Taking A Plunge

After a not too disappointing cancellation for today, Christiane & I headed out for a little pleasure fishing on our own. A leisure launch of around 9:30 had us fishing a little later than I am use to, but we were in no rush! The weather was a scorcher already and with the lack of wind was only going to get worse. Sunshine and occasional clouds surrounded us throughout the day as we fished for a variety of species. We began by trolling an area I hadn’t been fishing for almost 2 weeks and had a confirmation almost immediately with a four pound smallmouth bass. Christiane battled this angry creature all the way to the net, but not without chaos as it tangled in the other line along the way. We took a few quick pics and set the lines back out in hopes of a few more. Three more smallies were hooked in the next 20 minutes but they were all slightly smaller than the first one and no pics were needed. I really wanted a confirmation on the walleye here and kept at it for a little while longer looking for old yeller! Another reel fired soon after and this one was definitely acting like a walleye as Christiane reeled the fish back to the boat for a sure confirmation. Not only was it the right species but it was also a biggun! Once in the net I was glad to see that there were still some of these big fish hanging around and despite the not so perfect conditions, eager to eat. Another few quick pics and we released the almost 27 inch eye, back to swim again. I set the lines back and started trolling the area more to try & get another one of equal or better size but this was not to be. Instead of fishing for fish, I was forced to fish for a rod when I accidently knocked it out of the rod holder while checking it. Somehow it released and just fell into the lake while we were still trolling. I immediately grabbed another line and casted to the area hoping to hook the line and luckily did just that. The lure slid all the way down the line and actually caught the other lure making it even more difficult to retrieve. Normally this would have been a good thing but with the drags set light, all I was able to do was pull line off the reel. I would have had to unspool almost 500 feet of the line to get to the knot on the spool and pray that it was tied on strong enough to hold without breaking. I once again tried casting a jig to the area in hopes of catching the rod, but was still unable to hook it and was left with no other choice but to go swimming. The visibility wasn’t great and without a mask and fins I knew it was still a long shot but tried nonetheless. On about my third dive down with the line in hand, I finally felt the rod tip and hung on to it ascending to the surface. I really didn’t want to lose this rod as it was one of my favorites for trolling and it would have been a pain to replace. Definitely the catch of the day! After regrouping, we trolled for another 20 minutes without another rip and decided to change it up and go for smallies elsewhere. We pounded a bunch of fish up to about 3 pounds on soft plastics and after an hour or so of this decided to go to another area and try trolling once again. This was the right choice as we were almost immediately into a fish. Although it wasn’t what we were targeting, it was still a fish. There were pike here, but what about the walleye? Well a confirmation was soon responded to as a three pounder came to the net not long after. Several more pike and another walleye were also caught in the next short while and then a bonus fish appeared. I thought it was just a longer than usual pike at first but soon realized that it was a lunge. Another “Multi Species” day with a grand slam home run in about 6 hours of fishing, not bad! Although it wasn’t a big one it was still nice to see and fight on lighter than usual tackle for a Muskie. With that, we decided to call it a day and headed back. It never fails that one person’s loss is another’s gain and this time Christiane was the winner. She had caught plenty of fish and a real smorgasbord of them to boot!!