The Big Blow Returns

Pablo was with me this morning with Pablo Sr. & Nikita, for a little learning on a few techniques. . When I launched, there was a boat tied up to the dock waiting for others to arrive. What I found unusual was that there was only one person and two five gallon buckets with tackle also on the dock. These guys would turn out to be a group of four or five and apparently the buckets were full of minnows. I wish I had of known that earlier as I would have dumped them into the lake before they headed out! Illegal use of bait in the summer is something these people do regularly along with breaking every other rule as well. Over harvesting of fish, out of season fishing and anything else they can think of! To make matters worse, they decided to come over to where I was fishing in the middle of the lake and try to fish. I encounter this frequently and had just about enough. I blasted them while we were trolling and fortunately for them, they went away without saying a word. I usually get a “So Solly, So Solly” out of them but this time they just kept their mouths shut and went away. These guys and everyone else just like them harvest absolutely everything they catch regardless of limits and seasons and I wasn’t about to stand for them where I was fishing. In case you haven’t figured out just who I might be talking about, it’s the “Asians”! I could go on & on about them, but I won’t. With the boat leaving, I was able to resume the troll and get back to the task at hand. I moved all over the place trying to get the first bite and struggling to keep the rods clean from floaters. Eventually I managed to find a taker and the reel fired hard. Pablo was into the first fish of the day and it was a good one. They couldn’t believe how, where or what it was caught on and were learning already! A few quick pics and a release and we were back in the game. I now had something to go on and started to pattern the eyes afterwards. For the next two or three hours I was on them good and many more overs came to net. The largest was to be a 26 incher and a solid 5.5 to 6 pounds. We even had a great doubleheader  with both fish in the 5 pound range! Out of all the fish landed and there were plenty, only 1 was a keeper. The others didn’t even need to be measured as they were all huge. It was really hard to leave the area but we needed to take a bathroom break and I went back to where we launched so Nikita could use the facilities. Afterwards we headed to a distant area in search of some smallies. With the winds seemingly from the NW, I thought we would be somewhat sheltered, but I was wrong. It seemed like where we were it was blowing straight west and making things difficult. Despite all of this, they still managed to land a handful of bass before we relocated due to oncoming weather. There were storm cells everywhere & with a quick glance at the radar, I was able to move to an area where we didn’t get hit. I eventually went to a spot after and tried drop shotting but the waves were three to four footers, making it even more difficult. Somehow we managed to get it done and after the storm passed, we were able to make several successful drifts under slightly lighter winds and waves. Pablo junior really had the touch as he managed to land four walleye while the others struggled to get bit. He missed many more as well before we had to call it a day. With everything that we had thrown at us today, the fishing was much better than expected. High numbers of big walleye were landed before the weather changed and a deeper pattern produced when the system passed. I think these guys definitely leaned something about changing patterns in order to monopolize on catching more fish. Hopefully it will help them in future trips to other places they fish!!