A Barbie Day
September 4, 2023
Today was expected to be a real scorcher, so Mark asked to do a half day instead! No problem for me! We fished an area out in the middle for a mix of fish. Although it did hold some walleye, it was mostly bass they would be catching. I just wanted to get things going before it too hot!
Mark had his son Tyler with him again along with their girlfriends, Christine & Hoosna. Christine also had her granddaughter, Alura Faye with her and a cute little Barbie fishing rod & reel. I set it up with the same dropshot presentation and was amazed that it actually came with a drag! It was going to be interesting, if they caught a fish on it!
Hoosna was the first to hook up, but she was new to fishing and wasn’t able to land the bass. The next one however, with a little coaching, came to net quickly. It was a nice walleye and pics were taken of her catch, before the release. Mark was also into some smallies and everyone had chances on the first drift. I was shocked when Barbie bent over with a smallmouth on the end but it was difficult to keep pressure on the fish with the rod so short. Unfortunately, it came unpinned!
With each drift we made there were more & more fish being landed and even a few doubles were had. Barbie was getting hits often now and after a few fish coming off, Christine & Alura Faye landed their first bass. It was quite something hearing the drag scream on such a short rod. It looked more like an ice fishing combo than a summertime rod & reel!
With the morning passing, the heat was increasing and it didn’t take long to raise the roof. This was also good for Alura Faye as she was so young and we didn’t want her burning. Plenty of sunscreen was being use by all, but there’s no sense taking any chances!
We had a slight ripple on the water at the beginning of the morning but this had all disappeared and now we were flat calm. Dog pecker knats were everywhere and our drifts were at a minimum. Covering water was next to impossible, but they were still catching fish! Hoosna definitely had the hot hand, landing more than everyone else, but the Barbie rod was also firing on a regular basis too! We even had a triple header that was just chaos! Although it could have been a quad, one of their fish came off leaving us with just three.
We stuck it out until the last minute and finally called it at 11:30. It was way too hot and definitely time to go! I packed everything up as well as the roof, which was our only reprieve from the sun and heat. It wasn’t long before we had a cool breeze again, as I motored back to the ramp.
Today may have been shortened due to the heat, but the fishing was great. Plenty of action was had by all in the short time we were out and everyone enjoyed themselves. The highlight of the day however was the fact that Barbie was able to bring a few big bass to net. Who knows, maybe I’ll be keeping a couple of them in the boat for future customers, from now on!!
