I really had a full boat today as Tony, Antoine, Kevin & Ray were with me. Smallmouth were on the list and I decided to start with them as it had been a while since they were targeted. As usual, the winds were blowing but for some reason, they didn’t seem as bad. Maybe I’m just getting use to it! With the air temps scheduled to get into the mid 80’s the water temps would surely be on the rise. I hoped that this would make for more aggressive fish today. I ran for a while and stopped in an area that held fish and set everyone up for the challenge. Kevin drew first blood with a blade fish and I knew it was going to be a great day! The others were all throwing soft plastics and getting hit as well. Some were coming aboard but many were being missed by poor hook sets. With a little instruction, this was soon a thing of the past and more fish were being landed. I never had to go far and fine tuned this area, keeping them on the fish the entire time. Amazingly, it was almost 1:00 before we decided to break for lunch and change species and locations. The winds had picked up considerably by now and we were drifting while eating and getting closer to where I wanted to troll. Despite the high winds, the SW direction made the waves smaller than I had seen all week. It may have been  gusting 25 knots but the conditions seemed perfect for a troll. I set the lines and began where I had been having great success. This was the latest that I had fished this area and hoped it would still produce. After about 30 minutes with only a small eye to show for our efforts, I moved on to another place nearby hoping it would be better. The first fish was a nice 24 incher and just like usual, the reel never fired. I just noticed that the rod was bent and informed Tony to grab it. Ray, being from Florida, had never seen a walleye and was quite impressed at how the fish looked. Too bad he never got a chance to eat one because he would have really been impressed at their taste! A few pics and a release and back she went. In the last hour or so they managed to land a couple more northerns, a giant perch and another nice walleye before we called the day. They decided to end it at 3:00 as they all had things to do tonight and needed time to get ready. I definitely made the right choice this morning by starting with the smallies as they put a beating on them. So much so that we were able to stay pretty much in one area the entire morning and catching the entire time. Everyone had landed a good number of fish today and had a great time in the process. Hopefully with all this warm weather finally upon us, things will stabilize and the fish will set up in their summer locations. It’s definitely beginning to look that way now!!

Vern was back with me again today on yet another windy outing! We hit the lake before 7:30 and I headed directly to where I had been catching good numbers of quality eyes the week before. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the past few days throwing terrible conditions our way. Well despite the water clarity and mass amounts of torn up weeds floating everywhere, we got bit not long after the lines were wet. In fact, it was almost a double in the livewell, but one was way over the slot. The last time out, we were on sturgeon and cats big time and I hoped to do the same with the walleye today. It wasn’t going to be an easy one with the winds out of the W/NW intensifying throughout the day. Sustained 15 to 20 knots with gusts up to 30 would make this a real challenge! To make matters worse, the fish weren’t hitting well and once again most of them were only bending the rods. We really had to watch the lines to know we had anything! Plenty of them were even getting off by barely being hooked. This lack of aggression went on for most of the morning until I switched up rods and baits. A lighter drag and smaller profile lures had the reels firing good now and many more walleye came to the net. Both overs and slot fish were being landed but only from one small area. It seemed like the fish had set up away from where they were before and dropped off the edge when the wind got big. We were now trying to fish in some quality rollers, with most of them being at least 2 to 3 footers. We endured all this and boated plenty of fish with a few bonuses in the mix. Vern managed to get his slam today with a nice northern and smallie as well. He even caught a few perch rounding off a bunch of species! I know we could have kept catching many more, but by 2:00 it had grown to a point of being uncomfortable and we called it a day. In a little over 6 hours of fishing, he had landed the most walleye he’d ever seen in one day. On top of that, he was taking some of them home to eat! It just doesn’t get any better than that!!

Andre was back this morning, after his great trip last week, looking for more! We started at 10:00 because a friend of his would be joining us this afternoon and scheduled our finish for 7:00 this evening instead. Although the lake had a good blow early, it flattened out to virtually nothing for the remainder of the day and became scorching hot in the process. I dropped the lines in the water where I had fished only a few days before with success and hoped for similar results. We weren’t fortunate enough to get the walleye that I wanted, but there were a couple of quality smallies and some decent northerns boated from here. I searched elsewhere for a bit and eventually found what I was looking for when three high end keepers came aboard. Andre’s friend would be wanting to bring some fish home tonight, so we livewelled them for him. He now had a head start on his limit! Several more pike and smallies were landed from this area and others nearby before we got the call for Robert’s pick up. It didn’t take long before we were back out and I stopped on another area that I hadn’t fished yet, today. Lines set and three minutes into the troll the first reel fires. Robert is about to witness walleye fishing at its finest! He boats his first good keeper and not long after, another reel goes off. This time however it’s quite a bit larger and would have to be returned due to the slot. Although he considers himself a walleye fisherman, he had never seen techniques like these used to catch the fish. He had also never seen such quality sized fish on average being caught. I think he may have a new trick in his bag for the next time he fishes eyes! We reset the lines and resumed our troll despite all the floating weeds and kept hammering the fish. It was about 50/50 for the size and many of them were released after the pics. The remainder of the trip saw plenty more overs and keepers being landed. We even had a couple of double headers making it a perfect initiation for Robert to experience. Both Andre & Bob enjoyed their day and were amazed at the lack of boat traffic on the water. Weekdays are just so much better than the weekends and I can fish anywhere I want without being bothered. I think I may just have to do it again tomorrow!!

