A Day of Changes

Ed & Josh were with me this morning on a not so friendly day. The winds were out of the north, blowing 15 knots at the start and expected to increase during the day. We hit the water with high expectations knowing what we were in store for! It was bass we were targeting today and I raced over to our first spot in a terrible cross wind. Waves were already two footers and almost impossible to smoothly navigate, even in my boat! I set up in an area that usually had a decent current but this time it felt like the tide on an ocean. The wind was opposite the flow and it was a roller coaster ride just standing on the electric. Regardless, they managed to get into a bunch of small bass and had a great time hooking but losing most. For whatever reason, the fish just weren’t staying pinned most of the time and on their first jump, getting off. Hooks were sharp so I knew that wasn’t the problem! Despite the fact that the water was around 64 degrees, the fish still seemed active and should be eating. It was post spawn in most sections of the lake and feeding should have been on their minds. This north wind had created a cold front effect and I just had to make them slow down with their presentations. Our very next area was the same as Ed missed over 75% of the fish he got hits from. Thoughts of adding a stinger hook to the spinner bait crossed my mind but he was hanging onto a few. With each & every move the same thing occurred and eventually I decided to give it a try. Well it didn’t seem to matter because they still got off! It almost seemed like the fish were hitting with their mouths closed. Josh was throwing a small crank bait and hooking into a small percentage of what Ed was but losing almost all of his too. I decided to change it up and switched areas completely as well as species. We were going trolling and the lines were set for walleye this time! I fished a little deeper and managed to have a couple of reels fire quickly but pike were the ones that ate. We covered a lot of water before we finally contacted what we were after and Josh landed a high end keeper for Ed to take home. A little later, Ed was into another one but unfortunately it was in the 25 inch range and returned after a couple of quick pics. We kept fishing for a while longer but could only come up with pike and decided to go for largemouth just to change it up. By now the winds had blown up to their max and waves were 3 to 4 foot in the open water. We had made the run to this area just before it got insane and I planned on staying here for the remainder of the day. For the next several hours they picked at the largemouth as we covered the area thoroughly. A few of the places produced multiple hookups but most were just one fish here and there. The water temps were actually a little warmer here with 70 degrees being seen in a couple of spots. The skies were looking threatening and I could see storms in various areas and readied for the worst. As luck would have it though, we never got more than a light sprinkle. The city looked like it was getting crushed and south of us as well, but we were safe! Ironically we had dodged a bullet and were glad to be fishing where we were! After the storm passed through, it seemed like the winds had gotten lighter so we switched areas one more time to try & get Ed a few more fish to eat. Apparently it wasn’t meant to be because each time we had a shot at a walleye, it just came off. All we could manage were a couple of pike and bass and we were done. It wasn’t the easiest day of fishing but there was plenty of action everywhere we went. These cold north winds really need to leave in order for the fishing to stabilize and get better. Although difficult at times today, we managed to make the best of it and boated plenty of quality fish. Too bad they only caught about 50% of what actually could have been, but that’s fishing! We’ll get even the next time around!!