Father & Son Day

David & his son Ethan were my guests today on a local lake for smallies & walleye. We began around 7:30 under almost flat calm conditions and slightly overcast skies. Air temps were 65 degrees and the water temps once again fell to 71.5 when we set the lines. I thought that under these conditions, we were just going to crush them but after an hour of trolling and only one drive by, I realized I was wrong. It didn’t take long to decide that we should be casting for smallies and we did exactly that! David was locked up almost on his first cast as he battled a scrappy 2.5 pound bass to the net and the skunk was officially out! Ethan was dragging a jig along the bottom with my help and missed a couple of strikes when they just let go. David on the other hand was getting the hang of it and managed to get another fish pretty quickly after his first one but this time it wasn’t a bass. To all our surprise, it turned out to be a nice walleye of around 5 pounds. A few quick picks and back she went as we continued casting for the bass. There were a couple of smaller ones landed but the big bruisers just didn’t want to cooperate in this area so we moved. I had David throw a jerk-bait when we arrived there and Ethan & I worked the jig once again hoping for a big bite. As with the first location, David was into a fish pretty quickly and so began the catching once more! This 3 pounder brought a school back to the boat and I instructed him to keep the fish close to the boat as I pitched the jig in looking for a double. Although I did have a couple of shots at fish, they both came unpinned and we were forced to land just one bass instead. Not long after, Ethan and I hooked into what seemed to be a real big bass and the fight was on! This little guy fought it like a real champ, with a little help, as she jumped and ripped line off the reel in an attempt to get free. After plenty of runs & aerials, David was able to slip the net under the beast and I was thrilled to see just how large she actually was. I didn’t want to stress the fish out even more and decided not to put her on the scale, but she may have gone near 6 pounds. I know it was at least in the high fives but we’ll never know for sure what the actual weight was. I decided to put her in the livewell and make sure she revived alright with plenty of oxygen being pumped in for her survival. As we continued to fish for bass the winds started to pick up and pretty soon we were in 1 to 2 foot chop. It was still manageable until I snapped one of the steering cables on the electric motor and was forced to use the kicker to position the boat instead. This wasn’t the best way to have control, but we made it work! Several more smallies came aboard in the next couple of hours until a storm began moving towards us. I decided to take a few pics of the big bass and head back to the ramp to wait it out in the truck. By now the winds had also intensified and the lake was rolling 2 to 3 foot waves, but the heavier winds managed to push the system slightly south of us allowing a return to the lake. I immediately went back to trolling due to the electric motor issue and began looking for walleye. We managed to get a few in the 3 pound range before the winds grew once again making our upstream direction troll almost impossible. After several of the rollers wetting the front deck I realized that we were going to have to troll downstream instead. We had to run up and troll down with the wind in order to have control and stay dry for the remainder of the afternoon. A few more walleye, a couple of double headers and some disappointing drive byes later we called it a day. Another front was once again pushing our way and with the 20 plus knot winds from the west, it wouldn’t take long to arrive. We packed it in and headed back to the dock running through the edge of the system as we rolled along. We may have been sent scurrying off the water twice today but we definitely made out well under these conditions. Plenty of bass and walleye were caught before “Mother Nature” showed her powers. They definitely caught a bunch of fish and some quality ones as well making this a great day all around!!