Taking More Kids Fishing
July 22, 2018
July 21st 2018
Alyssa was back with me again today and this time she was with Yanick. He also brought his two sons, Henri & Jacob and all of them were in for a surprise. I don’t think they were expecting to catch as many fish as they would see today!
We headed out shortly after 7:00 and straight to our first spot, hoping for a few quick bites. The boys were really excited about catching fish as I set the lines and explained how it would work. We were once again trolling as this had been the most productive method lately and there were too many bodies in the boat to be casting today.
We hadn’t gone 3 minutes when a reel fired and Jacob had his first northern of the morning. With a little help from his father, he managed to bring the pike to net. A few pics later it was released and shortly after, Henri too had his first pike of the trip. Although both fish were small, I knew there were going to be much bigger throughout the day!
The bite wasn’t a great one this morning but I did manage to find fish here & there keeping it interesting. Somewhere around the third or fourth rotation, I decided to try another area and made my way to deeper water. Almost on cue, one of the reels screamed and Yanick grabbed the rod from the holder. This was to be our first walleye, but unfortunately it wasn’t a keeperr. In fact, it was way over the legal slot size! It did however make for a great pic before releasing it back to the water. As quick as she was back, another reel went off and simultaneously a second one as well . We had a double header and they were both good walleye! Once again though, they were overs and only pics were had!
Things were looking up after the last couple of fish as I continued trolling the deeper water, searching for more. We were now firing reels often with a mix of fish species and everyone was getting a chance to fight more fish. The bite stayed good for a while and I remained in the area taking advantage of it while it lasted.
The temps had risen during the morning and the little wind we had disappeared, making it a whole lot hotter than I liked. Time to raise the roof and enjoy the comfort of the shade! With the bimini up, we continued trolling the same areas, picking up fish frequently. A couple of other boats were also in the area and it was starting to be difficult to remain on the spot, so I just trolled out of it completely. I had other places to fish and didn’t need the traffic!
I realized quickly that this was the right decision when the reels began to fire again. We had multiple doubles and a triple, that ended in another double. Both walleye and pike were being taken and some of them quite large! It was definitely not a good day for keepers! So far all they could get was one upper end slot fish, but had landed so many more! This didn’t look like it was about to change anytime soon either as the bite just got better when the wind picked up. It was blowing pretty good out of the S/SE and the fish were on fire. each time we had a reel rip, it was almost always a double. Big pike & bigger walleye were getting caught and returned immediately after. The fishing was just unbelievable! They were landing more fish than they ever could have imagined!
It was later in the afternoon and the fish were still pretty active, but not quite as much as before. I now had to work the areas a little more to get bit. It didn’t matter though as the numbers were already pretty high and anything else was just a bonus. Eventually I dropped the roof and readied the boat for the return, all the while keeping the lines wet. After a few more fish, we pulled the plug and headed back. It was almost 3:00 and I wasn’t sure how bad the dock would be to take out. The SE wind would be blowing right on the ramp and I didn’t know what to expect!
As luck would have it, The waves weren’t too bad and I had a spot immediately. Within minutes we were off the water and done for the day! They had all experienced some great fishing and I’m pretty sure they will be talking about this day for a while. Not only did they catch all kinds of big fish but in the end they also managed to take 3 keepers home with them for a pretty good meal. All in all I think today was a success! Plenty of numbers, size and enough fish for dinner tonight! Great day for fishing!
