A Great Finish

Carl was with his family today, in hopes of getting his kids into some fish. With this many people on the boat, it was going to be a trolling type of day! A later than usual start of 8:30 had us wasting no time getting the lines wet. Winds were blowing 10 to 20 knots from the SW causing a slightly bigger chop than I would have liked but we managed nonetheless. It wasn’t going as well as I would have liked and I really had to cover plenty of water just to hook up. Although I was marking fish, they didn’t seem to want the offerings and plenty of lure changes were made just trying to get their attention. After only a handful of fish, we eventually pulled the plug on the troll and went for a little drop shotting nearby. This wasn’t much better though as missed fish were more common than landed ones! Etienne, Simon & Kevin were having a hard time with the presentation and losing fish on the hook sets. With all the running around in search of fish this morning and the late start, I decided to run back to the ramp so they could all take a bathroom break. As it was almost lunch time, it seemed like a good idea anyway! To my surprise, five people left but only three returned. Carl informed me that his oldest son Kevin and his wife really weren’t into fishing and had spent enough time on the water for the year. His other two sons, Simon & Etienne were eager to get back out and catch some fish though, so we headed to a new area. I had thought that with all the boat traffic in some of the places I had been fishing, I needed to get as far away as possible. We made a long run in hopes of more fish and less people. Apparently it was the right move as it didn’t take long for the first reel to fire. I had just set it into the rod holder and was preparing the second one when I heard it start screaming. Wow, less than 30 seconds and we were hooked up! It was a totally different scenario here as reels were firing every couple of minutes. For over 2 hours we had nonstop action and the kids were having a blast. They even had a couple of doubles due to the high number of fish in the area. Mostly pike were being caught but three nice slot walleye were also taken that were going to be on their menu for tonight. We even managed to catch a pretty big perch that got added to the livewell. The fishing eventually slowed down enough to cause me to look elsewhere and change up presentations. I made another long run and prepared the lines for drop shotting, in hopes of a few bass to finish the day. With all kinds of boats on the water, I was forced to hit an area that I hadn’t fished all season. We made drifts over the rock shoals and picked up a few bass and one more walleye for their dinner. Several more smallies were lost when they took to the air as well. When Carl got the call from his wife, wondering how much longer we would be, we packed up & headed back to the dock. It may not have been a great morning bite but as golfers would say, "the back 9 was much better"! They had plenty of action this afternoon and landed many fish as well. They were even taking home enough walleye to have a great dinner for all to enjoy. Nothing better than fresh fish, except maybe eating your own "Catch of The Day"!!