Another Big Eye

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July 9th 2018

 

William was back with his son Peter today and this time he also brought his brother Rodney along. The three of them were going to have a great morning, filled with plenty of fish.

I ran to an area to troll that had been productive recently and quickly set the 4 lines. I noticed that the water was a little off colored and hoped it wouldn’t affect the fishing. We even had a pretty good chop from a strong SW wind and 1 to 2 foot waves. As usual, within minutes the first reel went off notifying me of a fish. It hadn’t screamed like it usually does but rather clicked like a cold water strike. I grabbed the rod and handed it to his son to fight the fish. Minutes later we had the first keeper walleye in the net and were well on our way to a great day.

They began with a rotation and before we knew it, there were 3 walleye in the livewell. Only 1 pike had been caught so far but the eyes were definitely active. I needed to find the pike in order to bump up the numbers for the day!

We covered plenty of water and ironically it was the walleye that were mostly being caught. Although they had landed a few northerns, the walleye were leading. When the next reel fired it went off hard and I knew Peter was into a big eye again. He was struggling to reel her in, but eventually it neared the boat and I definitely knew now just how big! It took a couple of runs, but eventually I grabbed the leader and coaxed it into the net. Peter had just landed the largest walleye of his life!

After several pics were taken of his trophy catch, we resumed fishing and I began locating more northerns. A couple of them were quite large and Peter had a rough time holding them for the pics. William was letting his son take his turn on the reels and between Rodney and Peter, they landed many more. A mix of walleye and pike were now being caught but the action wasn’t what I was use to. I kept moving and hoping to bump into a group of fish that were active, but it never really happened. In one area I actually found water temps to be down to almost 68 degrees from 76 this weekend. This too may have had an impact on the fishing!

After landing a bunch more walleye & pike, I decided to pack everything up and switch gears completely. I was going to take them to another area where they would be drop shotting. William was all for that as he’d rather catch smallies with rod in hand anyway!

On our run through open water I realized just how sheltered we actually were while trolling. The lake had kicked up quite a bit and we would be fishing in 2 to 3 foot waves where we were. I quickly demonstrated what was needed and let them drop down and begin. They were all pretty new to this technique and I told them to keep a tight line if they ever wanted to feel the strike.

On the second drift, William hooked into a nice walleye that felt much better on the light equipment. I think they had all been hit but it was difficult for them to feel anything in these conditions. We were rolling pretty good with the waves and despite a couple of snags, the others weren’t as lucky. I did see Rodney’s rod load once but he wasn’t ready and missed the fish.

We made a few more drifts as the waves grew, hoping for more action and on the last one, both William & his brother hooked up. Unfortunately they both lost the fish as well from lack of tight line. They soon had another chance and at least William was able to keep his pinned, all the way to the boat. He fought a nice bass and enjoyed how strong it was on the light tackle. Unfortunately this was to be their last fish before we had to leave. I stayed a bit longer to try and get them more but with only a half day morning trip scheduled, it was time to go.

Today was a great one once again with a pile of fish landed trolling and a few more on the drop shot. Although short, it was quite productive! In the end, there were fish to take home and they had learned a new technique, for future fishing trips as well. I was also glad this was only a half day as the winds were getting stronger and the waves much larger. This afternoon would have been difficult to say the least. Thankfully the morning was their choice for today!!