Another Rough One

Neil & his son Jake fished with me today, under not so perfect conditions! We started with sturgeon and moved around after, just looking for places that we were able to fish. It would be another tough day on the water!

I made a long run in big waves, to reach the area I wanted to begin. We were trying for sturgeon but I knew it wouldn’t be easy with the waves we had. An anchor was even required to aid the electric motor in holding our position! Despite all our efforts, we still came up empty for these beasts. Jake did however catch his first ever drum when his dad passed him the rod, after feeling the bite. We had been forced to hold them, due to all the bouncing from the rollers. Although we relocated many times, it just didn’t happen today!

I soon switched gears and decided to drift an area for smallies. They were both dropshotting and with the aid of the electric motor, we were actually able to stay vertical. Jake was even surprised, when he hit into a decent smallie and brought it to net. It had been a long time since he had landed the drum and was happy to finally get one on his own! Too bad that was all she wrote and we were forced to move again!

The winds had increased considerably as the morning passed and I decided to try what I thought would be a protected place to fish. Upon arrival, I saw that it was anything but that! We were now in 3 & 4 footers trying to cast for bass and it wasn’t easy. The boat was bouncing all over and we drifted out of the area way too fast. A couple of large bass were hooked into, but they came unpinned in these enormous waves. Several more passes later we decided to pull the plug and just leave. It was way too difficult to hold here!

Based on the wind direction, I made a choice to fish a place that should have much less waves and ran there to give it a try. At least here we would be able to stand up while casting!

Neil quickly hooked into a pike upon arrival and passed Jake the rod once again. It was definitely a good sign! Jake even managed to nail a nice smallie a little further away that I think may have set the hook itself! At least there were signs of life and some fish were biting from here!

What I had thought was going to be great, turned out to be, not so much! A couple of other bass were missed in the next hour and I was forced to leave altogether. We didn’t have too much time remaining and I hoped to get them into more fish before we were done. Drastic times call for drastic measures! Out to the big open water we went!

This was to be our final fishing spot and hopefully it would produce! They would be drifting over a deeper shoal in 3 foot waves hoping for a few walleye bites. Jake was quick to hook up and nailed a big smallie that started out as a walleye. It had remained deep throughout most of the fight but took to the air as it neared the boat. I quickly netted his fish on one of the jumps and hoped there would be more.

We had drifted out of the area while taking pics and I ran back to make another pass. Neil instantly nailed another smallie but not nearly as big as his son’s previous one. I was also marking all kinds of bait and walleye on the bottom and it wasn’t long before we started to see a few golden ones!

The remainder of the time saw many more fish come aboard and they were all walleye! Enough so that Neil was even able to bring 4 nice ones home in the end! I stretched out the day a bit hoping to get him a limit, but it just didn’t happen. On the last drift he did manage to hook up again and passed the rod to his son for the last fish on f the day. It too was a walleye but unfortunately over the slot by a few inches and immediately returned after the pics.

What had started off slow, ended with a bang as they finally got into some action. Active fish were cooperating in the last hour or so and we couldn’t have been happier. Although we were still fishng in huge waves, at least fish were biting! It couldn’t have ended better on this tough fishing day!