Another First

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A couple of years ago at this time, I had the pleasure of fishing with Buddy and his friends. Today he was back alone and on a different puddle! We hooked up about 8:00 in a heavy fog and ventured offshore to our first spot, looking for a few bites. As this was to be a half day outing, I wanted to get him into fish as quickly as possible.

The conditions looked perfect for drifting with a good SW wind and I set him up with a drop shot. We moved along nicely marking plenty of quality fish and I knew he was about to hook up. I was right and he landed his very first walleye ever! I had no idea that Buddy hadn’t caught them before and informed him that he would definitely be catching bigger and more before the day was done. Right back at it, we continued drifting over all kinds of fish but for some reason the bites were minimal. I decided to try jigging over them and immediately hooked one. Buddy did manage to land another and lose a good one on the drop shot afterwards but it was slow. I soon changed him to a jig and we went right back up to give it another go.

With a little instruction on the technique required, he was soon locked up and battling a nice eye. This would prove to be his biggest for the day and definitely worthy of a pic. We kept t it afterwards making several more drifts over the deep shoal and landed fish each and every pass. Eventually the winds picked up considerably more and I was forced to relocate to another area much further away.

I was now on a current break and utilizing the new electric motor to hold on the spot. I set Buddy up with the drop shot rod again and informed him of how the current played into the mix. He hooked into something on his very first cast, but lost the bass on the jump. Several casts later, he hooked into another and this one made it to the net for a pic. The remainder of the time had him losing several more and landing plenty as well. In fact at one point, we had a sighting of a big lunge as he reeled in a nice walleye. I guess old toothy wanted a free meal too! We eventually called it a day shortly after 12:30 and headed back to take out.

Half days are always tougher as time restraints limit the number of areas I am able to fish. Having one rod active also reduces the number of chances too! Despite these circumstances, Buddy definitely fended quite well, landing several smallies and a bunch of walleye today. He may have waited two years to fish with me again, but I don’t think it will be as long the next time. Something tells me I will be seeing him and his group next fall after the half day spent today. I’m looking forward to it too!