Ending On a High Note

I hit the water a little later than usual today with Steve, Greg & Joe for a mix of fish. They were in town on business and met me at the ramp around 11:30 in the morning for a day of sunshine & high humidity. The air temps were already in the mid 80’s and eventually peaked somewhere in the 90’s by the afternoon. Along with the high humidity were the “Dog Pecker Knats” due to no winds! Water temps reached almost 74 degrees in some areas but averaged 73 where we concentrated. We began trolling for Muskie as soon as we hit the water taking advantage of the moon, but had no luck. Off to the smallie areas we went and it didn’t take too long before Steve was releasing bass on a spinnerbait. Unfortunately, he hadn’t caught them before and they didn’t count! Greg managed to get into a few of his own on a crankbait and pretty much the same thing happened there with a quick release before he finally managed to land one and that did count. Joe was getting pick ups on a senko and also managed to land a few of his own. We covered water in this area seeing a few fish here & there but none that were really large enough for my liking so I just kept moving. All 3 lures and baits were working and none better than the other until we changed locations and the crankbait out produced all. Greg had the hot hand hooking into multiple bass of all sizes and a couple of decent ones in the high 3-pound range. Steve managed to land a nice walleye of over 3 pounds on a spinnerbait and Joe captured a few smaller bass on a senko too. With the scorching heat and midge driving us all nuts, we opted for another changeup and went trolling with lighter tackle for walleye, pike & bass close by. When the first rod fired, Steve took it and lost what felt like a heavy fish before we could see what it was. I hate the unknowing! Next up was Joe and he landed a smaller walleye of a couple of pounds. We trolled for a while longer without much happening and had a couple of drive by’s but only managed to get one other small walleye and called it quits for this place. With the sun getting lower in the sky and cooler air temps, I thought we would give the muskie another try and set the lines out, trolling again. I don’t think we had them in the water for more than 10 minutes when the long line set the reel to screaming. I grabbed the rod from the holder and passed it to Greg, seeing as it was his turn and we cleared all the other lines to give him room. This fish had power as he ripped more line from the reel even with the drag locked down pretty tight. I could see be the wake behind the boat that it was a good one and waited for him to bring it along side so that I could grab it with the boga grip. The fish was well hooked and made a couple more runs as it neared before I had it safely secured. I only had to cut one hook as the other was in a location that was easily removed. A couple of quick pics before an easy release and the 43.5-inch was back to the water and bolting to the depth from where it came. Everyone was now pumped and wanted more! Unfortunately, we trolled for another hour or so without even a touch and called it a day. Although it was a hot and sticky day that physically drained all of us, it ended on a high note as Greg landed not only his first muskie, but also the largest fish of his life. Great day to be on the water!!