All Big Bite Day

Been a strange week with weather and working on other boats! I even took a road trip to Cabelas to buy a long overdue, summer rain suit! Managed to pick up a couple of seats as well so that I can get mine redone! I spent another day on someone else’s boat making sure everything worked fine, after he recently purchased it and had a few new things installed. All good!

Today I was back out with John, who was flying solo. Nice to have so much room in the boat for a change! He started out with fast moving blades but only managed one bass before I realized the cool water temps had them sluggish. By switching up to more of a finesse approach, we soon turned it around. Although this first place didn’t have much action, I hoped the next move would change our luck.

Dropshotting in deeper water didn’t seem to be much better as we attempted to fish an edge. After about ten minutes with only a couple of missed strikes, I decided to move on. We would try another area nearby, hoping for better success!

Well disappointment soon set in as we covered the entire area without a strike! Time to move to another spot and this time I would begin much shallower with hopes of a few big bites.

Throughout the morning we had been faced with a big south wind, but it was finally letting up. Fishing slowly was much easier for John as he was finally getting a better feel for working the bait. It wasn’t long before he was tight to a really good bass and the first big one of our day. Finally, a Kodak moment! Unfortunately it was the only strike and after about 45 minutes of covering the entire area, I relocated again.

Our morning was getting on and the water turned almost flat calm, making presentations much easier. It was here that the fish finally started showing signs of aggression and numbers of quality bites were had. We covered the area slowly and John put many more big bass in the boat before we were done. Things were finally starting to look up!

Another move to an offshore spot had the bite almost the same when we arrived. Slow presentations and light pickups resulted in many more fish, including an unexpected walleye. I kind of knew what John had before it even appeared as the fight was sluggish at best. Nothing huge but a high end keeper that was lucky to be released today!

With mirror calm waters, I decided to make a little run to explore some other areas not fished yet this season. I also thought we’d try a few deeper places with a drop shot and see what we could come up with!

First drop and John was tight, but only briefly! I actually saw his fish on the Lowrance as it swam off after coming unpinned. Quite impressive too!

We made multiple drifts but were barely moving without any wind and unfortunately only managed smaller fish out here. Time to move in and see what we could do!

Once back in the shallows, it didn’t take long before John got was in the groove with multiple fish being caught. He may not have been getting any giants but they were all quality!

We were seeing a lot of sturgeon jumping out in deeper water and I decided to idle over the area to see what was there. To my surprise it showed lots of fish and I had some gear in the boat to give it a try. I also hadn’t realized that John never battled one before until I set into a pretty big fish. He was now experiencing the power of these beasts and knew why they were so sought after. He even got to witness several aerial jumps that were absolutely spectacular! Not having the big net with me I was forced to use what I had in the boat and eventually managed to get its head in the bowl enough to be able to tail it with a glove. Success!

After several good pics he released the beast to be caught again. Needless to say we were done with this for the day, but I will return soon with the heavier tackle. This just might be the start of the longest sturgeon season I’ve ever had if it continues like it began!

With limited time remaining in the day, I thought we’d finish it off with a little drop shotting before we were done. I set up on an open water flat and almost immediately John was tight to another walleye. This too was a good keeper and also released to fight another day. We spent about 20 minutes longer and could only come up with missed fish before we were done.

Today was an interesting one to say the least, as we both saw! John got to refine a finesse technique that put almost all the fish in the boat and I saw that the sturgeon bite has begun. Definitely a win, win on the fishing! I can’t wait to get back out for more, of everything!