The Perfect Day

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May 28th 2018

 

What a difference a day makes! Easy launching and flat calm waters greeted us this morning, after yesterday’s hell. Scott and his friend George were with me today and based on these conditions, I knew it was going to be great!

After running across glassy calm waters I settled on the area we had ended at yesterday. I had left them biting and needed to know if they were still hungry. With a couple of deep lines and one medium running, I started the troll. Well it didn’t take long for a confirmation as the long line fired within minutes! George grabbed the rod and began battling the first pike of the day only to have it jump right out of net and back into the lake. These rubber nets with the shallow bowl just aren’t made for squirming pike I guess! It didn’t matter though as I knew there would be more!

Scott was up next and one of the deep lines went off only minutes later, with a pike of about the same size locked on the hooks. These fish were over the regular sized ones that I am use to seeing and fighting pretty good for only 56 degree water. Once in the net, I really saw the thickness and needed a few pics. It was quickly returned right after and we were back at it once again. The reels weren’t firing as much as yesterday afternoon but by covering water we were able to get into the pike regardless. Every few minutes something was hitting and that was fine by us! both George & Scott boated many of these chunky pike throughout the morning and George even managed to land a few nice eyes too! Unfortunately they were all overs and returned after several more pics.

We trolled around until shortly after 11:30 and then made our way back to the launch. John would be joining us for the afternoon. He was about to enjoy his birthday on the water and also catch a few fish!

After the pickup I decided that we would remain closer to the ramp to see if we could get into some smaller, eater sized walleye for Scott. Unfortunately this didn’t last too long as the action was a little on the slow side. They managed to land one small bass and possibly lose a couple of other eyes when the hooks just pulled out. Time to return to the scene of the crime!

We raced back across the water and straight to where the action was hot, all morning long! With 4 lines in now, I could run a better spread. Soon after, John was into a fish and he reeled in his first northern of the season. He also brought a couple more in, soon after and then the rotation began. They had let him have a few before they wanted to get back in the game!

It may not have been as good as the morning bite, but the afternoon provided more walleye than earlier in the day. It seemed like there were less pike in the area now and the walleye were on the feed. We did manage to get both but I was glad to see more of the eyes and managed to box a couple for Scott to return with.

Although we never went long between bites there was a time when it didn’t seem that way. I had been trolling for about 15 minutes without a hit and decided to see why. Apparently one of the deep lines must have taken a hit because the lure was tangled on the front hook and just coming in with no action. The other deep line just wasn’t there! Something must have missed the lure and cut the fluorocarbon leader like a pair of scissors. Our two best lines weren’t in the game and neither were we!

After taking care of the problem, it didn’t take long before the reels were howling once again! More pike & walleye were being caught and numbers were climbing nicely. The remaining time saw quite a few more fish boated but ironically there were no double headers. With this many fish in the area I was sure we’d see multiple hookups, but surprisingly not!

By 4:00 I decided to call it a day and pulled the lines for the run back. They had managed to land a good number of fish today and some really nice ones too. John got to spend his birthday with friends enjoying something that he loves doing as well. With no hurricane winds, no rain and overcast skies, you couldn’t have ordered it any better! There was definitely no suffering today! Just a great day for fishing!!