The Trifecta

Désolé, cet article est seulement disponible en Anglais Américain. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.

I had the pleasure of fishing with John from North Carolina this morning. He had never caught a walleye, pike or smallie and I planned on ticking all three of the list. We met up at 7 and headed out in a really nice chop for a change and from the right direction too! Although most would shy away from open water in a wind like this, I welcomed it with open arms! Two footers are always appreciated and make for a great drift as well as a great troll.

We settled on an offshore spot right in the heart of the rollers and began drop shotting the deep, open water flats. I had figured on ticking two species off his list quickly but was surprised to see only the walleye biting in this area. Several drifts later he still had only landed walleye so I moved a ways over to see if I could lock him up there. Same thing here as one small walleye after another was brought to net! Eventually I just decided to run elsewhere to see about the pike and pulled out completely.

With lines in, we began the troll and he was into a nice northern pretty quick. Although not a really big one, it was fine with him to have actually caught another fish on his list! We kept at it as I wanted to see if we could upgrade and possible get a big walleye from this area too. Well the northern cooperated as he locked up on one of the larger ones that live here and was really happy to have this fish for a pic. Unfortunately the big eyes never showed and we eventually headed to another spot looking for a big brownie.

The first stop proved to be useless as nothing even showed! I decided to go much shallower and it was here that he managed to hook into a quality smallmouth. This was something he had hoped for and enjoyed the aerials and intense fight! Although he had caught plenty of largemouth & spotted bass back home, this was to be his first ever smallie. Not a bad starter fish indeed! Several pics later she was released and we were back at it again. Although he managed to land one other bass, smaller than the first and missed a few others, it really wasn’t on fire. I opted to finish up the last half hour in deep water looking for those schooling smallies!

We were back where we had began and this time marking more fish than previously. I had high expectations but they still didn’t want to cooperate! In the last 30 minutes he must have boated 6 or 8 fish but they were all small and we were done. We pulled the plug a little after 11:30 as he had a Taxi coming at 11:45 and I had an afternoon booking as well.

This day couldn’t have gone any better except maybe a big eye for his pics. He had managed to catch all three of the fish he wanted and some really good ones too! Let’s just say that he left on a high! Maybe with any luck the next time he gets back to Montreal it might be a little later and the sturgeon bite will be on. Only time will tell but in the mean time, he’ll be savoring the results from today for quite a while!