Today I had a family booked for an afternoon trip, so I decided to head out a little earlier and do some scouting. They would be calling around noon and I would meet them at the dock. Christiane & I fished for about 3 hours and managed to land several walleye while drop shotting that we would have for dinner tonight. Once the call came in before noon, I dropped her off and picked up the group of three. By now the winds had picked up considerably and were blowing from the NW at about 15 knots with gusts to 25. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be able to do but I knew I would get it done! Emilia & Sorin had brought their son Josh, who was interested in fishing and I wanted to make sure he had a great time. As we were 4 people in the boat, I thought I would give trolling a try and see if we could hook up on a few walleye for them to take home. The conditions were terrible with big waves from a cross direction but I managed to get one reel to fire and he landed his very first eye. It went into the livewell with the others from this morning and I reset the line to try for more. It didn’t seem like it was happening and the rough conditions made it even more difficult, so I decided to pull the rods and go for bass instead. I would have had to cover lots of water and it just didn’t seem worth it in these conditions. The next area should have been good but with wind against current, we had 3 footers everywhere. Again I ended this quickly and hoped for calmer water further away. The run wasn’t easy with the ship & cruiser waves but once we arrived, I realized that we could at least fish here. I had to instruct everyone on what to do from the basics and eventually they caught on. As this day was geared towards Josh, I focused my attention on him and it paid off. He eventually got a better understanding on how to cast and feel the take and in no time he was landing smallies on his own. Although Sorin did manage to land a nice bass, both he and his wife Emilia were watching more than they were fishing. Between videos and pictures, they were occupied most of the time! Josh on the other hand was so into this that he just kept casting and catching for the remainder of the day. He boated several really nice ones with one of them over 4 pounds too! We decided to call it quits before 5:00 after Josh landed one last fish. Although he missed many, he definitely landed his share today. Hopefully this will inspire him to continue to fish and he will learn even more. The run back was what I thought it would be with three & four footers from the NW the entire way. Once again we were back to big winds after three days of almost flat calm. Maybe one of these days we can compromise with « Mother Nature » and settle somewhere in the middle! Either way, today was a great day for Josh & his parents as he finally got his wish and landed a bunch of quality fish. They even had a good one going home with them for dinner tonight!!

I had Peter back again today and this time he had his nephew Mike along for the ride. They would be fishing a half day morning and I wasted no time racing to our first spot. High heat & humidity overnight held the water temps at 76 degrees and the morning air was already sticky. Sunshine was upon us as they cast their lines in hopes of catching some nice smallies. Mike had brought along his bait caster and after seeing how it performed, I had to try & tweak it for him. I did all that I could and increased the distance but a good cleaning and more line to fill the spool was what he really needed. Peter didn’t wait and was into a nice bass almost immediately. Even before we were on the spot he managed to hook a roaming smallie and was fighting a nice one to start the day. He also managed to get the second, third and even fourth before Mike ever hooked up. In fact he may have even caught the fifth one before Mike landed his first! All I know is that he was on fire and so were the smallies. The soft plastic bait he was throwing was performing well and I had to switch Mike up to one in order for him to get in the game. Well it didn’t take long for him to hook into several fish, but landing one was a different story. They were not staying pinned and getting off before the boat giving him a little frustration. Eventually he managed to keep a few on and brought them to net. Finally fish worthy of photos! Peter on the other hand was still getting plenty of attention from the bass and even landed a couple more. Overall they must have lost 75% of the ones that they had chances at, but they still caught a bunch. The winds had began this morning, blowing out of the SE and eventually rotated to the west and increased considerably. When this switch happened, we had more lookers and very few takers. In fact most of the bigger ones seemed like they didn’t want any part of what we were throwing, by paying no attention at all. Some of them barely followed and never really attempted to attack it either. I changed baits several times and each time the results were the same. Finally I decided to move to another area nearby in hopes of getting them into a few more fish before we had to go. It didn’t take long before Peter landed a small one, but at least we had some action. I had begun to make a few casts in order to see if it was them or the fish and hooked up almost immediately. A quick switch of lures on Mike’s rod had him missing a couple more. One of them was a real giant too! Peter was also having a difficult time getting anything as well and it wasn’t until I was prepping everything to leave that he almost closed with another giant. Unfortunately he set too early and we watched the fish turn and swim off, back into the deeper water nearby. What was supposed to be a 7 till noon trip turned out to be extended by 90 minutes as I didn’t realize how late it had gotten. With no afternoon booking scheduled, it really didn’t matter as we were on fish and I just wanted them to catch! It sure felt nice running back to the dock with the insane temperatures we were having. A little breeze goes a long way and a big one feels even better! Overall this day started with a bang but ended slowly. Thankfully we had that rally in the beginning to carry us through the dead period we experienced afterwards. Oh well, we’ll get em next time!!

