Rush Hour Traffic

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Mario joined me today with his friend, hoping to catch some fish to eat. They would be fine fishing just about anything but walleye & bass were what we were after. Hopefully the bite would be as good as the day before!

They began by throwing a dropshot rig along a current break and both had hits almost immediately. New to this technique, they unfortunately missed the fish due to their hook sets. Several casts later, we had our first bass of the day and it was a good one. I think they expected to keep the fish but I informed them that it was to be released and not to worry as they would have better fish to eat!

They only managed one more smallie from this area but I landed several good ones trying various techniques to see what was working the best. I eventually decided to go and do a little trolling on the outside edge, as the boat traffic was building and it wouldn’t be getting better, anytime soon!

The trolling bite wasn’t what I had expected but they did have a few chances. Unfortunately they pulled the hooks out of the fish by applying too much pressure when reeling them in. I would have to rethink what I wanted to do next as the areas I wanted to fish were filling up fast with other fishermen! It was becoming a zoo with the mild weather now and it was only a weekday! What would the weekend bring?

We tried various methods and spots when they became available, but the only thing that saw fewer fishermen was the trolling. Unfortunately they didn’t seem to be getting bit with this method and I wondered why. I was marking plenty of fish in the area I was covering and decided to take one of the rods for a minute to try. It didn’t even take the minute and I was locked up almost instantly! There was something with the way they were fishing the baits that wasn’t working because the fish were definitely hitting! I passed the rod to one of them and let them bring the fish in. Although not a giant, it was a good one and released after they took a few pics.

We had spent several hours trying to manoeuvre around the other boats to get a place to fish and I had seen just about enough. Add to that the strong SW winds and it was time to pull the plug on this area. We were going to try for walleye now and I packed everything up and left. Along the way I actually counted 14 other boats in sections of this area and was glad to be social distancing from all of them!

As soon as we arrived in the new place, I instructed them on where to cast and what to do with the dropshot. It may have taken them several missed strikes but eventually they both got the hang of it and began catching fish. There were a few that made it into the livewell and some others that had to be released. The good news was that they were both catching fish and we were away from all the other boats. We were alone too!

We spend the remainder of our time fishing a few different spots and they managed to catch enough fish for a limit of walleye. They would both be having fish for dinner!

Although this day didn’t go completely as planned, I did have a backup that worked out well. We may not have been able to get the bass we wanted but at least the walleye bite was great. In the end, they both caught plenty of fish and even managed to bring a few of them home. They would be eating good tonight!