Well, it wasn’t hard to remember who I had today as they were both named Ben! I had Big Ben and Little Ben and they were about to experience another unbelievable day on the lake. We had switched up from yesterday and now the others were hitting a different lake with Mike and I was heading back to my comfort zone for walleye & northerns. The weather had cooled slightly but was still holding high humidity and temps in the low 80’s forecasted for today. Winds were nice, blowing at around 10 knots from the west and increased to about 15 later in the day. With the sun and clouds it would remain comfortable enough to fish without sweating bullets and that was definitely a welcomed change! I was surprised that the first fish came long after we started the troll and was covering water searching for the active ones. Fifteen minutes is considered a long time and I didn’t like it a bit! These fish were around, just not very active this morning as we picked one here and one there for abut the first hour or so. Eventually, they started to hit the lures and the game was on. Ben & Ben had decided to have a little competition today and were counting every fish as well as the size to determine each species winner. The pike & walleye were coming in the boat every few minutes now and all was great after there slower day out the one before. Ben had managed to land a 46 inch Muskie and he was thrilled at its overall mass but big fish like that are loners. With the species they were targeting yesterday, you’re not looking for numbers, just size and this was a treat as the action was hot. Walleye of up to 26 inches and northerns up to 33 inches were landed and plenty of others slightly smaller as well. At one point there were ten walleye in the livewell before we released all back to the lake to bite another day. The highlight of the day was seeing the big northern of 32 inches get beat by another one of 33 inches minutes later. After they had landed piles of fish I thought we would switch it up a little and see if they could get a few smallies to add to the already hefty sac of walleye & pike. It didn’t take long before they were locked up to some of these little brown power houses and on light spinning tackle it was great. Soft plastics and jigs accounted for the 10 or so bass up to 3 pounds as we covered an area the size of a football field. The winds had kicked up a little stronger so I decided that another troll was in order and set the lines out for even more action. They were almost immediately into doubles and it just kept coming. For the last hour and a half they managed to slam plenty more fish in both species and couldn’t believe the day they had. As always, I never like leaving until the last fish is caught and told them we would head out after just one more. Well, when the reel started to scream I knew it was a good one and Ben also felt the weight of this one as he had reeled in oh so many already. The way it was staying down made me feel like it was another big eye like the last one yesterday, but then I saw the fish. Although it wasn’t a walleye, it was still a nice northern at almost 31inches. What a way to end an already spectacular day of fishing! I’m sure the two Bens will remember this day of fishing for quite a while and hopefully they will all come back looking for another trip chock full of big fish once again!!

Another day of scorching heat and another day on the water to thoroughly enjoy the high humidity was what I had in store for me today. Elaine & Joel were to fish with me as the party of five were split into 2 boats. We managed to get a slightly later than usual start today but were into fish not long afterwards. Winds were blowing out of the S/W at around 10 knots at least giving us some relief from the 75 degree temps at 9:00 A.M. These would just keep climbing throughout the day however until they topped out somewhere around 90 degrees. We were somewhat fortunate to have clouds & sun instead of just total sunshine and that too felt good. I decided that trolling would be the best way to get the ball rolling and set the lines out in anticipation of a quick bite. Unfortunately, it actually took longer than expected and 10 minutes had lapsed before a reel began to scream. Elaine got the first northern of around 4 pounds to get the ball rolling and then things picked up. Both pike and walleye were being reeled in every 5 minutes or less and a couple of double headers were thrown in for good measure. No big walleye were landed this morning with the largest going somewhere around 3.5 pounds or so and the pike went somewhere closer to 6 pounds. What was great to see though was the smallmouth bass that Elaine landed that was closer to 4 pounds and oh what a fight! She couldn’t believe the raw power of the fish as she brought it to the net. After a few quick pics it too was released back to the area from where she came from. We continued to fish this area for a while longer, all the while looking for a real big walleye and coming up short. The did manage to reel in plenty of decent northerns up to about 7 pounds but the best we could do on the walleye was still under four. I thought a change was in order and switched it up a bit to be able to give them a different species to catch and went for smallies. Soft plastics and blades were thrown in this area but the pickings were slim. Although we had several shots at some good fish, most were either missed or lost altogether. I think Joel managed to get the best one to the net that went somewhere around 3.5 pounds but it didn’t beat the one Elaine had caught earlier in the morning. One more