Double Down Day

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Another long day today with a double booking and waking up at 4:30! Mohammad & his gang were a party of four this morning and hoping for lots of fish. Their wish was granted with fish after fish and plenty of action throughout their trip.

Although most of them were novices, they had lots of practice landing pike & walleye all morning long. It may have been a slower than normal start to the day but once I found the fish, that all changed. The only issue I had was that they wanted to take a few fish home and had to settle on mostly pike. Almost all the walleye were way too large! Tough problem to have!

We called it a little short as they wanted to take a swim in the lake. I stopped in deep enough water on the way back and three of them took the plunge. Refreshed and soaking wet, we made our way back to the ramp for the afternoon pick up. Another fantastic morning with a bunch of great guys!

A quick turnaround and Val & I were off for the afternoon trip. I asked him what he wanted to do and he said that he’d like to take a couple of walleye home for dinner. No problem, I thought and off to a nearby drop shot area we went.

We drifted over moderately deep water and were only able to get into one keeper walleye and a couple of smallmouth. I jumped around and found out that the fishing was much tougher than I had anticipated. I was marking very little bait and not many fish in the areas that should have been loaded. Time for a long run to a spot that I was sure would produce!

With only two people in the boat I decided not to troll as we would only be able to have two lines in the water. Also, the walleye that I had been getting by trolling were mostly overs and too big to keep.

We stopped in an area that had a mix of bass & walleye and began casting oft plastics. Val had brought one of his own rods and I set it up with the bait of choice for him to use. After a brief demonstration on how to work it, he hooked into his first bass from this spot. It may have been the first but it wasn’t going to be his last! Although not big, it fought like a champ and as I found out later, was his personal best. I shot a couple of pics but knew he would catch bigger ones with the time we had left!

We covered this area and had plenty of action, but most of his fish were coming unpinned before reaching the boat. Some of them were quite large too as we saw them either jump or break the surface before being lost. I thought of changing him up to something else and tried a few casts on the drop shot. I was instantly hooked up and managed to put a couple more walleye in the well for him to take home. I also landed a few smallmouth and switched him up to this rig. It didn’t last long though as all he was able to catch were rocks. He went back to the previous set up and I made a little refinement to his technique and hook set, and the results were much better. He caught a mix of bass & walleye afterwards and livewelled his limit of fish for the day. In fact, he even caught a couple more with one of them being a good over!

With little time remaining he requested that we stay an hour longer and I granted him his wish. We would fish until 5:00 instead of the usual 4:00 as he was having way too much fun!

The last hour saw several more fish coming to net including a nice 4 pound smallie that unfortunately was not photographed. It had taken the bait deeply and was bleeding when I removed the hook. Not wanting to stress the fish any more than it already was, I released it and watched her swim away. Better chance of survival this way! The time passed quickly and we only had a few minutes remaining so I motored over to a spot that I hoped he could get into at least one more fish. Turns out that he managed two more and we ended with a bang!

Both trips today were a success and by switching things up a little I was able to satisfy everyone in the boat. In fact they all took some fish home and released so many more! It may have been a tiring one but I wouldn’t have changed it for anything. Oh yeah, the waters were also quiet as today wasn’t a weekend or holiday. Great to have it practically all to myself!