Short But Sweet

Matt, Ken and his son Eric fished with me today and they had a blast! I thought Ken had wanted walleye so I rigged all the rods with a drop shot set up and waited for them to arrive. It wasn’t until we were running out to the area to fish that I found out he would rather catch bass. I immediately hung a right turn and changed our course for shallower water and some smallies instead. I believe that Matt had one on his second cast and the others just looked on in disbelief as he battled a three pounder to the net. Both Ken & Eric were instructed on how to present the jigs and it didn’t take long before they were also joining in on the action. With the forecasted winds expected to blow from the SW at 15 to 25 knots, I wasn’t sure how much water we would be able to cover and held in this area a little longer than I normally would. Fortunately, the fish were sort of cooperating as they were hitting right until we left. Unfortunately, they were tormenting Matt as he kept dropping them or missing the strikes all together. He landed a pile of them but missed equally as many or maybe more before we left this area in pursuit of a different species. Eric had definitely fended well as he had two of the largest bass landed that would have gone over 4 pounds. Both Matt & Ken managed their fair share as well but were never able to keep the bigger ones pinned for the net. Off we went to troll for some pike and walleye and I saw that the winds had definitely increased and were now at the 20 plus knots that they were calling for. Thankfully we were in the Ranger and it just sliced through the waves like butter. No pounding the water by us but a couple of aluminum boats were really taking a shit kicking as they ran across the rollers. I set the lines and trolled the weeds with anticipation of bigger and better things to come. The first reel to scream had a northern around 5 pounds and Eric was soon reeling in his very first pike. After a few more snakes, we managed to get a walleye that would have fell in the slot at 19 inches, but they didn’t want to keep it and back she went. While catching several more northerns, Matt informed me that he had to be back at the dock by 1:00. I was expecting to be on the water until at least 4:00 and tried to convince Ken & Eric to stay out after the drop. Back at the ramp however, they realized that the waves were pretty big and opted for departure as well. I’m really not use to half days, but accepted their decision and pulled the boat out of the water. Despite the short day, the action was fast & furious for the time spent and everyone had caught enough fish to satiate their appetites. Overall, a really great day!!