No Movement Today

Hughes & his son Olivier were out with me today for another shot at a monster fish. We headed to the area in flat, overcast conditions that had a slight fog as well. The forecast was for light rain and a SW wind increasing throughout the afternoon. I was going to start with the sturgeon and move to walleye later when the winds picked up, as I preferred the waves.

As I idled over the area I marked some good fish and settled on our first stop. Too bad it didn’t produce what I had seen! Instead the first fish was an eel that Olivier reeled in. I quickly released the slimy snake and resumed fishing. We weren’t getting the action that I had expected and were plagued by little fish nibbling on the worms. I had to make a move to get away from them as all I was doing was re baiting the hooks!

The next area saw one small sturgeon coming aboard and it too was brought in by Olivier. His father was awaiting the big bite! Too bad his fish turned out to be a catfish, but it was the exotic species of the day, so far.

Several moves were made due to all the small fish and we even managed to catch a couple of perch and one bass in the process. Eventually we did find an area where I was able to leave the lines in the water for more than just a minute. It was here that we had better action and managed to boat a few more fish. In the mix were some sturgeon and one big drum that Hughes reeled in. I think it was even his first one too! Olivier was lucky enough to get the rod for the biggest fish of the day with his last sturgeon but Hughes only managed another exotic species with the sheep head!

We stayed on the sturgeon for probably longer than we should have but I was seeing plenty of activity both above and on the bottom. In fact we had several drive byes from some of the fish that resembled bites giving me even more confidence that we were going to hook up again. Too bad it never happened!

Sometime around 1:30 we decided to pull the plug and try for some walleye. I headed to another section of the water and set up a few drop shot rods hoping to get bit. I was really waiting for the forecasted winds to start but it didn’t look like they were going to happen. We had to settle for a slow drift in deeper water and see what would happen.

I made several passes across an underwater point and each time someone was bit. The only problem was that they never stayed pinned long enough for me to get them in the net. Both Hughes & Olivier weren’t lucky as every one of the fish was missed! I eventually moved to another spot further away that I knew they would catch fish from, or so I hoped!

Drift after drift was made through a deep slot and a few more fish were missed. I even got in the game and despite hooking into a nice walleye, it too came off before the net! I did however manage to bring a smallie aboard but this wasn’t what we were after. Time for another move!

Desperate to get them into fish, I decided to try where I had hoped to, if there was wind. The forecast had called for a decent blow in the afternoon and I was saving this place for just the right conditions! As usual the weatherman was bang on again!

The sonar wasn’t looking great and I was only seeing a few marks in the area, but we stopped and fished for a short time regardless. The drift  was so slow that I had to use the electric motor just to move the boat. It wasn’t long before I pulled out of here and headed to another spot nearby. This place at least had a rocky bottom and did produce one nice bass. Unfortunately it was alone so we moved again!

Time wasn’t on our side but I did hit a couple more spots before we were done. Only one keeper walleye was brought aboard in the time remaining. The lack of wind had definitely caused me problems on all the open water spots we fished. Without movement, the fish feed very little and this was definitely proven today. They had managed to catch a bunch of fish anchored up for sturgeon but the walleye bite was practically non-existent. I almost wish I had opted for bass instead as I know we would have had a much better bite in the shallows. Despite the difficult conditions, they did land some great fish today!