More Difficult Conditions

I had to cancel yesterday’s couple due to giant winds, but managed to fit them into today. I had a group for the morning and they would be taking the afternoon. Although the waves were considerably smaller than yesterday for the start, they would grow by the afternoon once again. I headed out with Remy, his dad and brother to see what kind of damage yesterday’s big blow had unleashed on the lake. It didn’t take long to figure out that the fish were going to play hard to get! We trolled a couple of key areas and managed only a few pike and even they were terrible hits. I had lost more water temp and it was now down to 69 degrees. I fished shallow, mid and even deeper but was only picking a bite here & there. They managed to land a couple of walleye in one spot and I was marking plenty more. I even resorted to drop shotting and that too went untouched. In a last ditch effort I relocated to slightly deeper water and tried to vertically drop shot. It was here that they had several bites and a few bass and walleye came aboard. Given more time, I’m sure fishing would have improved and the numbers would have also climbed, but we ran out of time. The morning shift was officially over and I had to change the lineup for the afternoon. We headed back, through heavy boat traffic and bigger waves for the meet.

The afternoon saw Juliana and her husband Ely in the boat. We had postponed their trip from yesterday due to the weather and rescheduled it for today. Although the wind was bad, it was still better than the ocean we saw when we met at the docks the day before. Between the boat traffic, sailboats and wind, I knew I had to go somewhere far in order to fish. I thought largemouth would be a good choice and ran to the other side of the lake in hopes of escaping some of the wind. Well we may have had less waves but the wind was still pretty bad. Very little protection from the blow was seen as they fan casted various weeds. It was difficult to target specific places and lots of good water was missed. There was one area however where several decent largemouth were caught and or lost. We spent considerable time in here hoping not to have to go back on the open lake. Unfortunately it was inevitable! We left the somewhat sheltered weeds and crossed back over to the ocean. Hard to believe, but it had gotten worse since we started and I was forced to try another troll. The water had muddied up pretty bad and the rollers were terrible but we tried regardless. We hooked up pretty quickly with a decent keeper sized eye and I really thought we were going to get into them. Too bad mother nature had other ideas because it was damn near impossible to stay on my waypoints in this wind. I couldn’t make turns properly and trolling into the wind was next to impossible unless I wanted to swamp the boat. Several times we had some water come over the bow while trying. I was in 3 to 4 footers and decided to give drifting with a drop shot a try instead. Once set up they dropped down and I instructed them on what to do. A couple of bites were missed before Ely managed to get another walleye. It was also difficult because of suspended grass in the water column and they were forced to check their lines quite often. I eventually had to pull the plug here and try elsewhere! The last spot of the day was where we had ended the morning trip but now the waves were about double in size. A vertical drop shot with the kicker in reverse to maintain the presentation wasn’t as easy as it was earlier in the day. I had occasional rogue waves coming over the back while trying to maintain control. Once again Ely managed to get another walleye from here before we had to call it. They had plans this evening and had to be somewhere by a certain time. The fishing proved to be a challenge today as both groups experienced some of the toughest fishing so far this year. With conditions so inconsistent, it’s hard to adjust constantly. Water temps are up & down and never stable. Above all of this though, it has to be the intense winds that are the worst as most people have a hard time detecting bites. Tomorrow should see less traffic and hopefully reduced winds as well. Crossing my fingers!!