Three Generations Aboard
July 12, 2023
I had three generations on the boat this morning with Dave, his mother Beverly and his son Mathieu. With a good chop on the water, I was hoping for a trolling bite and headed to an area that was holding fish. It was unfishable lately with all the floating grass weeds! This made it very difficult to troll and I hoped the wind had blown most of them away.
When I arrived, I could see that there were still some floaters but decided to give it a try regardless. Well, it didn’t take long to realize that this wasn’t going to be easy. After I set the lines and began covering water, I was back to cleaning the rods again! I realized quickly that this wasn’t going to work, but not before we had one good rip. Too bad the fish never got hooked up! Soon after I reeled in all the rods and made a long run to another area to try it again.
We had thrown in the towel where we began and hopefully the second place would be easier to fish. The lines were set and now it was up to the fish. At least I didn’t have all the floaters to contend with!
It probably took only 5 minutes to get our first bite and Dave took the rod. He reeled in a nice walleye that barely made it into the livewell due to its length. A little while later, Mathieu fought a nice northern to the boat and a few pics were taken before the release. At least now, we were catching fish!
I covered a bunch of water to get the bites we were having but more of them were short strikes. Beverly got her shot at reeling in a fish and brought a nice northern to the net, when one of them finally ate. I wasn’t liking the lack of fish and eventually pulled out of his place and opted for a different technique, elsewhere!
We had given up on the troll and headed to deeper water to try dropshotting for smallies. Hopefully this would be more productive!
It didn’t take long to realize that this was the right decision when Dave landed the first bass. Although smaller than I would have liked, at least it ate! We drifted over the shoal and everyone had chances at a few fsih. Unfortunately, most of them came off on the way to the boat. Dave seemed to be the only one able to land them, as he kept his pinned! Eventually everyone did manage to catch a few and they were now all in the game!
I made a couple of long drifts over the area and although it wasn’t fast & furious, fish were being caught. We stuck it out until about noon before pulling the plug and calling it a day. Time really flies when it’s only a half day trip!
Despite the slow start to the morning, it quickly turned around when we switched to dropshotting. Many fish were missed or lost but at least there was more action. I’m sure that if I had the time there would have been even more fish landed. A combination of both bass and walleye succumbed to the rig, but mostly smaller fish today. In the end however, everyone had a great time catching fish and spending quality time with their family. Even the weather cooperated today! It wasn’t blazing hot!!