I had a customer from the past back today for a little confidence building. Luc was to learn a few new techniques that he would be able to apply to future trips on his local body of water. A little knowledge goes a long way, along with the confidence he would get today! We hooked up at 7:00 and headed to our first spot to start the day. I thought he should start with a blade bait and within his first couple of casts, it produced. A missed hit was enough to show me that these fish would eat the bait and on the very next cast, he was locked up. It didn’t take long for the bass to throw the hooks though when a leap in the air had him unpinned. Several casts later he nailed another and this one made it all the way to the net for his first of many fish of the day. A couple more fish were also missed shortly after until a refinement had him back in the game. I set up the rods with soft plastics and made a few casts myself in order to show him what he needed to do in this area and hooked into one on the very first cast. Shortly after Luc also locked up and we had a double. What a great start to the day and it had only just begun! I covered the water in this area completely for a while until it just went dead. Time to relocate and the teaching part would begin! I was going to show him how to fish with a drop shot both casting and vertically. This technique would be something that would put many more fish in the boat for him on future trips throughout the year. I also fished alongside him for a while to show him exactly what he needed to do and hooked another fish on the very first cast. Now that’s a demonstration! Once he positioned his rod correctly and slowed down, he too was hit and landed his very first walleye of the day. Looks like someone would be having fish for dinner! We kept at this for a while and put a couple more eyes in the livewell and Luc even managed to catch a decent smallie as well. Another technique accomplished! Next on the list was a vertical presentation and it didn’t take long before we hooked up. Although I wasn’t marking many fish in the deeper water, there were enough sightings on the sonar to keep me interested. After I landed a couple of smallies, Luc too hooked into one of his own and another understanding of a new method was had. He managed to catch a nice smallmouth and a smaller walleye a little later. We hit one more deeper area and landed a couple more smallies before switching gears completely. This time we went to an area where he would be throwing soft plastics once again and as usual, it didn’t take long to bend a rod. Smallie after smallie were on him and many more quality fish were boated for the remainder of the afternoon. By 4:00 we called it quits as both of us were exhausted from the heat of the day. A lack of wind increased the temperatures and the sunshine just baked us completely. The run back felt great as it was the coolest either of us had felt in hours. Luc had also graduated with high honors as he passed every test with flying colors. I’m sure the next time he goes out on his local water he will find it much easier. I’m looking forward to hearing his report!!

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with 3 generations of Robinson’s! Larry, his son Jeff and his grandson Dylan were going to experience some great fishing! The day began flat calm and comfortable air temps were upon us as we headed out looking for a shot at the elusive musky. Despite all our efforts, it wasn’t to happen and I pulled the plug on these creatures in about 90 minutes of lure washing. I wasn’t about to waste the day looking for a possible bite or two and switched gears to something much more reliable. A quick instruction on the soft plastics and it was game on. Dylan & Larry were up front with me and locked up almost immediately. Double header on bass and it was just starting! They both landed several more but Jeff still hadn’t gotten bit yet. It wasn’t until Larry gave up his front spot that he was to finally hook up. It was also a really nice one and everybody was finally on the board. We moved around and more fish were taken but mostly by Dylan. For some reason he was the one with the hot hand, but the others were getting their shots too. Larry managed to land the biggest smallie overall from here, after many others were missed. When we had exhausted all of the possible easy biters, I decided to relocate to another place further away. Along our route with the electric motor, we passed over several sturgeon, smallies and ironically even saw a musky of about 43 inches swimming. To make matters worse, it was only about a couple of hundred yards from where we had trolled earlier. Hateful creatures! Our next stop was a place that I had been to with clients a few days earlier and I hoped it would still be good. The fish were all big here and unfortunately all we ended up getting were sightings as they took to the air and threw the hooks. The five or six fish hooked all managed to get off before coming to the net. Not long after we changed spots again and went to a big flat that was loaded with bass. This was to be our last stop as they were into bass for the remainder of the afternoon. Larry & Jeff were picking at them constantly but it was « Big Bird » that was putting on a clinic with the number of fish he was catching. Dylan was feeling the pain as he wasn’t getting even a single bite for quite a while. The others had slowed down their presentations and the slower approach was working for them. A little fine tuning and a friendly side bet and Dylan would be getting it done. The next fish was worth 5 bucks from each and incentive was apparently what it took for him to land it. Dylan had gone from a long dry spell to making money! His dad Jeff was about to make an impact as well with back to back beasts. We saw a couple of big cruisers and with a little guidance on how to lead them, he managed to catch the largest fish of the day, twice! Several others were landed by each of them before we called it a day. Four o’clock came around pretty quickly and they had dinner reservations at a restaurant nearby. We packed up & headed back to the dock and were on the road before 4:30. I was bringing walleye for them for the appetizer and we met back up before 5:30. The entire day couldn’t have gone better with the beautiful weather, company and great fishing we had. Everyone looked exhausted at dinner, but fulfilled from their outing. I guess you can say that all the stars were aligned today as the three generations got together for a phenomenal day of R & R. Oh yeah the fishing wasn’t bad either!!

Fred & Chris joined me this morning for a difficult day of fishing. Instead of the usual 3 to 4 footers, we were blessed with flat calm and dog pecker knats. Throw in air temps in the upper 80’s with high sunshine and you have a recipe for hell. They decided at the start that walleye was what they wanted and we went trolling immediately. At first there was a light wind out of the NE that gave us a little chop on the water and I thought it was going to be easy. I soon found out that it was anything but simple and covered all kinds of water in order to get bit. Shallow to deep and everything in between was where we fished and it was tough. I’m sure I could have switched to bass and done well casting elsewhere, but we were committed to trolling and I would make it happen! Chris had first crack at the walleye and almost got it to the net before the hooks just pulled free and away she went. Fred managed to get a couple of others into the net a little later and at least they had dinner for tonight. I eventually moved out to slightly deeper water in hopes of locating a school but it never happened. Instead the reel fired and I knew what Chris had on the other end by the way it went out. It was to be his first musky and we all hoped it would end well. After several minutes we caught a glimpse and it was definitely a good one. Too bad it was on 12lb test! After a few more minutes it came up to the surface and the hooks pulled free. It was to end in disappointment, but at least we got to see what was on the other end of the line. We resumed the troll and I eventually found some fish for them. It was a mix of bass & walleye and they were getting a few more hits, finally! We stuck to the area until the end and had a couple more fish that hit hard but just got off. Today was one of the most difficult days so far this year and if it wasn’t for the wind picking up slightly in the afternoon for about an hour, it may have been even worse. Most of our bites occurred when this happened and went dead when it died. Despite these conditions, they managed to land several good fish and ended up taking some of them home for dinner. It was still a good day to be on the water!