First One of The Year

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May 26th 2018

 

A couple of weeks back, Laurence booked a half day trip for his brother. It seems that this was to be a gift for his bachelor party and four of them would be coming fishing. Well, today was the day and by the looks of the weather, it wasn’t going to be pretty!

We met up at the ramp about 10:00, but not after all hell had broken loose! Just a few hours back, an electrical storm had passed through the area and I wasn’t sure what effect it would have on the fishing. Monsoon like rains had also fallen and it was still raining somewhat when they arrived. Laurence, Eric, Bob & Chuck would be in for an interesting one as the forecast was for another 5 to 10 mm of rain throughout the day. It was gonna be a wet one!

Trolling was going to be the ticket today with this many people and I set the four lines, awaiting our first bite. Within minutes an outside rod went off and Laurence was into the first fish of the day. Unfortunately it was a bass and after a brief battle, returned unharmed. The area I was covering had a mix of fish but mostly walleye, the species I was after. Minutes later another rod went off and Eric reeled in the first one of the day. They were wanting to bring a few home with them so it went in the livewell, with hopes of others, soon to follow.

Despite the miserable weather, they were having a great time and surprisingly, the fish were cooperating! We fished through several hours of rain & drizzle, but eventually it let up allowing us to remove our jackets. Many other fish were boated throughout this ordeal and now I was hoping for an even better bite. I relocated a short distance away and began covering deeper water. The hopes were to get into better quality fish and it didn’t take long. Multiple reels were firing and their rotation was going quick. They were also adding keeper walleye to the livewell and things were going great!

With all the fish landed so far, I was surprise to see that only one was an over and not by very much! Eric had boated a 21 incher that had to be returned, but a few quick pics were taken before the release. There were however plenty of smaller fish being caught that were also released. By covering water and focussing on specific areas I was able to get everyone into plenty of action throughout the day. When one place slowed down, I would just switch to another upping their numbers more. I was constantly looking for warmer water but 58 degrees was the best I could find. I guess the heavy rains this morning had also cooled the water somewhat, along with making it dirtier as well.

Sometime in the afternoon, the clouds sort of broke up and we were actually in the sun. This could only be a good thing and with the light NE winds all but gone, the water began to warm. I actually hit an area with temps over 60 degrees and began getting more quality bites. Walleye, pike, perch and some bass were falling victim to our offerings. These guys were enjoying their trip even more now that the weather took a turn for the better. I don’t think anyone had thought they would see the sun today, especially me!

With all the fish landed today, the time flew by quickly. Before we knew it, it was 3:00 and time to go! They had fish to clean and reservations to keep this evening and needed time to prepare.

I’m pretty sure that they all had a great time today, despite the miserable weather to start. Fortunately they were prepared with foul weather gear and it didn’t seem to bother them at all. Catching as many fish as they did also added to the enjoyment of their day. In fact, by the time it was all over, they were bringing a good number of keeper walleye home with them. Sometime this weekend the entire family would be eating a great mess of fresh fish, compliments of them! Eric had a different king of Bachelor party than most but something tells me this was just a prelude of what’s to come! Great day of fishing with even better days to come!!