Rock & Roll Trolling

Scott & his son Zane joined me today on a totally opposite one from yesterday! The humidity had layed down and the winds intensified to 20 & 30 knots from the west rolling the lake pretty good. Although the air temps were in the mid 80’s once more, the waves were definitely a major factor while fishing. We tried bass for a while but decided to switch it up to trolling after catching just a few. The area that I had done so well in just a few short hours yesterday was actually full of floating weeds and moss & too difficult to keep the lines clean. We attempted to fish there for over an hour and managed one small Muskie of 36 inched and a 3 pound smallmouth. We also had a hard time keeping waves from rolling over the bow while trolling into the wind and decided to hit another area instead. Here we casted for bass but only caught a few with all the moss drifting from the wind and lost several more as well. Eventually, I decided to relocate further away in hopes of slightly smaller waves and tried trolling another area for pike and walleye. This proved to be the right choice as we were in only 1 to 2 foot waves and it was definitely a doable thing! It didn’t take long before we had a couple of rods go off and Zane was into northern pike one after the other. We also had several doubles with the best one being a big pike and a walleye of almost 7 pounds. This was the largest walleye Scott had ever taken and Zane had a 7 pound pike as well. After several quick pics we released both fish unharmed to fight another day. For the next few hours we were into fish every few minutes and Zane was one happy camper. He muscled these fish in one after the other and the only way his dad got to reel one in was when they had two reels fire off together. Thankfully, we had many doubles! Zane wanted to catch a walleye, so we stuck it out a little longer knowing that the odds were in our favor too hook into one and we did. Although the pike seemed to fight better, he was glad to land a 3 pounder and after releasing it, called it a day. Despite all the miserable weather conditions we were dealt with, it still turned out to be a great day on the water. Scott had landed his first ever Muskie and the largest walleye of his life, all in the same day. Zane on the other hand had caught so many fish trolling that I think he might want to do it more. He started out not too willing while in the rough water earlier, but was converted when we got into them real good. By making several adjustments we were able to monopolize on a technique and area that finally worked & this saved the day!!