After I dropped off my clients from this morning, I picked up an old friend with his grandson. Keith & Colton would be tagging along with me while I went searching for fish. With plenty of other clients coming up, I just wanted to locate more. I trolled new areas that I hadn’t touched this season looking for something different. The lake was completely flat calm with lots of floating grass making trolling quite difficult at times. I had to clean the rods too often and decided to relocate. I also had to raise the top with the heat & humidity! We spent what seemed like forever without a bite and I could see that Colton was getting a little bored. Keith explained to him that this happens sometimes when you’re looking for fish. At  9 years old, you just want to catch something! Well eventually I moved to deeper water and one of the rods bent. Although the reel didn’t fire, the rod bent pretty good. Colton had finally got his wish and was into a pretty large northern. After a couple of pics, we released the pike and resumed the troll. I was marking what seemed like walleye but for some reason couldn’t get a hook up. Later in the afternoon we finally got a little breeze and another reel fired off. This one was a nice smallmouth and Colton was quickly back on the rod. He had a little more difficulty reeling this fish in with how hard it was fighting. I netted the three pounder and took a few more pics before releasing it  again. Now he was happy and looking for more! We got the lines back in and went a little while longer without any action and then the wind started. It was kicking up much better that earlier creating a good chop on the water. It also felt good with the heat! When the next reel fired, it went off hard. It didn’t seem like a normal hit and I was pretty sure what it was. I handed the rod to Colton and instructed him  what to do. We brought the other lines in and awaited the confirmation. It was all he could do just to hold the rod and keep the line tight with the weight on the line. Even before we saw the fish, I knew he had his very first lunge. It was just too strong and never left the bottom. The fight went on for a while with the light line he was on, as this was supposed to be a walleye troll. Although exhausted, he quickly overcame it and went into adrenaline mode. When the fish finally jumped, he really dug deep into what strength he had left for the remainder of the battle. Keith wanted me to help but I refused and just kept on the small motor keeping him close. Colton was to battle this beast on his own! He fought it like a champ and when I finally got a chance, I put the Boga Grip on his catch. A sigh of relief was had by all as I removed the lure and prepped for a few quick pics. I kept the musky under water the whole time so that it wasn’t stressed any more than it already was. When I finally brought it aboard, It was for about 45 seconds for several quick shots and right back in for the release. It took only seconds before she kicked and swam off unharmed. No worse for wear, she made a kid’s dream a reality! I think a little later, this will sink in and Colton will realize just exactly what had happened. I know of only one other kid that has caught fish like this at his age and his dad does this all the time with his clients too. Once all the smoke had settled and things got a little calmer, I decided to call it a day. Everything else after this would just be downhill. No sense continuing after a high like this! I’m sure they had a lot to talk about on their drive back home. With all that excitement, they would be reliving every single minute of the fight. They may not have brought any walleye home for dinner, but I think this was much better. Sort of like icing on the cake!!

Another day with a big howl! It may have been less than the last couple of days, but it still blew at 20 or more knots. Tough to finesse with light presentations to say the least! We started out with a troll for some eyes and managed a couple, along with some pike of course. I switched it up a bit and hit another area after fighting the wind and tried for something larger. Bingo! Locked up with a healthy lunge and Ted’s personal best. Shortly after the release we decided to try for some bass and I took a beating on the electric motor trying to keep boat control in the open water. Ted missed several due to the wind but managed to land more than he lost. We jumped around a lot today and hit several non productive areas before returning to trolling late in the afternoon. He was hoping to take a few more walleye home and I knew just the spot. Whoever said walleye don’t fight needs to hook into a couple like we had today. these line screamers fought more like smallies than eyes. I really thought he was hooked into bass each time the reel howled. Fortunately for Ted, they weren’t and he was having fish for dinner. We ended it  after three more Walters and a good mix of fish for the day. Definitely not the easiest outing but a really productive one nonetheless!

I had to cancel yesterday’s couple due to giant winds, but managed to fit them into today. I had a group for the morning and they would be taking the afternoon. Although the waves were considerably smaller than yesterday for the start, they would grow by the afternoon once again. I headed out with Remy, his dad and brother to see what kind of damage yesterday’s big blow had unleashed on the lake. It didn’t take long to figure out that the fish were going to play hard to get! We trolled a couple of key areas and managed only a few pike and even they were terrible hits. I had lost more water temp and it was now down to 69 degrees. I fished shallow, mid and even deeper but was only picking a bite here & there. They managed to land a couple of walleye in one spot and I was marking plenty more. I even resorted to drop shotting and that too went untouched. In a last ditch effort I relocated to slightly deeper water and tried to vertically drop shot. It was here that they had several bites and a few bass and walleye came aboard. Given more time, I’m sure fishing would have improved and the numbers would have also climbed, but we ran out of time. The morning shift was officially over and I had to change the lineup for the afternoon. We headed back, through heavy boat traffic and bigger waves for the meet.

