Scott & Peter were to be fishing with me today finally, after several previous postponements. We met at the ramp right around 8 after last night’s outing & very little sleep and proceeded to get into fish almost immediately. Winds were out of the SW at 5 to 10 knots but were unfortunately scheduled to go lighter throughout the day. It may have only been in the 70’s but the humidity made it a whole lot stickier. Sunshine and slight cloud cover occasionally were what we fished in through the entire day with the emphasis on the sun. Peter wasn’t much more alive as he finished his shift at 2 this morning and probably could have used a few more hours of shut eye too! As with most days lately, the reels were firing right on cue but this time the first several fish were smallies up to almost 4 pounds. We even had a double bass bite that made for a nice pic too! I actually moved from this area in search of walleye as they too wanted to learn more about how to catch these fish. Right on cue, they hit and we were soon changing from bass to Walters as the rods were kept bent while the wind blew. Several hours of bass, walleye, pike and even another small Muskie had everyone entertained until it stopped. Right on cue, the bite went out like a light when the wind died, making my life that much more difficult. To add to that scenario, we had a ton of floating grass and that really sucked. I was forever cleaning the lines due to the vegetation. We went from active fish biting every few minutes to working hard for just a few bites each half hour. They weren’t even really hitting hard as several were drive byes or they got off on the way in. It’s amazing how they can be affected that much with a subtle change like the lack of wind! Except for a little flurry of activity that lasted less than an hour, we struggled for the remainder of the afternoon from about 2 o’clock on. We did manage to land several more fish but with the flat calm conditions, high humidity and those damn “Dog Pecker Knats”, we were wasted. By 4:30 we had just about enough and called it with another double header. One walleye and a northern and we were on our way. The boat traffic was also a bit of a pain as I was constantly adjusting my troll due to all the other boats just playing around. You can’t blame them though as it was really a nice day to be on the lake. Overall, just another day in paradise!!

I wasn’t suppose to be fishing today with the evening planned at the annual “Strangers in The Night” gala, but went out for six hours with Max & Julie in search of the elusive walleye. Julie had wanted to catch walleye and hadn’t been very successful with her family before, but today would be a different story. We hit the water at 7 and the first rod to fire was a nice northern of around 6 pounds. Not what we were looking for and right back it went. I was happy to see a good wind from the SW at 10 to 20 knots and hoped that it would last the entire day. Overcast skies were what we were in pretty much the entire day and even a light drizzle fell at times. The air temps were in the upper 60’s and may have climbed into the 70’s in the afternoon. Water temps were right around the same as yesterday and wouldn’t get much warmer with all these clouds. Reels were firing like popcorn throughout the morning and both Julie & Max were catching their fair share of bass, pike and many walleye. Julie couldn’t believe just how many walleye they were catching and looked at Max rather strangely when she saw how easy it actually was. Right location, proper lures and trolling speed and the fish would come! She definitely landed the largest one at around 5 pounds but max had the largest fish of the day when he landed a small Muskie closer to 10. They both caught many fish and by 1:00 P.M. we finished up with another double and called it a day. What was supposed to be a wet day actually turned out to be a great day on the water and we stayed dry! Gotta love the weather forecasters as they may eventually get a day right!!

I was back on the lake this morning with Ed & Ted looking for a few walleye for them to take home and eat. Along with the walleye, we were hoping for a bunch of smallies and some pike, which would be released of course! Ted had driven close to 10 hours through the night just to join us on this spectacular waterway. Ed had fished with me before and informed him of just how good the fishing was and both were looking forward to getting into fish. We got a later than usual start, were fishing before 9:30 A.M. and locked up just minutes later. The first fish was a smallie of almost 4 pounds and Ted was the fortunate one to battle this acrobatic beauty. A quick pick and right back she went! The weather started out with a nice chop from the 10 knot west winds but layed down by mid day. Air temps were in the 80’s and the water temps reached 67 degrees in most areas. We spent several hours trolling up pike, walleye and of course smallies and put a few walleye in the boat for their dinner tonight before we opted for casting for smallies. A quick run to another region of the lake and we began catching bass, but not the size I was looking for and I relocated once again. This time the first couple of fish to come into the boat were also walleye and not the bass we were looking for again. Another couple of moves with more action from bass, pike and even walleye and we were calling it a day. Oh yeah, even the Muskie got into the mix as Ed managed to land his first ever lunge. By 5:30 we were feeling the heat and decided to call it a day. It was another multi species one, full of action from just about everything that swam and we took full advantage of the full moon bite!!

