Another Mixed Day

Ed & James accompanied me on the lake today for one, chock full of action. We hit the water around 7:30 and were trolling shortly afterwards for walleye & northerns. Ed was on a quest for walleye as he just loved them on the plate! James was just here to fight fish and really didn’t care what he caught. The last time we fished together was November and it was cold. Today was the complete opposite with haze and scorching heat. Along with the heat was a dead calm and that only meant, “Dog Pecker Knats” galore! I set the lines in 69 degree water in search of the elusive Walter! What a surprise, as I noticed their movement once again! I was going to have to cover water another time in order to locate where they had gone. Along my travels, a few reels fired but had rather large northerns attached instead. James was quite happy to play with them but Ed wanted dinner. Eventually I found a pod of decent fish and for about an hour or so, picked at them pretty good. There were now a few fish in the well and things were looking up for Ed. With mirror like conditions, it wasn’t easy to find active ones and once the school moved, it went dead. Although we were on fish, the bites were light and many reels only fired briefly before they went silent. It seemed like the fish weren’t really hitting to eat but rather with closed mouths, as we landed some foul hooked. I decided to switch areas completely and presentations as well. Here we didn’t catch many but they were big. Unfortunately for Ed, they were overs and had to be released! With all this flat calm, I thought we would mix it up a bit and switched gears completely. Smallmouth was the next quarry and off we went to rip some lips! We hit an area that had some action previously and weren’t disappointed. Both Ed & James were into the fish almost immediately. They may not have been the size I liked but they were still fun to play with. Once the action slowed, I relocated again and handed Ed his favorite bait. He was now throwing a spinnerbait and about to get pounded! As with every hit on the blade, it was violent and he just loved it. It didn’t take long before he was slamming bass, or was it the other way around! He missed several but still managed to set into a few really good ones. They were good enough to win a bet that these two had for largest bass of the day too! We jumped around to several other bass areas and managed a few more fish before returning to the troll and more eyes. I had found that the water clarity had reduced some of the numbers in the places we were and didn’t like the results. Like clockwork, the reels fired quickly and Ed added a couple more to his creel limit. As the day was nearing an end, I decided to try another area and we went on a rally. Now it was hard to keep the lines in the water and they were getting a sample of what action is all about. I don’t think we went 5 minutes in between bites and some of them were doubles. Unfortunately, there were a lot of fish just ripping the lines and getting off quickly. We did however land a number of good fish, both walleye & pike before our last pass. It was here that the reel screamed and I knew it wasn’t small. As soon as I went to pass the rod to James, it took to the air and got off. Another lunge and the bite went dead. We fished for about ten more minutes before pulling the lines and calling it a day. With a predator like that lurking around, everything heads for cover and we saw the results. Just like a light switch, it was over! Despite the almost perfect end to an amazing day, they still had a great one full of action. On top of that, Ed was bringing a limit of walleye home and that was just a bonus! Can’t wait to get them out again!!