Corey and his family were with me today and oh how the conditions change! We went from picture perfect conditions yesterday to not so great today. The winds were blowing out of the SE and it was supposed to change to the S and get big. I also wanted to try for sturgeon and wasn’t sure if I would be able to hold where I wanted to fish. This was soon confirmed when I made long runs to a couple of places, unsuccessfully! We would have to settle for a troll quicker than I thought!

Several hours were spent covering water, with only a handful of fish for our efforts, before I switched up to casting for bass. As they were all novices, instructions were necessary on how to cast. We spent a couple of hours doing this on the south side of the lake, out of the wind. Limited success was had in the shallows casting soft plastics. At one point in the afternoon, the winds diminished and we made another long run back to where I had wanted to start the day. The weatherman had gotten it wrong again! Instead of the winds being 20 to 30 km per hour, the lake was now flat calm. We made a few passes. dropshotting and they managed to catch several more fish before we were chased off the water by electrical storms. This day was full of many different weather changes. It began rough with big SE winds and sunshine and ended flat calm and stormy. Talk about a roller coaster of a ride!  It’s not a wonder why everything was messed up, with the fishing. The full moon wasn’t much of a help either as it never seems to be great fishing during the day. In the end we scratched up a bunch of fish using various techniques and running all over the lake. I only hope that tomorrow things settle down, so that I can get back to normal fishing once again. Hoping for an easier day!!

Valentina joined me today just looking to catch anything that swam. Her husband had booked this trip for her as a birthday gift and she was flying solo. She just loved fishing and didn’t care what she caught! For the second day in a row, I had the pleasure of sharing the boat with another female guest and I knew the fishing could only be great!

We dropshotted our first location and it took about one minute for her to hook up. She had a nice smallie on the line and it was only the start of things to come. This technique was to be the best option for our day and things only got better. Her batting average was off the charts, with hookups all day long. The amazing part was that she landed almost everything she had on the line. With the exception of only a few, lost fish, she boated close to 100% of what bit. I don’t think I’ve ever had someone do that in all the years of fishing, myself included! There were so many bass caught that I actually lost count and they were quality fish. There were even a few walleye in the mix, while fishing the same flats.

Today was by far one of the easiest days I’ve spent with a novice fisher person. Although Valentina was a beginner, she listened to everything I said and it definitely showed in the results. By the end of the day, she had graduated with flying colors. I’m sure the next time she’s out fishing with her husband or friends, that she will out fish them as the technique she learned today, will surely give her an edge. Great catching Valentina and good luck on your next fishing adventure!!

After a great fishing vacation in the Yukon, I was right back at it this morning. Jill & Lisa were in from Florida and looking to catch just about anything. We spent the day in a perfect drift wind, dropshotting several areas on the lake. Plenty of bass were caught, along with some good walleye and perch. Although the activity levels of the fish seemed low, this slow approach did entice a bunch of fish to eat. As usual, many strikes were missed and some of the fish came off in the battle. Despite all of this, both ladies landed lots of fish and had a great time fishing up north!!

Cole and his son Tucker joined me today, hoping to catch some new species of fish. The weather looked like it was in our favor for a change, but last night’s electrical storms might be a bit of a problem. Would the fish be willing to bite today?

We started on an offshore spot and managed to catch several fish, but mostly perch. A couple of bass were landed along with a walleye, but they weren’t very active. Although I was marking plenty of fish, they didn’t seem to want to eat! I realized quickly that I would have to move around today and jumped to another shallower place for bass. Here they boated a few but Tucker managed to catch the majority doing practically nothing. Soft plastic baits dead-sticked was the ticket for him. We called it the do-nothing technique!

I had even tried a troll for an hour that only ended up producing weeds. There were so many floaters that I spent most of my time cleaning the rods! Definitely not a productive technique today!

The last couple of hours saw us dropshotting open rock shoals and they caught a mix of walleye and bass once again. Unfortunately, the wind had picked up from the west and gotten big. Regardless, the fish were biting now and we stuck it out right to the last minute. Today was a roller coaster of activity with the fish. The storms yesterday and last night definitely had them in a bit of a funk. It took almost the entire day before they became active again. Fortunately, we moved around a lot and tried various techniques to get biters. In the end, they both had a great time and landed several fish that they had never caught before. It was a tough but rewarding day!!

Another double today saw Tyler and his mother in the morning and Gilles, his wife and grandson in the afternoon. The morning trip saw us fishing for smallies on soft plastics and although tough, they still caught some good ones. The afternoon trip was cut short due to the weather, but they still managed some nice smallies as well. We fished mostly deeper water with dropshot rigs and unfortunately more bass were lost than landed. Once the thunder and lightning rolled in, we headed off the water. Too bad too, because we left them biting!!