Fishing 102

I had a customer from the past back today for a little confidence building. Luc was to learn a few new techniques that he would be able to apply to future trips on his local body of water. A little knowledge goes a long way, along with the confidence he would get today! We hooked up at 7:00 and headed to our first spot to start the day. I thought he should start with a blade bait and within his first couple of casts, it produced. A missed hit was enough to show me that these fish would eat the bait and on the very next cast, he was locked up. It didn’t take long for the bass to throw the hooks though when a leap in the air had him unpinned. Several casts later he nailed another and this one made it all the way to the net for his first of many fish of the day. A couple more fish were also missed shortly after until a refinement had him back in the game. I set up the rods with soft plastics and made a few casts myself in order to show him what he needed to do in this area and hooked into one on the very first cast. Shortly after Luc also locked up and we had a double. What a great start to the day and it had only just begun! I covered the water in this area completely for a while until it just went dead. Time to relocate and the teaching part would begin! I was going to show him how to fish with a drop shot both casting and vertically. This technique would be something that would put many more fish in the boat for him on future trips throughout the year. I also fished alongside him for a while to show him exactly what he needed to do and hooked another fish on the very first cast. Now that’s a demonstration! Once he positioned his rod correctly and slowed down, he too was hit and landed his very first walleye of the day. Looks like someone would be having fish for dinner! We kept at this for a while and put a couple more eyes in the livewell and Luc even managed to catch a decent smallie as well. Another technique accomplished! Next on the list was a vertical presentation and it didn’t take long before we hooked up. Although I wasn’t marking many fish in the deeper water, there were enough sightings on the sonar to keep me interested. After I landed a couple of smallies, Luc too hooked into one of his own and another understanding of a new method was had. He managed to catch a nice smallmouth and a smaller walleye a little later. We hit one more deeper area and landed a couple more smallies before switching gears completely. This time we went to an area where he would be throwing soft plastics once again and as usual, it didn’t take long to bend a rod. Smallie after smallie were on him and many more quality fish were boated for the remainder of the afternoon. By 4:00 we called it quits as both of us were exhausted from the heat of the day. A lack of wind increased the temperatures and the sunshine just baked us completely. The run back felt great as it was the coolest either of us had felt in hours. Luc had also graduated with high honors as he passed every test with flying colors. I’m sure the next time he goes out on his local water he will find it much easier. I’m looking forward to hearing his report!!