Cold Fall Temps

Today I had a double set of clients and Corey & his daughter Hailey fished with me in the morning. Claude & his son Patrick would be my afternoon guests and I hoped that all of them would have a great time!

The temps were well below the usual for this time of year and the cold north winds made it even worse. I don’t think it was much above freezing when we headed on the water and I knew I wouldn’t be running far. I wanted to get Hailey into some fish quickly so I stopped in an area that was holding schools of perch. With the rods baited up with worms it didn’t take long before she landed her first fish ever. It was a decent sized perch and quickly went in the livewell for them to eat later.

After catching several more perch, I wanted her to experience something a little bigger and rigged one of the rods with a different lure. Almost immediately I set into weight and passed her the rod to do battle. It turned out to be a quality smallie and now she was really hooked! It sort of brought back memories of my first bass, many years ago! Between the jumps and runs she was all smiles and soon after, I had her fish in the net. We would definitely be taking several pics of this one!

With the sun finally warming the air a bit more, we decided to make a small move and stopped on a small rocky area nearby. First cast, Corey locked up on a smallie and Hailey did battle with another feisty bass. She was really beginning to like fighting smallies and warming up in the process! With only one other missed fish on arrival, we made a long run to an offshore area in hopes of more fish.

I had done well on this spot recently and thought we would give it a try. Immediately another smallie was on and she reeled in this one too. We made a few other drifts and hooked several more fish for her to do battle with including a couple of doubles. When the action slowed down, I headed over to another similar area and repeated the process. Here we were into fish immediately as well and this was where we would end our day. In the last half hour I think there were about 10 fish caught including a couple of triple headers. It was quite the finish!

I made the long run back to the dock to exchange guests and was immediately back on the water with the afternoon pair. Claude and his son Patrick looked forward to catching some fish as well as they hadn’t really fished much before. I decided to return to where we had been, seeing as how I left the fish biting!

The easiest thing for them was drop shotting and I explained how to do it. Too bad the fish didn’t listen as we worked hard for the bites! Patrick officially landed his first bass ever when I passed him the rod to fight the fish. They both had hits as well, but were new to fishing and unfortunately weren’t able to keep them pinned. They would however make a comeback a little later by catching more on their own!

It seemed like the fish I had left from the morning trip had all but vanished and I was forced to move around more in order to get bit. At one point, they both locked up at the same time and had an official double header! Patrick had landed a legal keeper walleye and his father caught a bass. Perfect time for a pic!

Although there were more fish hooked there were only a few that made it to the net. We kept at it however and eventually picked at them, landing a few more. I made one final attempt at getting into fish again by running back closer to the take out area, as we were very limited to the time remaining. It was here that they both caught a few more before we were done!

Both groups today had enjoyed spending quality time together and landed some fish in the process. Although three out of four had never really fished before, I think they will all fish again! They now have the bug and are already talking about trying ice fishing for their first time as well. Who knows, I might even have them this winter on the hard water! I’m sure that if I don’t that they will return next season when the trolling bite begins. It’s like the Olympics when it comes to catching fish!