Seniors Day Outing
août 25, 2017
Irwin & Irving joined me this morning and we hit the water just after 8:00, looking for action. Conditions seemed almost perfect with winds out of the west at about 10 knots. We were heading to drop shot open water for sure!
I settled on an area in deeper water and showed them what they needed to do. They were quickly into it with Irwin missing several after they were hooked. It took a while but they finally got the hang of what to do and eventually both were reeling in fish. Walleye and a few bass came to net and some of the eyes went into the livewell for them later.
We made multiple drifts over the areas and despite catching a bunch of fish, eventually pulled the plug and opted for something else. The winds had increased and unlike the 15 knots they had listed, it was closer to 25 in my eyes! I figured it was time to head west and try to escape some of the big blow.
Trolling was on the menu and I prepped everything to be able to set the lines. Although I hadn’t planned on doing this, I am always prepared for anything! With lines in the water, I began covering the area and my waypoints. I think Irwin & Irving were both enjoying what we were doing as it required very little energy on their part. They had also never seen anything like this before and were anxious for the first reel to fire. After about 5 minutes the short line finally went off and it ripped good! Irving was into his first trolled pike and it was a pretty decent one too. Unfortunately it was a little on the slim side, otherwise it may have been closer to the ten pound mark. A few quick pics and it was released.
The trolling bite wasn’t great but we picked at them alright, landing another 3 or 4 fish. One of them was a nice over walleye that may have been Irving’s personal best! We fished until about 3:30 when they finally called it a day. This was originally supposed to be a half day outing but they decided to make it a full day. Neither of them were sure what to expect and didn’t know if they could handle a full day, Apparently they could as they left not showing any signs of being exhausted. At over 70 years a piece, they weren’t any worse for wear!
Although Irwin had fished this lake many times in the years past, he never had much success. Today was the total opposite as they landed more fish than all his years combined! I think he now believes that there are fish in the lake! This may have been the first time they fished with me but I don’t think it will be their last. They’ve sort of gotten the bug again and really enjoyed the catching part instead of just fishing! I hope to see them again this season as the bite will only get better with the cooler days ahead. Fall is always a great time to fish and numbers of big fish are willing to eat. Only time will tell but there’s definitely a good chance it will happen before the season is done. Great guys and great laughs all day!