfortunately there weren’t as many brought to net and we decided to make another move. This time were going to try something completely different. We were looking for a much bigger bite!
Neil had hoped to get into several different species of fish today and I had brought the big sticks. This would be the earliest I had ever tried for sturgeon but we were going to give it a try!
After idling around for a little while, I finally marked some fish in the area and anchored up with the electric motor. Now it was a waiting game!
I made a couple of moves, after no results and finally had a light bite soon after. Although not what we were looking for, Neil did catch an exotic species with the Redhorse Sucker, I think! It’s a bizarre creature but actually pretty good looking!
We had moved to another area and were just about to bring the lines in and give up on the sturgeon fishing when I noticed a small bite on one of the rods. I reeled back and set the hook on something small and passed the rod to Neil. Not thinking that it could possibly be a sturgeon, I continued packing up. To my surprise though, it was and although small, we did complete the quest we were on. Neil landed a juvenile sturgeon that had razor like scoots. A quick pick and we were done!
With less than an hour remaining, I decided to try where we had started in hopes of a few more eyes. I had also hoped that the wind was going to pick up later in the day but that didn’t happen! We marked plenty of perch & bait but very few walleye from the area. Neil did however land a jumbo perch giving him many species for the day. Oh yeah, I got pulled over for the 4th time this season, by the police boat! I guess this gives me a Grand Slam too! I wonder how many more @#$%&*$ times I will be checked this year!
Although today wasn’t what I had hoped for, we still managed to get into a bunch of good fish. Neil had finally gotten a well-deserved day off from work and chilled on the water. He will be back out with me many more times before the season is over and I know the fishing will be even better. Cooler air temps will only make the water temps go down and the fish bite more. It will also reduce the number of pleasure boats out and I’m really looking forward to that! Bring on the cold!
