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A last minute cancellation opened the door for Justin and his friends to head out on the water this morning. We had talked and they were wondering if they would catch anything, as they’ve had bad experiences in the past. Hard to believe in this day and age! I assured him that whatever the weather would throw at us, they would have the time of their lives. Lately I haven’t had any game plan ready and have been making decisions on the fly. The weather has been so crazy that planning on where to go & what to do doesn’t seem to work out. I now make decisions when I arrive at the ramp in the morning! Today was no different as the winds were blowing big again and from the east, eliminating many places I had hoped to fish. I told everyone that we were making a long run and would be trolling to start the day. They didn’t seem to mind, they just wanted to catch fish! The two & three footers may have been a little bumpy getting across the lake but it was much calmer now where we were fishing. I set the lines in a deeper area and awaited our first rip. Although it didn’t come as quickly as I had hoped, it really didn’t take that long. Within the first 10 minutes someone was tight to a decent northern and things were starting to look up. I had four guys in the boat and I wanted to make sure that everyone landed plenty of fish. Their last trip was on Magog and it wasn’t very memorable! It was however quite expensive! Justin, Alex, Danny & Steven would hopefully be remembering this trip for much better reasons! As I continued the troll I realized that the fish were incredibly inactive and I knew it was going to be a grind. Most of the hits were springtime like and I had to throttle down on almost every one of them. I fished a lot of water and found areas that were holding plenty of good walleye & pike and covered it thoroughly. Many fish were landed and even a couple of doubles were had as well. At one point, while on the phone with a potential customer, we even managed a triple! This turned out to be a great selling feature as she booked up shortly after. We were only going to be out for the morning so I really didn’t want to leave fish now that I found them and remained in this area for most of the time. If the water hadn’t have been 69 degrees, I’m sure they would have caught plenty more. We had great numbers of pike & walleye and some really good ones were landed as well. It was actually hard to get a keeper walleye as most were way over and had to be released!

I had left the last hour of the morning for some casting for bass & walleye and as difficult as it may have been, they still managed to catch a few fish. Justin landed a nice smallie and lost a mooneye, which doesn’t happen very often and Danny added another keeper eye to the tank. The others had follows that never managed to get pinned. By 12:15, we were done and I packed everything up for the run back to the dock.

These guys may have had bad experiences in the past but today wasn’t one of them! They had seen first hand what great fishing can be like by targeting a specific species and catching them. They not only caught plenty but some real quality as well. They even managed to take home 3 keeper walleye! Something tells me that this won’t be the last time we see each other. There’s already talk about a return trip for sturgeon later in the season and that should have them hooked for life!

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This was the last day of the three day trip for Chris & Sam and I wanted to see if I could get them into some bigger fish . We started out the day drop shotting open water shoals in some of the best wind conditions this week! The first area only produced 1 walleye so I shifted to the second spot quickly. This place was showing life as plenty of bait & hooks were on the screen. They both landed some pretty decent fish and a couple of high end keepers in only a few drifts. Once the sonar started looking empty, I pulled the plug and ran to another distant area to throw more lures. Chris was on fire with many fish being hooked. Too bad not all of them made it to the net! The smallies were throwing the hooks pretty good and several of them got off on the jump. These fish were also really scattered and I had to cover plenty of water in order to get bit. After a while we moved again as I really wanted a big fish or two for them! Almost every place we hit showed some signs of life, but most of the fish were just average to me. They thought the fish were great though and happy to tangle with all of them! I finally managed to hit on one place that had some better bass and it seemed like they were schooled. The water looked much cleaner where we were and I think the fish were able to see the baits much better. Sam located the first fish and I held in the area while Chris pounded on them. He was hooking into fish on almost every cast and happy to be battling each one. It was here that he managed to land his biggest brownie of the trip! I’m pretty sure they were in feeding and we had arrived at the right time. He even caught a monster perch on the same bait! High numbers and quality fish for over an hour and they were in heaven! We broke for a late lunch when the action slowed and were right back at it when we were done. I noticed that the winds had increased when we resumed and ran to more areas in search of better fish. As with all the places they fished today, fish were caught everywhere. Unfortunately getting into the bigger ones was not that easy. Water levels are still way up and only a handful of them are being seen each time out. Towards the end of the day I made another long run closer to the ramp and got them into more fish once again. Luckily Chris managed another photo fish and the two today were the largest ones of their trip. Sam on the other hand picked up another over golden walleye, but couldn’t keep any of the bass pinned during the fight.

We ended the day on a high and were back at the ramp soon after. Chris & Sam had landed more fish in the three days than they could have hoped for and were heading home quite satisfied. The Royal Valet service was also awaiting our removal and I was able to drive the boat right onto the trailer once again. I could really get use to this! Don had kept my keys from earlier and seen us coming in. I think I need to create something like this service for all the other people that use the ramp. Sort of like a parking attendant that backs them in and takes them out. After all, it’s a real circus show watching most people do it themselves!

