Two Personal Bests

June 9th 2018

 

Scott booked a half day morning with his sons Owen & Ryan, hoping for some great action. We headed out shortly after 7:30 on another windy one, looking for pike & walleye. Waves were coming from the west with the 10 to 20 knots winds, making for a bumpy ride.

Our long run had me setting up in an area I hadn’t fished in several weeks, looking for better results. Well it didn’t take long for the first reel to fire and Ryan wan into a good sized pike. While I was unhooking it, another reel fired and now Owen was into a fish of his own. I could tell by the way it was staying down that it was a walleye and we soon had confirmation. It was his personal best and deserved a few pics before the release. We reset the lines afterwards, but only managed a few more pike in the time we remained. Off to another area we went!

I had decided to try an open water spot and again it didn’t take long before the reels went off. A couple more pike and another really good walleye made their way into the net. Both Ryan & Owen were landing nice fish but I wasn’t seeing the numbers I expected. Time to relocate again.

This next area is where we spent the remainder of the morning, catching fish! Scott had decided to extend the half day into a full day, but his sons would be dropped off at the dock by noon. I wasted no time setting up! The remainder of the morning saw a good number of fish landed with most being pike. Several walleye were also caught and they were all good sized overs. Owen managed to get another giant matching the previously caught one from this week. It also bumped his personal best walleye from earlier in the morning! As the time was getting closer to noon, we decided to get one more fish before leaving. Ryan landed what he thought was going to be the last pike, but his brother beat him with the double when I was bringing in the lines.

We headed back in the west winds but soon realized that they had grown in size. We had been fishing in almost flat calm conditions where we were and welcomed a slight breeze from time to time. Five minutes before we were to leave it picked up big time and now we were back to running in crappy conditions once again!

Back at the dock I realized that this area was where I was going to spend the remainder of the afternoon. We dropped off Owen & Ryan and made our way out to a few shoals to fish. Trolling them in these conditions wasn’t going to be easy and with only two rods in action, less productive.

In the next couple of hours I covered plenty of area, coming up with only a few walleye and bass. With the conditions worsening, I had no choice but to venture further offshore in the waves. They had gotten big enough that I wasn’t able to troll directly into them anymore. I had to bypass plenty of good waypoints trolling on an angle! Although we did manage to get fish, there weren’t too many. In the end, Scott had just one keeper walleye in the livewell that eventually was released. A few others were caught but borderline keepers and returned to grow. At one point we thought he was into another good eye but soon found out different as it neared the boat. It was just a really long, skinny northern looking to fatten up from the spawn.

The afternoon went quickly despite the slow fishing and 4:00 came fast. I wasn’t too disappointed to get out of these roller coaster conditions either. It had made for a very difficult second half of the day. Regardless, there were still enough fish caught, only not the caliber I had hoped.

Scott had stuck it out for a full day but the best fishing was during the morning when his sons were with us. Multiple fish hookups occurred during the late morning giving them a great experience and Owen a personal best, twice! Unfortunately finding keepers today wasn’t quite as easy. They were all overs, or unders and had to be returned! Despite the difficult conditions in the afternoon, the day was still a success. I’m sure the next time Scott heads out with his sons, they will have a better understanding of what to do. Hopefully he will get them into as many fish as they saw today!!