Beautiful Fall Day
September 22, 2020
Scott, Cory & Obi joined me today for another mixed bag outing. They were looking for sturgeon but would settle for bass & walleye if they didn’t bite. It’s always a good idea to have a backup!
It was another chilly morning when we hit the water and with zero wind, quite foggy in places. I needed to watch carefully as I headed to the area that I was going to fish sturgeon. With very few showing on the sonar lately, I just hoped for a couple of bites.
The conditions were just perfect to detect the subtle bites with the rods in the holders. Within the first 15 minutes one of the rods received a light movement and I set into a fish. I knew by the lack of weight that it wasn’t big and passed the rod to Obi, hoping that he would get his first sturgeon. Without much fight on the heavier rods, he managed to bring the fish in quickly! Although it was the right species, it was definitely the wrong size!
We remained in the area and after making a few moves, were unable to get another bite. I had one other place further away that I wanted to try and headed there to investigate. With this being such a beautiful day, I didn’t want to waste too much time on fish that we couldn’t locate. I idled over the area and scanned everywhere looking for marks, but soon gave up on these fish. It was time to change our tactics and switch to something different!
With rods prepped for smallies, I made a move to an area that had been good to me lately. Scott was the only person to hook up here but not for lack of trying from the others. We were seeing some big fish swimming that just weren’t interested! I had arrived too late and the sun was not helping us with the bite. Early morning is always better but we had fished for sturgeon instead!
Our next spot was a little more productive as Scott once again had chances almost immediately. He missed two big fish on a couple of casts but rebounded by nailing one on his third blow up. He was throwing a soft plastic and the fish just crushed it! Cory also had a chance but ended up missing a big one too! We covered more water and they picked fish here & there but the numbers weren’t great. I covered the area thoroughly with several different presentations searching for more, but eventually had to leave.
Our next stop had all three of the guys catching more smallies on a drop shot rig. The bite was slow but they did manage to hook into some smaller ones while casting a deep edge. I realized quickly however that the numbers weren’t here either and relocated for one last time.
With about an hour remaining in the day we headed out to a deeper shoal in hopes of a few more bites. The conditions weren’t in our favor as the water was like a mirror. I was forced to use the electric motor to move us along. They ended the day with a bunch more jumbo perch and one walleye before we were done. There were plenty of fish marking but with almost no water movement, they just remained there!
This day was probably the nicest one so far, weather wise, but not the best for the type of fishing we were doing. Despite the lack of numbers, there were still plenty of fish seen. Some were landed and some were just lost! I will be seeing Scott again in a couple of weeks and hopefully the fall bite will be in full swing. I’m sure that either way, he will have a great time landing more of those football sized bass!