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What a day we had today! Big waves again to run in and no electric motor when we stopped to fish. After trying to trouble shoot it I finally gave up and went to the kicker for boat positioning. The fish weren’t really striking the baits very well and many came off quickly. Both Sam & Chris had their chances but were struggling on the numbers in the beginning. I moved around plenty when the wind seemed to diminish allowing me to cover water. It’s amazing what you can do when faced with challenges. No electric, no problem! Although they caught fish everywhere we went, they really weren’t active. I thought I’d give Sam & Chris a crash course on trolling and headed to an area for pike & walleye. Well it didn’t take long for the first reel to fire and it was a pike. After it was in the net the $&#@ hit the fan! I had reduced the speed in order to land the fish and somehow the main engine prop caught the other line causing the reel to go off. I thought it was the kicker and quickly shifted it into neutral before it tangled even worse. Well after trying to undo the line from the slowly turning prop on the main, I managed to break the rod tip and tangle it even more. This is where it gets worse! I had not only tangled the line and broke the rod but while shifting into neutral had popped the linkage out of position. Now the small engine was running and I wasn’t able to use it. It was actually still in forward and unable to stop. What a disaster! You gotta love Murphy! It took a while but I finally got everything fixed up and back to the troll we went. Crap happens and today it was a full load! We managed to boat many more pike & walleye in about an hour of trolling and shifted gears to casting one more time for smallies. I ran a distance and got back on them again but the bite was still the same. With the skies looking a little sketchy, I decided to make another long run to open water and drop shot for the remainder of the day. This way we could monitor the weather and dash back if need be.

They had never really used this technique before and I gave them a quick demonstration on what to do. Well they were definitely quick learners as both of them locked up on their very first pass! A couple more walleye made their way into the net and immediately returned. Back in and more hook ups both on bass & walleye. With each pass we made, at least one of them was tight lines and more often, both. On one of the passes, Chris set into something of substantial size and amazingly it turned out to be a small musky. This being his first ever he needed a few pics before it was returned unharmed. They both caught a few more fish before we pulled the plug and ended the day. It was definitely an interesting one filled with plenty of stories and the musky was the highlight, I think! Let’s hope for a little less of a disasterous day tomorrow!

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Chris & Sam had three days scheduled with me and today we got it started with a bang. As usual, the lake was giant when we took off, but no match for the Ranger! Being both from Tennessee, they were hoping for some brownie action and that’s exactly what they got. Although I wasn’t able to hit my first spot due to a zodiac anchored on it, I decided to try the open water and take the punishment from gusting winds. Well let’s just say that the weather didn’t seem to matter as Sam put a beating on the fish for over three hours. Chris held his own too and between them, they landed insane amounts of decent sized bass. They even managed to bring over a dozen walleye into the boat as well. After remaining in one area for as long as we had, I finally decided to head to another spot quite a distance away. It was still howling and the waves were 2 & 3 footers with an occasional rogue making it an interesting run. Once I arrived, I almost immediately lost confidence when I saw the grey color of the water we were now in. Although slightly better than the brown water we had hammered the bass in earlier, this area should have been clear. My worries were soon confirmed when after covering plenty of good water, they hadn’t had a touch. I decided to break for lunch and just let the boat drift while we ate and afterwards try for some largemouth. Sam managed to land one and lose a couple of others and Chris had a pike eat his bait directly under the boat, that soon came off. I had planned on going for more smallies and shifted to another offshore area to be punished once again. It wasn’t easy standing on the front deck in the rollers but it was definitely worth it. Both Sam & Chris began beating on the smallies once again and it didn’t seem to matter. They worked this area thoroughly and managed to catch a boatload more of the brown bass. With the day nearing the end, I thought I’d hit a few other areas in deeper water that I hadn’t touched this season and was glad that I had. They managed to catch several more bass and a couple more keeper walleye before we were done. Right around the time I was packing everything up, I received a text from Don asking when I was getting off  I knew exactly why and told him I’d be back at the ramp in about 5 minutes. He had dropped me in this morning and was waiting in the water when I returned. I can definitely get use to this valet service! Especially when the ramp is a zoo on the weekends! Right on cue, I just drove the boat onto the trailer and we pulled out. Now that’s service!

Although we were dealt a crappy hand weather wise, we definitely fended quite well with the fishing. With a few adjustments they were able to capture high numbers of fish throughout the day. I can deal with big winds and waves when the action is this hot, anytime! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them tomorrow!

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What a start to the day we had this morning! As soon as I had pinned the boat up at my house, the skies just opened up! Along with the downpour of rain, there was also thunder and lightning and I couldn’t help but wonder what it was doing to the fish! Fortunately when I arrived at the lake, it had all but ended and only a light drizzle was left. Another double booking today had me requesting Don’s services once again and the two of us headed out with our guests. We both went our separate ways and I decided to take Andre & Bob to an area that had produced great just the day before. I figured that the electrical storm would have made them go deeper and gave it a try. We made several drifts over the key spots and although I was marking plenty of bait & fish, neither of them ever had a strike. At one point I thought it might have been the way they were fishing but even I couldn’t tempt any fish into biting. I hit a few places and had only one small walleye from Bob to show for our efforts. I tried trolling some of the areas and even this couldn’t fire a reel. I did notice that the water was quite off color here so I ran to another section of the lake in order to find cleaner water. It obviously was the right decision as once I located what I wanted, the reels started to go off consistently. Both pike & walleye were now being caught and the first keeper went into the livewell. Unfortunately it took a while to get the second one as the next 4 or five were all overs and needed to be released. Eventually they did add a couple more to the tank and things were looking up. We stayed in this area until early afternoon catching more fish, but would have to settle for just the three before we left. I wanted to try other trolling areas and hit a few more with very few takes. With only a couple hours left in the day, I returned to drop shotting on some deeper rocks, hoping for better results. It didn’t take long to figure out that it was the right move when they doubled up! Too bad only one walleye was a keeper and the other was an under! The remaining time was spent making many drifts throughout the area and plenty more fish were hooked. About 50% of them were landed with a couple more being added to the tank. They even managed several good smallies making this an overall great day.

What had started out as a dismal start had turned into a beautiful day. Sunshine and light winds with warm temps allowed us to move around freely and put plenty of fish in the boat. Both Andre & Bob had learned a few new tricks and landed lots of fish in the process. Who could ask for a better day!