Jim, David and his daughter Elinor joined me this morning for a four-hour trip. We were unlucky enough to have another morning where the air temps dropped overnight, but I was sure we could still get bit. I began with a troll and only received a couple of bites in the hour we tried. At least Emily managed to land her first ever northern! I switched it up soon after and headed elsewhere to cast instead. I wasn’t wasting any more time trolling this area.

I had all three dropshot a flat and Emily was the only one that managed to catch a fish. She began not knowing what to do and was soon casting on her own and hooking fish as well. I had a plan C and changed to soft plastics, moving once again. It was in here that they all started catching bass. Although everyone landed fish, Emily definitely caught the bulk of them.

One last switch for the day saw a couple of good sturgeon landed by both David and his daughter Emily before we were done. As I didn’t have an afternoon trip scheduled, I decided to stay out until noon. In the end, it was the right choice, giving them all extra time to fish.

Despite our slow start today, it all turned around when the weather warmed. I could have used a different wind direction, but still managed in the big NW that we had. I know these fish aren’t liking the cold fronts and only hope that the weather settles down for the balance of the week. It’s still too early to be having fall like conditions, but either way, I’ll still get it done!!

Steve and his son Pierce joined me this morning, after a cold front last night. Most fish weren’t in much of a mood to eat, everywhere we tried, but there were some that did. From shallow to mid to deepwater, they picked at them for most of the morning. The best area was definitely the deep water as several smallies were taken from here. In the last hour however, I decided to try a troll and it proved to be successful for the larger fish. Steve managed to land the biggest fish of the day right at the wire, with a good-sized walleye. I’m pretty sure the afternoon bite would have ben better with the air beginning to warm. Too bad we weren’t out for the entire day!!

Jean Francois, Anthony & Mathias had a great day today catching all kinds of walleye and bass. Anthony had the most action however boating the majority of the fish. They were able to bring almost a limit of the eyes home with them, despite most of the fish caught, being over the slot. They were also landed a couple of sturgeon, rounding off their enjoyable day on the water. Even the weather cooperated as the heat wave subsided making it much cooler to fish!!

Another scorcher of a day with the weatherman bang on as usual! We were supposed to have a 10 to 20 knot blow from the SW, but it was absolutely flat calm, all day long! Temps were in the 90’s but it felt more like they were above 100 with all the humidity! Way to go weather morons!

Brian & I headed out at the usual 7:00 am and attempted a trolling bite. It was a little slow to begin, with only a couple of roaming smallies hitting the lures in open water. Eventually however, I did find some good eyes for Brian to play with and he managed to land several big ones. These were his first ever walleye and well worthy of several pics.

The sun had risen by now and the heat was beginning to get unbearable. I decided to pull the plug on trolling and made a long run to another area, looking for more Walters. A quick deep drift over shoals only saw smaller fish so I relocated again into a mid-range area and we began to get into fish. Both bass as well as walleye came to the net by dropshotting and a few even went into the livewell for dinner this evening. Brian was here from Texas with his family and they had never eaten walleye before. This was going to be a real treat for all to enjoy!

Sometime after midday I decided to hit another area and it was here that Brian managed to get his first ever sturgeon. In fact, he managed to land a couple of them before we were satisfied and opted for another species and technique.

I shifted gears and decided to try the shallows for smallmouth bass. Soft plastics were thrown and plenty of medium sized bass were landed. They were everywhere and Brian was taking advantage of their feeding. He pounded on them for well over an hour before the fish just got worn out. Or maybe it was Brian! Either way, we decided to get some air and fired up the big engine for a run, just to get some air circulating.

I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, but decided to try a deep rock line along our way. This proved to be slow with a few fish missed and only a couple of bass landed. I had one last area that I wanted to try close to the takeout and pulled the plug on the area we were in.

We arrived in the darker water near the ramp and fished a couple of deeper spots that seemed to be only holding small fish. Both bass and walleye were caught in this 81-degree water. It’s crazy how fast the temps had risen in the past few days!

Today had a mix of everything going for Brian with a variety of fish and techniques. We did it all and caught on everything, everywhere! He couldn’t have asked for a more entertaining fishing day with everything that went on. I also couldn’t have asked for a better guy to be in the boat with, as it made the day fly by. It’s always nice to have someone that fishes and can adjust to all the techniques being used. In the end, we both left fully satisfied with the outcome of this day and parted ways. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we fish together as he left talking about a return trip next year. This time however, he’s looking at an additional day as one day wasn’t enough. Hopefully he’ll make it happen as I also can’t wait to fish with him again! Great day to be on the water!!

Mike & Rick were with me for 2 days of fishing and it was a scorcher. We did everything from trolling to deep dropshotting to shallow casting for smallies on soft plastics. We caught them each and every way we fished! Despite the excruciating heat & humidity, plenty of fish were landed in the two days on the water. Great times and plenty of memories were had!!