Adjusting on The Fly

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I had a last minute booking Friday evening for a half day morning trip today, with a pair of Mike’s. They needed to be back in the city before noon so we hooked up at 6:00 instead of the usual hour. We would fish until 11:00 giving them plenty of time to get back.

I wanted to get them into some drop shot fish right away but the light NE wind had other ideas. We tried to drift but the direction was making it next to impossible to get a proper presentation. Although they did manage a few small fish, I wasn’t satisfied with the results and moved to where there was more current. We spent over 2 hours making multiple drifts and they managed plenty of quality walleye and some average smallies. They had a good bet going on and one of them had a walleye close to 4 pounds in the lead. I was making great drifts in this area and returning back each time with the small engine to look for more fish. Unfortunately this changed after about 6 drifts when the gear linkage popped out locking me in neutral. Although this wasn’t the first time it had occurred, it was the first time I couldn’t fix the problem on the water. The plastic piece that held the shifting rod had worn down too much to hold in place and we couldn’t use the kicker any more. We were planning on spending the last couple of hours trolling for pike as neither of them had ever caught one, but had to change those plans. This was not going to happen and I made an alternate decision and brought them casting for bass instead. This adjustment was definitely the right decision as the remaining time was spent catching all kinds of smallies on soft plastics. In fact, the big fish bet was also won here as the other Mike (aka Pitch) landed a nice bass over 4 pounds and took the lead with only 15 minutes to spare. They had caught all kinds of fish in only a half day of fishing and the minor adjustment had kept them catching throughout the entire time. The decision to go for bass when we weren’t able to troll for pike was a backup plan when the motor issues occurred. Decisions like this are why I am always able to keep clients on fish and I wasn’t about to let a little problem like that stop them from catching.

From the time we started until the time they ended, the action was pretty much non stop. There were lots of fish landed and another high numbers day was had. They also missed plenty of others either on the hook set or while fighting them to the boat. This was one of those days that they will be talking about for quite some time! More great fishing days ahead!