A road trip for the bass opener today and I met my guests on a distant lake to try & tackle some feisty smallies. It was to be a two day stint and I was sure we would fend well. Air temps began in the 60’s but climbed well into the 80’s in the afternoon. Winds were out of the S/W at 10 to 20 knots causing quite a chop on the lake, but nothing the Ranger couldn’t handle! Curt had fished with me last weekend locally for pike & walleye and had a blast. This trip he had brought Eric who had accompanied him last season at the same time and they were pumped after their first visit. Unfortunately, last year the spawn was a little later and the fishing was real simple for everyone. This time it was to prove to be a real challenge as the fish were in a post spawn mode and reluctant to aggressively bite. We fished our butts off covering just about every possible alley and never really got into the biggest ones of the lake. Although we did manage many bass, the largest ones would have only made the 4 pound range and that wasn’t good enough for me. Plenty of northern pike were taken today along with the bass but the lake left me with an empty feeling and I wasn’t happy. I’m not sure if the water visibility made a difference today but it was probably the dirtiest I had ever seen on the lake and all the floating grass & debris didn’t help either. We made a decision to regroup and change tactics for tomorrow and called it a day around five. Day two saw us back at the crack of 6:30 A.M. ready to put a beating on them just like they did to us yesterday. I thought we would try & see if we might find an active brown or rainbow lurking high in the water column and tried fly rod trolling for the first hour of the day. Unfortunately it didn’t pan out and after 45 minutes we threw in the towel. Bass was the target species and we wanted revenge! I decided to hit the secondary drops in hopes of finding some of the post spawn fish recovering and hopefully feeding. Both Curt & Eric threw spinnerbaits and I tried swimming a spider jig in the deeper water to try & entice something into eating. After almost 90 minutes of washing baits and frustration, I switched locations and began throwing to the outside edges of new weeds and this is where Eric had a huge follower closer to what we were searching for. It was definitely over 5 but we’ll never know as the fish refused to eat and disappeared to where she came from immediately. By switching it up we were able to get into some decent fish all over but I still couldn’t lock onto the mother load. I even tried some deeper cliff points and ledges hoping for suspended fish without success. Eric did however have either a small salmon or rainbow chase down his lure and a really huge northern in the 15 to 20 pound class that left him looking like a deer in the headlights. As a last resort I headed shallow looking for weed beds and this is where we remained for the afternoon. It was also where we saw the most action with both northerns and really nice smallies. Just like the big northern, Eric had a giant of a smallie follow his spinnerbait back to the boat leaving him all messed up for quite a while. Although I didn’t see the fish he claimed that this was the biggest smallie he had ever seen and looked to be in the 7 pound class. We decided right then and there that we would not be leaving this area for the remainder of the day! We had found a small patch of weeds next to deep water and it was loaded with baitfish. They would bust the surface constantly when a predator was around showing us where to cast. This was also to be the most productive location with numbers of bass & pike being caught. A couple of smallies were over 4 pounds from spinnerbaits and even top water. With the strong winds present, they were busting bait and we were monopolizing on the feeding activity. This one area salvaged the entire trip and I was surely glad to have finally located some active fish. We fished till about 5:30 and called it a day when the winds had layed down and the skies threatened heavy rains. Good thing too as I drove away from the ramp just when it let loose! Overall it was a decent trip thanks to the one particular area at the end of day two. All I can say is “Never Give Up”!!!

Full boat today with Tom & his two sons, Patrick & Danny & a very interesting day! We began at the crack of ten and fished through the extreme heat of the day until about 3:30 P.M. all the while picking at them. It was nice to finally have a spread with 4 rods and I really saw the difference while trolling the lake. The weather started a little damp early this morning with rain falling, causing us to wait it out as late as we did. By the time we hit the water we were in only cloud & sun with a wind of 10 to 15 knots from the north. Air temps reached well into the 80’s and in the afternoon, the lake layed down flat bringing out those elusive “dog pecker knats” to torment us while fishing. Water temps were around 65 degrees and floating weeds and debris made the trolling a little more difficult, but we managed. The first rod to fire came next to Patrick and he was soon battling what we thought was a decent walleye. To our amazement, it turned out to be a 38 inch Muskie and after a quick pic, returned unharmed. One day shy of the season opener, not that it would have a difference! Pike and many walleye were caught in the next several hours along with several smallies that were roaming the same areas as well. Also one day shy of the opener too! It seemed that we were in a mixed array of fish species today and we even threw in a few perch just for good measures. Overall it was a productive one with plenty of action throughout and lots of memories for them to take away. All days should be this easy!!