Tough Shallow Bite

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Chris & his brother Sam were in the boat today and hopes of one equal to yesterday was on my mind. The only thing that I was worried about was the cold front and big north winds. Would this be a deterrent to the bass?

We actually spent the first couple of hours trolling for musky, but we weren’t to be rewarded. I don’t think I even marked a fish! I did see a few sturgeon however, but they weren’t what we were looking for! Eventually we packed it up and changed over to lighter rods and smaller fish.

I went back to where most of the big bass were caught yesterday and had them tossing more blades for the active fish. The winds weren’t making it easy though and I had to really use the electric motor to work the area properly. About ten minutes into the drift, Chris hooked into a really good one but after the second jump, it just came unpinned. Too bad too because as it turned out, this was to be the biggest one of the day!

We spent a bit of time working the area with a variety of baits but they ended up only landing 3 smaller bass. A few other hits were had, but the fish didn’t seem very aggressive. In fact, the last bass that Chris caught from this area was actually hooked from the outside of the mouth. Definitely not a sign of active fish!

I continued the search for active shallow fish in a couple of other areas before finally deciding to go out deep. The shallow bite was just not happening and time was not on our side. With only a few hours remaining in the day, I hit a place that I hoped would produce!

Both Sam & Chris were new to the vertical drop shot technique, but it wasn’t long before they were liking the results. On the very first drift, they were locked up with decent smallies. This was to continue for over an hour in the area as we made multiple passes. They even had a few double headers from this area too! When the action slowed, I moved around slightly and always seemed to find a few more fish for them to play with.

Time had passed by quickly and with less than 30 minutes remaining, I made a long run back to fish one last rocky flat. They both had chances from here, but it was Chris that brought the only walleye to the boat before we were done.

Today was quite an interesting one filled with all kinds of ups and downs. The musky didn’t pan out along with the shallow bass bite but we managed to salvage the day by fishing deeper than they ever thought possible. Apparently it was the right move as most of the fish came from depths greater than they had ever fished before. By making the necessary adjustments I managed to turn a slow day into one that I’m sure they will remember for quite a while. They even learned a new technique that hopefully will be used by them on future trips of their own. Who could ask for anything more?