Hot Hot Hot

Today had to be the hottest one so far this season! Zero wind, blazing sunshine and high heat & humidity made the temperature feel almost 40 degrees. Pascal had brought his family fishing and we set off just about 8:00 A.M. With this many people on the boat I decided to troll to avoid any accidents. With rods set, it was just a matter of time before we would hook up! Light bites were the norm lately and this morning was no different. As with previous days I found myself hitting the throttle just to lock the fish up. The first couple of hits were so subtle that even I barely heard the clicking occur. Fortunately we did manage to get several walleye, & pike up to 8 pounds in the first part of the day. After a quick bathroom break we were back to trolling and catching a few more walleye, bass & pike once again. Although some fish were biting, it really wasn’t what I had expected. After a few more hours of washing lures I decided to try elsewhere and set up for a little drop shotting. I had relocated into some really dirty water and found the temps hovering around 74 degrees. It was a huge difference from the 67 that we had been previously fishing in! The lines were still trolling while I got the rods ready and we picked up a bunch more fish while waiting. In fact, Pascal got exotic species of the day with an 8 pound lunge! When we were finally able to change presentations & the rods were in, it was game on. In the remaining couple of hours everyone had several chances at fish and many bass & walleye were caught. I don’t know exactly how many came to net but they did manage to catch a bunch. Enough that they were taking fish home for dinner tonight. By 3:00 they had endured enough heat that they were fried. We pulled the plug and headed back, calling it a day. Ironically the ramp was void of boats and I was out in an instant. Although not an excellent day by my standards they still managed to land almost 35 fish for the day. Under these conditions, they all left quite satisfied. Hopefully they will be back on a slightly cooler day, or at least one where they can all swim. Either way, it should be better all around!!