Another Personal Best

After several productive days of fishing walleye alone, I was back out with Daren once again. We hit the water around 8:30 under overcast skies and a howling SW wind, gusting over 25 knots. I knew boat control would be the biggest challenge today but was confident enough to attempt it nonetheless. Upon arrival to our first area, I instructed Darren on technique and let him loose. I’ve always said that I’d rather be lucky than good and what happened next, was reason why! First cast, locked up and he was battling a huge fish. I wasn’t quite sure why he couldn’t bring it up from the bottom, but once I caught a glimpse, I understood. I had started him in a decent walleye zone hoping for a few dinner keepers and wouldn’t you know it, he’s hooked a trophy eye! I eventually netted the beast and thought she might go 10 pounds and placed her on the scale for confirmation. At 9.74 pounds, she was a beauty and Darrens personal best. Several pics later she was released back to the depths from where she came and I thought it might be all downhill from that moment on. We tried holding in this area for a bit but the winds didn’t make it easy to present the offerings. After a few bass and several missed hits, we relocated and I set up somewhere else. I repositioned the boat, utilizing the horrific winds in our favor and it was game on. We were now getting into some real quality bass and they were coming in almost as fast as we could get the lines wet. There were plenty of fish in the four and high four range coming aboard and we were on them big time! For several hours we fished almost comfortably despite the grueling winds and managed to catch plenty of bass in the process. I almost thought that the wind let up at one point and shifted over to try our hand at some more walleye. I was immediately brought back to reality when we made our first casts. It was still howling! A slight adjustment on the angle and we were fishing comfortably once again. Darren managed to get into several biters but they weren’t staying pinned until one finally made it to the net. A beautiful 18 inch walleye was soon swimming in the livewell for his dinner tonight. Several casts later he hooked another giant of a fish but only managed to keep it on briefly. It was very possibly one of similar size to the starter fish he landed on his first cast of the day. Hard head shakes and sheer heaviness left us both disappointed with the end results! We went back to fishing and tried to shake it off but the not knowing was the worst. Another walleye was landed soon after and a second fish of almost equal size joined his buddy in the tank. Several more misses and a couple of smallmouth later, we relocated once again. We were back into jumbo smallies from this new spot almost immediately. We decided to work over this new area, as I was sure there was plenty of bass sulking on the bottom, in the depths below. The remainder of the day saw us just picking at them, but when one was hooked, it was a good fish. Somewhere after 3:00 we pulled the plug and called it for the day. We had highs as well as lows but despite the roller coaster ride, today was just short of phenomenal. Weather of this caliber in November should be welcomed with open arms, as it won’t be long before the hard water fishing will be the only game in town. I don’t know how much longer I will be able to milk this season but I’ll be there to the bitter end, literally! Another great day full of big bass action and a few more surprises!!