area was to be hit before we switched back to trolling and we headed over there to try and land a few more bass. The winds had kicked up a notch and were now blowing a little stronger than before making boat control somewhat more difficult. Joel was catching a few bass on soft plastics once again and when the winds got even stronger, I had to give him a jig just so he could feel what was going on. There were plenty of bass in this location, but the waves were rolling 2 to 3 footers with an occasional 4 foot rogue thrown in for good measure so we called it quits. When fishing stops being fun, it’s not worth it! It was past 3:30 now and I really wanted to see about getting a big walleye for them so we switched back to the trolling and ran to another area in hopes of a better fish. The run was a little tricky as we were criss crossing the waves and they were intense. Definitely in the 3 to 4 foot class! I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to troll into the wind without taking some waves over the bow so I ran up higher to troll down wind. Well, I couldn’t get all the rods in the water for 10 minutes as they kept firing! This isn’t a bad thing, just an inconvenience when you’re trying to set up and they had to reel in even more fish. Once again a mix of walleye and northerns were caught but not the ones I was searching for today. It layed down slightly and after making the down wind troll I was able to go into the wind without swamping the front deck, successfully. They continued to reel in fish and some of the pike were a pretty decent average of over 5 pounds. In fact, one of them went over 8 pounds and was really thick around the belly looking quite healthy too. I had planned on calling it around five and thought that we would just get one more before we headed in, when another reel fired. Elaine was generous enough to let Joel have this one and when he picked up the rod, there was some weight on the other end. As with the usual last call, another reel fired and Elaine too was into a fish so I cleared the other rod to allow them to fight the fish without any tangles. I released Elaine’s pike and still hadn’t seen Joel’s fish, but knew what it was even before it made an appearance. It was Walter and it was big! After a little chaos at the boat I was able to slip the net under a dandy of a fish, finally! I don’t know who was happier to see the trophy walleye but I know I was relieved. Not to stress the fish out too much I placed her into the livewell and got everything ready for the pictures. She was big and fat and just the way I like to see them, healthy! I measured her before the release and at 28.5 inches estimated the weight at around 7.5 pounds or better. I really didn’t want to hang her on a scale for an official weight so the length was all we needed before setting her on her way. Wow, talk about getting it in under the wire! I knew there were big fish in this area but was beginning to think that we wouldn’t get to see one when it neared the end of the day. It just goes to show that patience and perseverance pays off! Elaine & Joel had landed plenty of fish each throughout the day and this was just the icing on the cake. I hope tomorrow brings as much luck for the other half of this group and they have their shot at more trophies too!!

Norm was back for another round of beat on the bass today, or so he thought! We hooked up and were on the water before 8:30 and well on our way to a great day of bass fishing. What we didn’t anticipate was the lethargic and negative nature of these creatures and just how they were affected by the weather. We began in cloud & sunshine and high humidity. Air temps were in the 70’s and expected to reach into the 90’s by the time it hit afternoon. We started where we had left off last week when Norm had brought Buddha along and expected to get more of those giant smallies. To say it was tough would have been the understatement of the day. It was torture! Oh they were there, just not interested in anything we threw at them. We did manage to get a few of the smaller ones up to 3 pounds to take some of our offerings, but the big ones just cruised us by. I had about enough of this torture, so I decided to change locations and see if we might do better somewhere else. Well, it didn’t get much better with us seeing more smallies but Norm managed to get into one on the fly and that was worth the move all together. Unfortunately, this was the only bass stupid enough to eat and we just kept moving again to more areas with pretty much the same results. Everywhere we went there were fish, just not active ones and it was getting really old. Eventually in the later part of the afternoon, we actually stumbled onto activity and Norm was pounded by a good one on the spinner bait he was throwing. I thought that after this 4 pounder, it was going to come alive but I was wrong! We did get plenty of followers and several attacks on tubes and blades but not the numbers we had anticipated. It was really frustrating looking at all the bass in the areas we were but only some of them were hitting. I’ve never seen this before where some of them attacked like it was their last meal and others just ignored the lures all together. Hopefully, I won’t have to see this again! By covering plenty of water we were at least able to get some hits with the largest ones going 4.5 pounds at best. By 5:00 we had just about enough with the fish and high humidity so we decided to pack it in. Not the best day Norm has had on the water, but at least he managed to hook several bass instead of watching others catch them on WFN!!!!

