Constant Changes

I had another full boat today with Scott, Chris & John looking for some great action. We got under way just after 7:30 and headed straight into a troll for a quick, early morning walleye bite. The overnight temps had the chilly morning air barely 60 degrees and the water temps below 75. Winds were light and out of the west creating just enough chop for the troll. As usual, I was marking plenty of fish but they weren’t moving. In the 90 minutes we trolled, there were only 3 walleye & 2 smallies landed, causing me to make a move. Next area had them throwing baits to roaming bass and several more hits were had here. Unfortunately, most of them resulted in missed fish! Although plenty of bass were seen, only a handful were landed and it was time to relocate once more. The next stop was on a place where they would be working jigs again but on the weed edges. John managed to hook up first and it was a nice walleye too. They wanted a few for the table and this one went into the well with a previous one taken on the troll. Chris was missing a few strikes but finally locked up on another beauty that was soon to join the others. Unfortunately, that was the last one brought in and another change was made. They would be drop shotting deep water and hopefully getting better fish. By now the wind had layed down completely and the dog pecker knats were out in full force. Add to this a lack of current and the fishing had slowed to a crawl. We had to work much harder for the few bites and the fish were generally smaller too. In fact they managed to land probably 50% of the hits they had in this area. John needed to be somewhere this afternoon, so we made the run back to the ramp & dropped him off. I figured that as long as we were here, I would stop and drop shot an area nearby. Although it did produce some nice smallies, it was slow like everywhere else and we didn’t stay long. The biggest bass were dropped from a lack of solid takes and I needed to find better eaters! We slid into a mid lake hole that usually holds only big fish and were surprised to find just a handful of big ones that all got off. It wasn’t until the next small spot that things started to happen. On Scotts first cast, the bottom started to move. He had crossed paths with another dinosaur and it was big. Not really what I had hoped for, I tried to slide the beast away from where the bass and walleye were. Gradually he was able to bring it close enough for me to grab. It had to be 4 feet or better and definitely in the 30 pound class. I snapped a few shots and it was on its way back to the lake unharmed. Back to the task at hand and immediately Scott was locked up again. This time however it was what we were after. A nice smallie came to the net and he had buddies. Too bad Chris had just made a cast as he might have been able to monopolize on one of the others. As I turned around to let him know, I saw his rod bent too! Doubles and we had just begun! Several more bass were caught here up to about 4 pounds along with another walleye before the action just stopped. Time for another move and it would be our last as the day was getting on. This area also had them doubled up immediately after we arrived. Smallies all around! The water had a bit of color to it along with a bunch of floating debris and I guess this helped with the bite. We spent about 20 minutes or so here and they had a bunch of fish on before we called it a day. Despite all the changes throughout today, they managed to stick with it and monopolized on each area we fished. Although the biters could have been better, they still caught their share of fish throughout the day on a variety of presentations. Too bad John wasn’t with us for the better afternoon activity. Oh well, next time!!