The afternoon saw Juliana and her husband Ely in the boat. We had postponed their trip from yesterday due to the weather and rescheduled it for today. Although the wind was bad, it was still better than the ocean we saw when we met at the docks the day before. Between the boat traffic, sailboats and wind, I knew I had to go somewhere far in order to fish. I thought largemouth would be a good choice and ran to the other side of the lake in hopes of escaping some of the wind. Well we may have had less waves but the wind was still pretty bad. Very little protection from the blow was seen as they fan casted various weeds. It was difficult to target specific places and lots of good water was missed. There was one area however where several decent largemouth were caught and or lost. We spent considerable time in here hoping not to have to go back on the open lake. Unfortunately it was inevitable! We left the somewhat sheltered weeds and crossed back over to the ocean. Hard to believe, but it had gotten worse since we started and I was forced to try another troll. The water had muddied up pretty bad and the rollers were terrible but we tried regardless. We hooked up pretty quickly with a decent keeper sized eye and I really thought we were going to get into them. Too bad mother nature had other ideas because it was damn near impossible to stay on my waypoints in this wind. I couldn’t make turns properly and trolling into the wind was next to impossible unless I wanted to swamp the boat. Several times we had some water come over the bow while trying. I was in 3 to 4 footers and decided to give drifting with a drop shot a try instead. Once set up they dropped down and I instructed them on what to do. A couple of bites were missed before Ely managed to get another walleye. It was also difficult because of suspended grass in the water column and they were forced to check their lines quite often. I eventually had to pull the plug here and try elsewhere! The last spot of the day was where we had ended the morning trip but now the waves were about double in size. A vertical drop shot with the kicker in reverse to maintain the presentation wasn’t as easy as it was earlier in the day. I had occasional rogue waves coming over the back while trying to maintain control. Once again Ely managed to get another walleye from here before we had to call it. They had plans this evening and had to be somewhere by a certain time. The fishing proved to be a challenge today as both groups experienced some of the toughest fishing so far this year. With conditions so inconsistent, it’s hard to adjust constantly. Water temps are up & down and never stable. Above all of this though, it has to be the intense winds that are the worst as most people have a hard time detecting bites. Tomorrow should see less traffic and hopefully reduced winds as well. Crossing my fingers!!

Another long weekend should have had plenty of boat traffic, but surprisingly not! Ed and his nephew Dan met me at 7:00 and we went in search of walleye. They were hoping to take some home and I didn’t want to disappoint them. Cooler air and zero wind greeted us for the start, but that wasn’t what I wanted. The first three spots proved to be useless but the 4th one was definitely holding some fish. The water temps fell below 70 degrees overnight and I was seeing terrible hits once again. Short rips or just a few clicks of the reel had me throttling down to lock them up. In fact some of the eyes never even made a sound. They were just found when I checked the lines! I was marking a number of fish here and decided to concentrate on trolling this spot for a while. Dan & Ed managed to boat a number of walleye and things were coming together. Once this place stopped producing, I moved to another and unfortunately just one walleye was added to the livewell. There were a number of northerns and smallies caught but that wasn’t what we wanted. I really covered water looking for more but came up short in all but a few places. By mid afternoon I headed back to the one area that had put out the bulk of the walleye and picked up a few more. After it slowed again, I decided to try drop shotting to see if they could get some of the more negative fish. Dan had wanted to learn how to do this and was a fast learner as he hooked up quickly. They both caught a bunch of aggressive smallies that put up great battles. Although not what we were after, fun nonetheless! Dan even managed to get a small walleye, but it was just under the slot and returned. I wanted to put them on more walleye and moved to another spot to drop shot again. Here too they landed smallies and Dan brought to net a good keeper eye. Ed also hooked a good one but lost it before it was at the boat. We fished for a little longer, then I tried to see if I could locate the sturgeon schools again. Unsuccessful at this and with a storm approaching, we decided to get off the water. It had been a productive day with a bunch of fish landed and some of them were even going home for dinner. We timed the take out just right because it was upon us as we left the ramp. Another good timing thing I guess!

A wicked cold front today had the fish all messed up! Scott, Corey & Obi had planned this trip several weeks back and were looking forward to getting into some easy fishing. Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans for them. This is the first time in my life that I saw a 360 degree change in the wind throughout the day. What had started out from the NE eventually turned clockwise hitting every direction until finally stopping NW. At times it blew pretty good kicking up 2 & 3 footers. The sturgeon weren’t jumping nearly as much as in days past and they weren’t even marking like usual. I hit several areas and covered miles of water searching for schools only to find small groups instead. Despite all of this, a few were still landed. With one storm front after another coming in, we managed to dodge the bullet several times with only a light sprinkle. I made a decision late in the morning to go to a troll and set up for some walleye. This too wasn’t what I was accustomed to and only managed a half dozen of them. I once again covered plenty of water looking for schools and came up empty in the process. Only pike were being caught now as I continued to search for more eyes. As with before I pulled the plug and tried looking for the sturgeon once again. I covered plenty of water in search of these fish and really used the electronics for them. I was marking some, but no concentration again! Later in the afternoon I stopped looking and just went for bass. With rods in hand they began casting various lures and soft plastics and at least got to battle many bronze beauties. Unfortunately this too was short lived when the electric motor started making grinding noises in the foot, causing me to change up one more time. We were going to attempt another troll, but this was cut short when thunder was heard in the distance. We had two different storm cells around us and were lucky to be in the middle, in the sunshine. I could see from afar that the boat ramp area I use was getting pounded with rain. Lucky for us, our arrival was just after it stopped! I spoke to someone that was about to launch his boat and he said that they waited in their van for about 45 minutes during the torrential downpour. Dodged another bullet! We pulled out and all agreed, timing was key! Despite the constant search for fish today, they still managed to scrape up many good ones and definitely had a variety of species landed. Tough conditions and really challenging to say the least!! A camera malfunction today had limited pics, sorry!