Rocking & Rolling

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Yacenti, Marco & Nick hooked up with me today for another roller coaster ride. Despite an attempt to anchor up for sturgeon, we weren’t able to make it stick. Time to switch to plan B and much smaller fish!

Our second area wasn’t much better as I was faced with 3 footers and even with the electric motor on anchor mode, the current was too strong for them to feel the strikes. We left here, also fishless!

Plan C had me fishing open water and trying to drift over flats where I hoped they would be able to hook up. Both Yacenti & his son in law Nick managed to hook smallies, simultaneously and the skunk was officially out of the boat. We made several more drifts and came up with only perch bites before relocating once again.

The next spot had been producing lately and I was pretty sure they would be able to catch fish here. That is, if the winds didn’t get too big! Well on our very first drift, they had a triple header and 3 walleye were coming in the boat. In fact two of them were keepers and made it into the livewell for them to eat. The first few drifts had several more fish, both bass & walleye and things were looking good. That is until the winds increased and the drifts sped up. No longer could we get away with a 3/4 oz. weight. I had to go to 1oz. and even at that, it was tough. Eventually I had to double up and go to one and a half ounces and that was ridiculous! The waves had grown to 3 & 4 footers and our speed had increased as well. So much so that I had to use a drift sock to slow down our speed. Each time we had to return for another drift, I had to keep the bow up and not get the boat on plane. Bites were less now due to this and I had to make another change to keep them in the game. They were now working baits off the bottom and using something completely different. The bites returned and the game was back on!

In the remaining few hours of fishing, everyone managed to land plenty more fish of all kinds. Bass, walleye, perch, pike and even a small musky were caught. Although the conditions weren’t great, the action was. We stuck it out until almost 4:30 before calling it a day. They had endured some of the worst conditions this season and came out on top. Mother Nature tried but failed to shut us out! Man always wins, sometimes!