Tough Cold Front Conditions

June 14th 2018

 

Richard and his son, Rich junior were with me this morning, hoping for a good half day of fishing. I knew I had my work cut out for me with the heavy rains we had, followed by giant winds. I wasn’t even sure if we were going to get out! They were blowing 20 to 30 knots from the west and the lake was big!

We hit the water just before 7:30 and I told them it was going to be a bumpy ride to where I had to go. I even put the third seat in the boat to avoid the pounding. Fortunately the waves were coming directly at me but they were giant three footers that were rolling more like Lake Ontario. Throw in a few rogue waves and you’ve got a roller coaster ride from hell.

We finally made it to where I wanted to fish and I knew they were going to catch! I set the lines and began trolling the area I had ended on the day before. Within minutes the first reel went off and a smallie took to the air, throwing the hooks. Back in it went and the next reel to fire gave junior his first ever walleye. He was on a mission today to break his record of landing 13 fish back in Florida and I aimed to make it happen! From this point on he would be counting each and every fish. Plenty of pics were taken before releasing his catch too!

Although I had to work hard at getting the bites that usually come easy, they were fighting fish often. I had one little area where apparently there were a good number of walleye positioned and reels were firing often. So much so that we ended up with several doubles allowing Richard to actually land a few himself! For some reason though, all I could get them into were walleye and that was beginning to puzzle me. When they finally hooked into a northern, it was on the small side for what I was use to seeing from this area. I covered plenty of water and even moved far away from where I was catching in order to see if I could find some bigger pike for the little guy to battle.

After what seemed like forever without a rip, I slowly made my way back to where they had been hooking up. Apparently with the off colored water and lower water temps, the fish weren’t holding there. It took only a couple of minutes once we returned to get back in the game and they both began reeling in more fish. Rich even landed his first ever smallmouth bass, giving him a third first for the morning! I decided to remain around this area, fanning out slightly to get more bites. The numbers kept climbing and Rich was way above his personal best day of fishing by now. In fact he ended with almost doubling it by the time we were done!

Noon came quickly and before we knew it I was packing everything up to go. I had decided to let him catch one more fish and it didn’t take long. I had also left one line in the water to take out last and as luck would have it, there was a fish on the other end. He ended the day with two fish, not one!

Our run back was less painful with the winds switching slightly to the W/NW making for a somewhat smoother ride. They had seen a great day of fishing in difficult conditions today. I only wished for some sunshine to fire up the inactive fish for them to catch more. All in all it was still a great day considering that I wasn’t even sure we would be able to get out. Hopefully they will be back again sometime this summer and I will be able to bring them for something larger, like the dinosaurs I catch. Rich and his dad are all for that! Next time we hunt for River Monsters!!