Another Two Trip Day

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August 18th 2018

 

This morning I had the pleasure of fishing with another group of four. Gardy brought along his wife and treated his in laws to a day on the water. They were in for a great day!

By 7:30 we were heading out in a NE wind that put a pretty good chop on the water. I immediately ran to an area to troll, setting the lines in hopes of our first bite. Within 5 minutes they were into the first of many pike of the day and loving it. They had wanted to bring a few fish back with them and the northern went right into the livewell.

I trolled all over this place, but only managed to pick at the fish. I wasn’t use to only a few bites and eventually moved away and to a newer area. It was here that the reels began to fire and we even had a couple of doubles. Although mostly pike, there was one really nice, over walleye that had to be released!

With the end in sight, I kept at the troll, all the while hooking into more northerns. With only a few more minutes left, the long line screamed and we were into our last fish of the day. Little did anyone know that it was also the biggest! We had stumbled onto a small musky and I had to clear the lines to land this fish. With all the nets too small I was also forced to boga it in order to bring her aboard. Now that’s how you end a day!

They may have only had a short period to fish, but everyone had a great time catching plenty of northerns. Raymond even brought a few of the bigger ones home with them, for their dinner tonight. The highlight of the day however would definitely have to be when his wife brought her largest fish aboard right at the end. This would be a day they would remember for a very long time!!

I picked up my afternoon group when I dropped off the morning party and headed out to new areas to fish. Peter was back with Mila and his grandson Adam, for another day of fishing. I had two of them this past week and Adam landed loads of fish. They were hoping for another equally good day today!

I began with a little trolling and picked an area that had produced in the past. Unfortunately with this NE wind there were all kinds of floating weeds, making my work more complicated. I was having to clean the rods, almost in rotation. Although I tried to get out of them, it seemed almost impossible. After one bass, one walleye and only one pike, I just gave up. Time to go elsewhere! This morning had plenty of weeds as well, but nothing like I was in now. I was going to make a long run and start where I had ended.

After a bumpy ride, we arrived and I began setting the lines. I had only gotten the first rod in and was about to work on the second when it screamed. Now that’s what I’m talking about! It took less than 30 seconds and we were into another fish. Adam reeled in a pretty nice northern and I finished setting all the rods. Hopefully there would be more!

For a couple of hours we trolled the area and plenty of rods were bent. Although they didn’t land any more walleye, Adam did have at least one or two hooked. Unfortunately they came off on the way to the net and pike were all he caught.

With a little time remaining in the day, they wanted to try for bass. I pulled all the lines and made a move to what should have been a very productive area to fish. To my surprise, it didn’t show any signs of life and we never had a single hit. I quickly relocated to another spot nearby, hoping for much better results!

With everyone on soft plastics, we drifted up current with the NE winds and both Mila and Peter missed a couple of chances at fish. Towards the end of the drift, I set into a terrible strike and surprisingly hooked into a nice bass. I quickly handed the rod to Adam and he fought the fish perfectly. We finally had a sign of life and confidence grew!

I had noticed on the drift that there weren’t a lot of fish up on the flat and decided to try something different on the second drift. I hit the edge and held with the anchor mode on my electric motor. First cast to the deeper water and Adam was battling another nice smallie. I instructed the others as well on where to cast but they weren’t as fortunate. Adam on the other hand, hooked and landed two more on consecutive casts. He was on fire!

I don’t know if the fish just got smart or if we ran out of them but the action stopped and we were forced to move once again. With time running out, we only had about 5 minutes before we were done and unfortunately no more fish were had. I packed up and readied for the run back to the launch.

This afternoon was a little slower than I’m use to but there were still plenty of fish landed, by Adam! I will be back out again this week with Peter & Mila and hope to get them into some really big ones. I will concentrate my time on hooking them up with sturgeon and possibly musky. Hopefully they will cooperate, making my job easier. Either way, we’re going big game hunting!!