Tough Fall Double

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I had another double trip day today with Philippe, Simon & Sasha in the morning and Val in the afternoon. I would be under the gun to get the job done in short 4 hour spans but would try my best to put everyone on fish!

We headed out in a pretty good rain that lasted most of the morning and almost no wind. I was going to anchor up for sturgeon with these guys, looking for a few big ones! The plan was to fish most of the morning for them and then try for bass the remainder their time. It’s always a risk switching species when you’re limited to time!

With 4 rods in the water I was sure we would get hit quickly and was right. The bite was light but with no wind, easy to detect in the rod holders. We were immediately on the board with a small fish! For the next few hours we waited and were rewarded with several more juvenile sturgeon. The guys even had a double and one triple header as I didn’t reel in the other lines when they were hooked up. These fish were on fire and I was sure we would have seen something big if we stayed. After one more fish and less than an hour remaining, we packed up and headed to fish for bass.

I tried getting them into some fish in an area that produced great, less than 1 week earlier. We made a couple of drifts in a cross wind that never produced and I decided to make a move. With these winds I thought an open water flat would be a great choice but soon found out it had no wind there. Our drifts were so slow that it felt like we were anchored!

Time ran out quickly and after a couple of failed attempts, we were done. I almost wish that we had of remained on the sturgeon, but you just never know! I headed back to exchange passengers and was back on the water in minutes.

Val had requested bass and I decided to bring him somewhere else due to our previous results. I attempted fishing rock piles in slightly deeper water but without even a bite. Once I slid in shallower however, he managed to catch a couple of good bass and I thought things were about to explode. Unfortunately they were the only two fish that bit! We remained here searching for more bass but the low light and overcast conditions didn’t make it any easier.

Several other moves and attempts at getting into fish were all similar and I tried various spots and techniques just to get something going. In one area while dragging a jig, he even managed to foul hook a sturgeon that had us thinking, big walleye! Things just weren’t going as planned and I was making adjustments constantly. We were even running out of time by now and in a last ditch effort, we headed to open water looking for a few walleye.

The winds had picked up late in the afternoon and we thought it would work in our favour to catch him dinner. With fish marking on the bottom, we made several drifts over them and only managed one. A few others were lost and some hits missed but they just didn’t want to bite. I switched baits a few times but the results were always the same. We were done!

The bite today didn’t go as planned, but at least the sturgeon seemed active. Many of them were landed, just not the giants that I am use to seeing at this time of the year! I almost wish we had of fished for them all day with the way they were acting. The bass & walleye definitely weren’t aggressive, at least where we were! Some bites were had but with all the places we fished, I expected much more. The water temps are still falling and with the cold rain from the last couple of days, they may have gone back deeper. I expect the sun to activate the shallow bite soon, if we ever actually get to see it. Hopefully in the next few days things will change. If not, I will be spending a lot more time in deeper water for the fall biters! Only time will tell!