The Secret Weapon
August 19, 2020
Due to a last minute cancellation yesterday afternoon, I had no clients for today! Instead, Christiane & I went out for a few hours of pleasure fishing. She too had the day off and hadn’t fished in so long, so we decided to give it a go!
I immediately took her to an open water spot that was holding fish and she managed to get an oversized walleye soon after. We hit a bunch more walleye and big perch from here as well, until it just slowed down completely. The fish had dispersed and were nowhere to be found!
I had wanted to use a new technique for quite a while and decided to give it a try. On my first cast, I realized that it was going to be one that I would use from now on, as an oversized walleye fell victim to the presentation. The area had gone silent and I still managed to hook into and land this big fish!
We continued to fish here for a bit longer, but only perch were being caught. I decided to hit a new spot in hopes of repeating this newly found technique.
The winds had begun to gust now and 2 to 3 footers were upon us. I thought I’d switch gears and give a shot to a few bass on a rocky bottom flat nearby. It apparently was loaded as all Christiane had to do was drop her line in and she immediately became hooked up. They were all over the bottom and she landed several good ones before they became educated. As with the last place we had fished, I decided to pull out when they just stopped biting! I could have remained longer and worked the area but I wanted to hit one more area with these big winds before we were done.
After a couple of unsuccessful drifts over all kinds of fish with the drop shot, I thought I’d try the new secret technique once again. Just like before, I was tight to another good fish on the very first cast! While we had passed through the school with a couple of other presentations without getting bit, this technique definitely made a difference. I will now keep it on board for future trips when the fish are uncooperative again!
I continued to fish the area until we no longer saw the schooling walleye. All we were able to catch when they disappeared were perch and we had seen just about enough of them. It was time to head off the lake and hopefully beat the weather that was coming our way. Skies were looking a little threatening in the distance and we both agreed that it was a good choice!
In the few short hours we spent on the water, many good fish were boated. Christiane finally got to enjoy one of her days off instead of staying home while I was on the water with others. It was definitely a win, win kind of day! The only one that didn’t benefit from today was the client that cancelled due to the weather forecast. Too bad too as they could have had the time of their lives, catching all kinds of quality fish. Oh well, never believe everything the weather forecasters say!
