Another Large Day

Stephen & his father Patrick were with me today for Father’s Day. It was a gift from his son! We hit the water just after 7:00 and headed out in less wind than I expected. Although it was blowing 15 knots or better from the SW, the waves weren’t too bad. I ran to the first location in 1 to 2 foot chop and immediately began fishing. We actually had a slower start than usual and only managed a handful of fish in the first hour. With the full moon upon us the reels were barely making a sound. Several times the fish was just on the line causing me to believe that they just weren’t very active. Eventually we began getting more bites but they were all pretty much garbage hits. I was once again forced to hammer down the throttle in order to lock them up. Stephen was hoping to take a few walleye home for dinner but that was not looking good. We did catch plenty of them, but they were all overs. Throughout the entire day, we only managed one slot fish and it too was released in the end. Sometime before lunch, the winds picked up considerably and so did the boat traffic. It was hard to tell which was which as the waves were from almost every direction. I wasn’t liking what was going on here so after picking at them all morning, I decided to relocate. We made the long run to an area I hadn’t fished in a while to see if the fish were more active. I managed to find both walleye and pike in extremely shallow water and the reels were firing hard. Once again however, all the walleye were too big and we were forced to return them after a few pics. It was going to be another day of the overs! I milked this area until the fish just stopped biting and moved on in hopes of finding another group of active fish. With only one walleye in the livewell for Stephen, time wasn’t on our side. I decided to return to where we began in hopes of adding to his total. I was shocked to see that the waves were quite a bit larger than when we left. In fact, the water was also very colored with all the turbulence from the boats as well. We dropped the lines and almost immediately had a double. Unfortunately pike were what they caught! I moved along checking several other areas and managed to get into a bunch more fish, but they too were also northerns. Right around 4:00 we decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp. It was quite a roller coaster ride with these waves and we were running with them. It definitely felt like Lake Ontario rollers! What a zoo it was when we arrived at the dock. Jet skis and boats all over the place. Not really an easy take out with the waves pounding on the dock and no room to park. Fortunately I had a couple of people with me that could hold the boat from taking a pounding on the wharf. We may not have accomplished dinner for Stephen but both he & his father Patrick had a great day. Plenty of fish were landed and they both saw new techniques that will aid them on some of their future trips up north. Although the walleye were all too large, I guess that’s not a bad problem to have!!