Richard joined me today with his two sons, Max & Josh for another incredible multi species outing. We hooked up around 7:00 A.M. and hit the water shortly after with high expectations. Although it was still early, the air temps were already in the 70’s and with high humidity felt even hotter. Skies were free of clouds and I knew it was going to be another scorcher! Thankfully, we at least had a breeze of 5 to 10 knots from the S/W and that was a blessing. Upon arriving in our first location, I don’t think it was one minute after the lines were in the water that Max was locked up and into the first of many fish to come. He landed a nice pike of around 6 or 7 pounds and a few pics were taken before the release. Josh was up next and this time he landed a walleye of at least 5 pounds. Another rod fired while we were getting ready to take more pics and Max began battling a rather large northern of over 7 pounds at the same time. I was having a hard time keeping the lines in the water and that’s not a bad thing! After several more pics we released the two fish and continued to troll again. It wasn’t very long in between the fish when we started as maybe 4 or 5 minutes lapsed without hearing the reels fire. We did have several drive byes in the beginning and I really hate that! We trolled for a couple of hours all the while catching pike & walleye and then Josh started to reel in what I thought was just another pike. As it neared the boat, I realized that it was actually a walleye and a really big one too! I slid the net under what was to be one of the largest walleye of the day at close to 7 pounds. More pics and another successful release! The kids were getting bored of catching fish and wanted to go casting somewhere else for another species so I reluctantly packed it up and went for bass. The largemouth bite wasn’t too good where we were so I decided to take a run and go for smallies instead. We managed to get into plenty of smaller bass in this area in the next couple of hours, but nothing big. Josh actually caught the largest one around 3 pounds all on his own and that was just one of the many highlights of this day. Believe it or not, they asked if they could go back trolling because this was too much work and we headed back to where we began our day. By now the boat traffic was insane and so were the above 90 degree air temps that we had, but the run felt great. Once again, the rods began to fire almost immediately and within the first 5 minutes we had landed two walleye and a pike. I had removed one of the other rods while Max was fighting the first fish and if it weren’t for that, we probably would have had fish on all four. As with earlier in the day, these fish were active and Josh brought in another 5 pound walleye along with his brother’s 7 pound northern. Five minutes later the brothers had another fire drill and landed a couple more beautiful walleye with the largest going over 6 pounds this time. This made for a nice double shot as Richard held the two of them up for the pic. Max definitely had the big fish of the day though as he battled a 34 inch northern to the net that went around 10 pounds. I actually lost count of all of the fish caught today but I do know that there were plenty landed by both of the kids. Richard also managed to get a bunch of the fish too, but the day was for his boys and they had a blast! We decided that we would leave after just one more fish and Josh kindly gave it up to his brother Max. What we didn’t see coming was the double header that actually ended the day and both of them got to land another pike each instead. Now that’s the way to end the day!!

I had a full boat today as Bram & Neil brought their sons, Alex & Jake along for an incredible day of fishing. The weather was a humid 70 degrees at the start and was going to climb into the 90’s by the end. Thankfully, we had a S/W wind of around 10 knots and this was really welcomed! Water temps were between 72 & 73 degrees where we were and the skies were bluebird clear. We were on the water and had the lines in shortly after 8:30 and it didn’t take long before we were locked up! With the weather looking like another scorcher, I was hoping for a quick morning bite and the fish came through. Alex was first up and he was into a northern right away with plenty of others to follow. Alex countered with a nice walleye of around 3 pounds before both dads got into more & bigger northerns. I’m not sure what round it was but Alex eventually took the rod with a beautiful 5 pound walleye attached to the lure that fell off in the net immediately after I scooped her up. Lucky guy! He was on fire with all the fish and it seemed like he was getting most of the larger ones as well. Jake on the other hand decided to hit the sack after a long night and forfeited most of his rounds at bat. In the first couple of hours there were plenty of decent to large sized northerns and several mid sized walleye brought aboard before Alex hooked up with another biggun. When I finally caught a glimpse of the fish I realized that it wasn’t a pike like I had thought but rather, a pretty big walleye. As luck would have it, this one too fell off in the net as we watched the hooks fly out. I had to weigh his catch and was not surprised that it held right at 7 pounds on the scale. What a trophy for this lake at this time of year! After a few quick pics it too was released to swim where she belonged. No sense killing the large ones and there wasn’t any hesitation to release her. We kept trolling for a few more hours all the while catching pike and walleye but it was getting tougher. The sun was really up now and the fish weren’t cooperating like before so we decided to relocate for the remainder of the day. Alex had wanted to try casting and it was the right choice. After a quick dip for most of them in the middle of the lake, I headed to another area a little further away to try for some smallmouth. Well, it didn’t take long here either to have a confirmation that it was the right decision. Immediately, Bram was into one on a spinnerbait that had everyone pumped. In the next couple of hours there were shots at around 20 bass ranging from 2 to 4 pounds on a variety of lures and plenty were caught. Everyone was hooking up and this was a great way to finish off the already fantastic day on the water. We called it around 4 and headed back completely satisfied on the results for the day. Alex had managed a grand slam and if it weren’t for the largemouth bass of over 4 pounds that just came off at the net, he would have had a home run to add to the equation too! Oh well, crap happens! All in all a really great day to take your kids out and have the experience of their lives, even if one of them did sleep through most of it!!