Grinding It Out

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Mark & his son Owen were back again today and this time we weren’t going to troll. I wanted them to fish with rod in hand for the entire day! Walleye & bass were the targeted species and I headed right to an area holding both. Unfortunately we were faced with opposing wind direction again, as it was blowing out of the NE and impossible to drift. They were going to have to cast!

We spent a good amount of time in the first spot and came up empty. I had marked some fish but they just didn’t want to bite. Our second area had Owen hooking up on his first drop. I was anchored with the electric and marking fish directly below the boat. Instantly he was tight to our first walleye of the day and it was a good keeper! Mark soon hooked up as well but his was a feisty smallmouth and released after the fight. Not long after they were both hooked up again with one walleye going into the livewell and the other an under and released. In the next thirty minutes or so that we remained, a couple of other unders were put back as well. Time for another change!

I thought with the wind lying down that we would attempt fishing for sturgeon and headed to a place to try. We stayed for about two hours hoping for at least one bite but all we got were gobies and they were a real pain. I moved several times but they constantly harassed us, making it impossible to keep the lines in the water. Eventually I just got fed up and pulled the plug on them for today! Time to go deep and drop shot for bass!

With Owen in the front with me I explained to them what was needed and we dropped the lines. Minutes later I was hooked up showing them what they had to do. Vertical was the presentation and soon after, Owen had his first bass on the line. We made multiple drifts and someone seemed to be hooked up on each one. Fish were being caught and fish were being lost, but they were enjoying themselves. Mark manages to get the best one from the area but Owen would have matched him if his had of stayed pinned. One jump and she was off!

With the winds picking up and weather on the way, I decided to make one last move. We were going back to where we had started to see if we could increase their walleye count for the day.

As soon as I arrived, I knew it was going to be better due to all the fish I was marking. The place was loaded and it looked like they were feeding too! I think Owen hooked up on the first drift now that the winds were in our favour and I netted another high end keeper for them to take home. His next fish was another good one but smaller than his first and now there were four in the livewell. Soon after, he hooked into something really large and drag screamed from the reel. Unfortunately we never got to see what it actually was, but my money was riding on a really big eye! Somehow the hooks just pulled loose and it was gone!

With each drift we made I had noticed the wind picking up and the waves getting bigger. Rain was also getting closer as some of the mainland was starting to disappear. It was just a matter of time before we were out of time but I wanted to stay as long as I could!

Mark finally hooked into something on one of the last passes and I netted his high end keeper and biggest walleye of the day. This was also to be the last fish going into the livewell as we were done!

Although today was slower than I had hoped for, there were still plenty of fish caught. The biggest disappointment had to be the sturgeon as the gobies just wouldn’t let us fish! Bass & walleye on the other hand gave them enough action and apparently a good dinner for tonight. Overall it was a pretty good day!