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I had two groups today with the morning trip focussing primarily on trolling for northern pike. Paval and his family enjoyed some great action for these toothy critters! His son, Daniel had a birthday and this was his wish. He wanted to go fishing and the four of them spent 4 hours landing many fish. His mother Oksan and sister Alice also contributed to the numbers. Alice had a rough time though because each time it was her turn, two fish were always lost before she landed the third. This even happened three times! Talk about the power of three!

Once we were done with the trolling, I decided to try a little drop shotting for the remaining hour or so and apparently it was a good idea. Several more fish were landed and most of them were bass. A couple of walleye also came aboard and one of them was actually in a pike’s mouth. I netted both of them as Paval actually had hooked the walleye. The pike didn’t even have the hook in its mouth!

I held out right till the last minute and Daniel finally caught a nice bass just before we had to leave! Back to the dock to drop the family off and pick up my afternoon clients!

Paul & his son Ryan came out with me and I headed right back to where I had just ended. No need to go searching for fish as I was already on good ones!

I set them up with a drop shot and showed them what to do. As we drifted over the deep flats, fish after fish were lost by both of them. Somehow they were dropping almost all the bass they were hooking into and some of them were definitely big! Once they got the hang of it however, they managed a double and were finally on the board. Too bad they went back to losing them again, right after!

I decided to spend the afternoon working the area with different passes as there were plenty of fish around. Multiple drifts had them hooking up constantly and although most were lost, some of them did make their way to the net. Both walleye and bass were targeted and both were landed!

We had started out in a SW wind that had the fish on fire and once it changed to a NW, the bite slowed and I had to search for the active fish again. Each pass saw some fish caught but most were either missed or just lost. My drifts were also shorter due to the winds pushing me away from my waypoints, causing me to reposition the boat often. It also made me drop the electric motor in just to keep the boat angled, so they could fish effectively!

The time flew by and before we knew it, the day was done. They had chances at 40 or more fish and managed to play with most of them, but only for a brief time. I saw many jump off as they tried to reel them in. Despite losing a huge percentage off fish, they both had a great time. In fact everyone today enjoyed their 4 hour trip and left completely satisfied.

It’s not always about the size or number of fish you catch, but rather the time you experience while fishing. Today was a perfect example of that as both groups now have great memories of their time on the water. They also have a couple of new techniques that may aid them in future outings. There’s even talk about returning for another trip in the future! Possibly for a much larger species of fish too! Only time will tell but I think I will be seeing them again before the season is done!

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John & Carlo were with me today, on the hunt for all kinds of fish. They were open for anything so I decided to get them into a bunch of different species!

We hit the first area drop shotting and perch, walleye and bass were landed. Although not overly large, they did manage to livewell a couple of eyes for their dinner tonight.

Our second spot was a little slow, but some nice fish were also landed here by drop shotting as well. Both bass & walleye came to net and were released. In fact, the best bass actually followed the bait back to the boat and was caught by dropping back down. It provided John with quite a battle!

With the lake getting calm, I decided to switch it up and we headed to another area to troll. This would also give them a break from casting for a while. I on the other hand would be clearing & setting lines frequently with all the weeds floating on the surface!

A good number of pike were taken on this method, along with a few walleye as well. They had plenty of action trolling as we stuck with it for several hours. Along the way there were even a couple of double headers which was nice to finally see! With the water remaining cold for so long this season, I hadn’t experienced it too many times!

With limited time remaining in the day, I decided to return to our starting area and see if the fish had become more active. We now had more wind and it would make for a better drift through the spot. I hadn’t realized however that it was on a change from SW to NW and ran there in washing machine like waves. We were receiving them from two different directions like heavy boat traffic would produce!

In the time they had left to fish, we were able to make many more drifts over the shoals and catch a pile more fish. Once again, they landed walleye, perch and some decent smallies, with many more fish being either missed or lost too.

Today was a good one for numbers, despite a rather slow start to the morning. It seemed like the bite got better as the water warmed and more fish were caught later in the day. In the end however, they both had a great time playing with all kinds of fish on a couple of techniques. They even managed to take 5 nice keeper walleye home with them for dinner tonight! Just another great day for fishing!

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Art was solo today and managed to land a good number of smallmouth bass on a couple of different presentations. Due to the wind blowing from the NE at the start, we were forced to resort to casting soft plastics. A cold front had come in overnight and drifting was completely out of the question!

Art had been looking to beat his personal best smallie and at only two pounds, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. He landed all kinds of smaller fish on the lures and a few that definitely were bigger.

We hit many areas casting and were able to drop shot one specific place when the winds layed down. Here we managed to get into a mix of walleye & bass and it was quite plentiful at times!

Overall the day was a success with a good number of fish being landed for only one person in the boat. I even casted at times, just to catch a few myself! In the end, I put a good keeper walleye in the livewell to bring home for dinner tonight! What a great way to finish off a perfectly relaxing day on the water!

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Jonathan & Derek were with me today for another scorcher, roller coaster of a day. We started out in a big NW wind with heavy overcast skies, right after a storm had passed. I tried trolling an area but soon found out that the fish just didn’t want to bite here. Plan B!
We headed to a distant spot in hopes of better fishing, in almost flat calm conditions. Once we arrived, the lake became a mirror once again! I covered the water and they managed to get to play with many pike but only one walleye. Very surprising indeed!
With the heat finally getting to us, and those damn dog pecker knats all over, I decided to go casting for bass instead. A couple of spots later and the fish either small or non-existent, we pulled the plug on this as well. Time to head to open water and try drop shotting!
The winds had increased considerably and now we were back to the big NW one more time! Fortunately it worked in our favour as plenty more fish were landed in the time remaining. Multiple drifts were made over various depths and walleye, bass & pike were brought to net. Oh yeah, many fish were missed or lost too!
Despite the intense heat and weekend boat traffic, they had a great time catching all kinds of fish. I think Derek even caught a perch giving him three species for the day! Great fishing all around!

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July 19th 2019

Fished every day this week but no reports, sorry!
Today however I had Eric & Caroline in the boat for a very strange weather day! We started drifting for bass & walleye, but the lack of wind made it feel like we were anchored. One bass later, I headed to an area and switched to trolling.
Flat calm conditions even made it difficult to troll but we did manage to get a bunch of pike and one nice walleye. Scorching hot conditions had me raising the top but there was very little relief. No wind had the dog pecker knats out in full force and sticking to us from the high heat & humidity!
Eventually the winds picked up and I headed back to open water, to resume drop shotting. For the remainder of the day, we drifted over deep water shoals and they hooked plenty of fish. Unfortunately most of them were lost on the way to the boat, but they did manage to land quite a few as well. A mix of walleye and bass with one lost northern made it into the net!
As the afternoon passed, the winds got considerably stronger and the waves became three footers. Although a little difficult, we made it work and kept at it right until 3:30, before we called the day. It was a real scorcher without the top up and the breeze of moving felt great. I couldn’t raise it with the winds as we would have been moving way too fast to get a good drift. Thoughts of using a drift sock crossed my mind but we braved the elements and just hydrated more by drinking plenty of water.
This was definitely the hottest day so far and hopefully it will continue to heat up the water, setting the fish up in their summer patterns. It’s been a grind each day with the ever changing conditions and wind directions. A little stability would be nice for a change, but I’ll deal with whatever Mother Nature has to offer. After all, she has the final say in this matter!