Much Better Conditions
August 8, 2020
I had a full boat today with Frank, Kevin, J.P. and Paul, all looking to get into some good fish. After yesterday’s outing, I could only hope for better results!
With flat calm conditions, I made a long run and quickly set up in the area to troll. It felt good to open the engine up for a change, on a mirror like body of water!
I don’t think it took more than 3 minutes to get our first bite, but as fast as it hit, it was gone. Visions of yesterday’s short striking fish went through my mind, but that was about to change. Soon after, another reel fired and it quickly turned into a double. This was definitely a good sign of things to come! In the next couple of hours almost every time a reel went off, another followed. We had mostly double headers and even a triple at one time too! Although they were almost all pike, there were several walleye landed as well and 3 of them even made it into the livewell for someone to bring home tonight.
After a while things slowed down and I decided that a move was in order. We had taken advantage of the morning bite and monopolized on a feeding period. We even had a good chop on the water throughout, but when it went flat, the bite just died. It was time to relocate!
I made another long run to deeper water in hopes of getting everyone into some bass action. I set up the rods with a couple of drop shot rigs and two jigs, just to mix it up. They would be drifting and I knew someone would soon be into a fish!
Paul was the first one to set into a bass and although a little on the small side, it still gave a great fight coming from the deep water. J.P. was the other drop shot rod and after missing several bites, he also managed to land a bass of his own. Unfortunately all the jigs could do was snag rocks and required multiple reties!
With each long drift the guys managed to pick at the fish pretty good at times. Eventually even the jigs got in the game and they too landed a few more bass. Frank almost had a keeper walleye from the same area but it fell short when I tried to net it and just came off.
With time closing in on us I made a couple of shorter passes over some fish and finished with another bass from Paul. He said he helped me out, by letting it jump off at the boat!
Today’s trip was a great one filled with lots of action, both on the troll and drifting the deeper waters for bass. Although more fish were lost or missed with the drop shot & jig technique, there were still plenty of fish caught. I don’t think they could have asked for a nicer day to be on the water and the boat traffic was pretty good too! Just another great day for fishing!