Andre was back this morning, after his great trip last week, looking for more! We started at 10:00 because a friend of his would be joining us this afternoon and scheduled our finish for 7:00 this evening instead. Although the lake had a good blow early, it flattened out to virtually nothing for the remainder of the day and became scorching hot in the process. I dropped the lines in the water where I had fished only a few days before with success and hoped for similar results. We weren’t fortunate enough to get the walleye that I wanted, but there were a couple of quality smallies and some decent northerns boated from here. I searched elsewhere for a bit and eventually found what I was looking for when three high end keepers came aboard. Andre’s friend would be wanting to bring some fish home tonight, so we livewelled them for him. He now had a head start on his limit! Several more pike and smallies were landed from this area and others nearby before we got the call for Robert’s pick up. It didn’t take long before we were back out and I stopped on another area that I hadn’t fished yet, today. Lines set and three minutes into the troll the first reel fires. Robert is about to witness walleye fishing at its finest! He boats his first good keeper and not long after, another reel goes off. This time however it’s quite a bit larger and would have to be returned due to the slot. Although he considers himself a walleye fisherman, he had never seen techniques like these used to catch the fish. He had also never seen such quality sized fish on average being caught. I think he may have a new trick in his bag for the next time he fishes eyes! We reset the lines and resumed our troll despite all the floating weeds and kept hammering the fish. It was about 50/50 for the size and many of them were released after the pics. The remainder of the trip saw plenty more overs and keepers being landed. We even had a couple of double headers making it a perfect initiation for Robert to experience. Both Andre & Bob enjoyed their day and were amazed at the lack of boat traffic on the water. Weekdays are just so much better than the weekends and I can fish anywhere I want without being bothered. I think I may just have to do it again tomorrow! Back at the dock I think I found the new « Darwin Award » winner!!

A previous cancellation for today opened up the door for Yousef & his family. Although the weather forecast wasn’t looking good, the radar showed something different. I should be a meteorologist because even I can read it correct! We hooked up for a half day and started a little later than I usually do. We were to meet at 9:30 and hopefully fish in the best conditions. Yousef had brought his 3 year old son and his father today. This was the 2nd day in a row for bookings that I actually had 3 generations in the boat at the same time! I wasn’t sure how the fishing would be as this was also the third day on a row with strong NE winds. It wasn’t so much the direction as the amount of floating grass like weeds that were the problem. The lines were no sooner in the water and I had to clean the rods and lures from all this mess. It was a continuous rotation! After what seemed like an eternity and only 3 fish to show for our efforts, I gave up and went somewhere else. Although there were plenty of fish to be caught right here, I just couldn’t deal with all the torture! I moved to another area and after about 15 minutes, just left. I hate settling somewhere just because of the conditions! I headed to another area that I hoped would be better and as soon as I arrived on my waypoints, the reels started to sound like they should. We had 5 fish in about as many minutes and were putting a few in the livewell. It had taken us all morning to get just three and this happened! I informed them that this was how it was supposed to be and we just kept hooking up. Numbers of keeper sized walleye were coming aboard along with a few smallies and northerns as well. At one point one of the reels fired and I was sure it was another lunge. I cleared all the other lines and awaited a sighting. This fight was a good one as Yousef battled the weight of his fish. It may not have jumped but several long runs were indicating musky! You could imagine my surprise when I finally saw that it was a northern. I decided to net it with the slightly larger net I carry and even at that, had a difficult time. I had not seen a northern like this since last summer when my wife reeled in her personal best. It’s definitely nice to know that there’s a few of these giants still around! We took several good pics and released her unharmed. Although we reset the lines and did catch a few more fish, nothing was to compare to the GNP (great northern pike). I called it a day just about 3:00 and we headed back to take out. I wish it could have been a better start to the day but at least we finished with a bang and they were taking a few fish home for their dinner tonight. All in all a pretty good day!!