The Slaughter Fest

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June 10th 2018

 

Another day on the water and another slaughter fest for pike & walleye! Anya & Rocky were going to experience the best fishing of their lives and didn’t even know it!

After a mix up on meet times, we finally got underway just after 7:30. Trolling is the name of the game at this time of year and it didn’t take long to get the ball rolling. In less than one minute after the three lines were set, one of the reels started to scream. That’s how you do it when you promise quick hookups! Rocky got to battle her first ever northern, but it wouldn’t be her last. She had been told from friends back home that they weren’t easy to catch and I just laughed. I told her that by end of day, she would be sick of catching so many of them!

The morning was a little chilly at the start but the fishing was on fire as they both boated so many fish in the first hour that we just lost count. Pike after pike were ripping reels and multiple hookups were happening every couple of minutes. We also had several double headers that are always fun! We even had a triple that put a little chaos into the day!

Anya hadn’t fished much in her lifetime, but got into it pretty quick with all the action. Rocky on the other hand had been fishing since the age of four and loved every minute of it. She didn’t have much time to rest as reels were going off every couple of minutes. Quite often one turned into two and double headers were frequent! The action was so fast that all I kept doing was going over the same area multiple times to get bit. My plotter screen eventually looked like a spider web and needed to be erased in order to find the waypoint. With this many fish being landed it was inevitable that other boats would move in and at one point I counted a total of 7 others in the area. Absolutely unbelievable! Fortunately I only needed a small section and kept circling it, getting bit. They even managed to land a couple of bonus walleye, but unfortunately they were overs and had to be released. I think we must have spent over three hours in this area before making a move. Too many fish to leave!

Our next spot was supposed to be a quick stop but the fish had other ideas. Again, in less than one minute the first reel fired and I knew we would be hanging in here for a while! Several pike were landed and they were all good ones. Lately this area had been putting out larger than normal sized fish and never disappointed! In fact when the next reel fired, Rocky hooked into a really big fish that turned out to be a musky. She was elated to get her first ever lunge and couldn’t believe their strength. Although small by my standards, still a nice fish to have caught! It was much larger than all of the pike she reeled in and a whole lot meaner during the fight. I mentioned to her that the fish was still out of season and we released it quickly after removing the hooks.

Multiple passes were made, with many more fish being landed. We even had another triple header on a turn that consisted of two pike and a walleye. Unfortunately one of the pike ran into the walleye, popping the hooks! They ended up landing two pike instead. I probably could have stayed here and finished the day, but I had other areas I wanted to be by late afternoon. After another 30 minutes of catching, we pulled out and changed spots again.

After a quick pit stop for a bathroom break, we ran to another section of the lake, hoping for more action. This would be the last spot of the day and I knew it would put plenty more fish in the boat for them. With rods in, it took about 2 minutes before Rocky was fighting another northern. I was hoping for a few more walleye for them and covered plenty of water, searching for gold!

A number of pike were boated before we finally stumbled onto the walleye and it was a double! Several pike later, another one made its way to the net and I knew we were finally on them. Unfortunately between the heavy cloud cover and the time of the day, they landed only one more before we called the day. Not before catching at least 6 more pike though!

The numbers of fish hooked and brought in today were unbelievable! There’s no way to tell just how many they caught and that’s the way it should be now. Post spawn has finally gotten them back to feeding and with the water warming, more active as well. Anya & Rocky hit the nail on the head today with their timing and boated more fish than they ever could have imagined. I’ve been hearing that a lot lately and expect it to remain this way for a while longer. Summer patterns are still far away and I will be taking advantage of this trolling as long as it remains good. It’s simple and effective and right now, the best method for high number days! I can’t wait to get back out again!!