Double Down Day
June 23, 2024
Two half day trips today had me out with Thomas & Mike in the morning trolling for pike and walleye once again. The flat calm conditions didn’t make it any easier as we covered plenty of water just to get bit. The fish weren’t very active as I could see by the short strikes, and we had several of them! Eventually I just decided to relocate to another area further away in hopes of more fish.
Apparently, this was the right move as it didn’t take long for the first reel to fire. In the last couple of hours of their trip, plenty more reels went off and many walleye came to the net. They even managed to get a couple of pike and one small bass as well before we were done.
My afternoon guests were waiting at the dock when I dropped off Thomas & Mike, Derek and his two children, Griffin & Teagan jumped aboard and we headed right back out. I had decided to return to where we were this morning, hoping for a better bite. Within minutes the first reel fired and Griffin soon landed his first Northern Pike. What should have been a double header ended in disappointment, when the second fish came unpinned. We trolled the area for quite a while and managed a few more fish, but had more short strikes than landed ones. It was obvious that these fish just didn’t want to eat! I had to stay in deeper water in order to get bit and eventually focused on this. Here we had better action and landed more fsih!
After having caught fewer pike & walleye than I expected, I decided to switch it up with bigger fish. We headed to an area that had been holding sturgeon and they each managed to land one apiece. After doing battle with the dinosaurs, we decided to go back to the smaller fish and I made a long run to another area for pike & walleye again. The remainder of the afternoon saw them boating more fish and both Teagan & Griffin finished with a bang. Their father Derek was just happy to see them catching fish and opted not to take any of the fish that bit on the troll.
This day was a long one with difficult fishing conditions, but I somehow managed to make it work. By covering water and switching it up, plenty of fish came to net. Tomorrow will be a day off with a heavy rain cancellation and I will definitely take advantage of it. Plenty of work prepping tackle for the upcoming week. I only hope the weather isn’t nearly as hot!!
