After yesterday’s postponement, I had to get back out. Christiane & Michel were my lucky guests and lucky was definitely the word. Although most of the day saw pretty big wind, it was nothing compared to the last few. We hit a new area and as soon as I saw what I was looking for on the sonar, the first reel fired. I could tell by the way it sounded that we were about to have dinner swimming in the livewell. Christiane landed a good keeper walleye and we went right back in, looking for more. In the next 30 minutes, a couple of others managed to join the first one and a bunch of pike were released too. The winds were kicking up pretty good now and looking like we should get bit when another reel started to sing. The heaviness was too great for either of the species we were catching & I knew exactly what Christiane had. Trouble! We reeled in the other lines and I backed the boat up gradually, trying not to fill it from the waves. The first sighting had both of them in awe and I just kept maneuvering the boat throughout the battle. Not having the big net in the boat definitely makes it tough but at the same time, the season for big fish is still a week away. I would have to resort to the Boga Grip in order to retrieve my lure. Although a little tricky, I locked on and my lure was retrieved. I kept the Boga on the lunge and revived her from the fight. It didn’t take long before she was ready and off she went. Christiane was definitely lucky as the line used was only 12 pound test and could have been severed at any time. All went well and definitely no one got hurt! We continued trolling and for the rest of the day, adding more walleye & pike to the numbers. A few more went in the livewell and by 4:00, we pulled the plug and headed back. I had fish to clean and we had “Cajun Walleye” to eat! Michel has been wanting to see or preferably catch a musky for a few years now, but it took him bringing a novice to get it done. Although it could have just as easily been his, Christiane got to the rod first and that’s all she wrote! Either way, they both had a blast and caught plenty of fish on a difficult day. With the water temps still barely above 60 degrees, the fish aren’t exactly aggressive. The bites are terrible and the fight isn’t much better. Hard to believe that I’ve already experienced 70 plus degrees and now it’s back down to 60. I can’t wait for a little more heat just to activate the fish and get back to the high number days that come with this season. Better days ahead, I hope!!

After being off the water several days from either cancellations or giant winds, I headed out today regardless. Keith joined me for a half day and we spent the first hour troubleshooting his new sonar. Thankfully I know enough about these Lowrance units to fix him up! I knew that the big NE winds would make things difficult, but made the long run to the fish anyway. The lake had 3 to 4 footers most everywhere and I needed to be right in the heart of the worst to get her done. We trolled for a while and scraped up a few fish here & there but nothing great. Every time he landed a fish, I couldn’t turn around to get back on the area because of the conditions. I was almost forced to drive in a straight line because of these rollers. At one point while Keith was reeling in a fish, the rod became heavy and the line started going out. It seemed that a predator had mistaken the pike for a meal. Sucks being on the bottom of the food chain when you live around musky! This lasted about 5 minutes or so and although we did get a good view, she eventually tired of this and just let go. The pike may have gotten lucky but you wouldn’t have know it by the wounds he had. Strangely enough the fish did swim away, but who knows what will happen next. We regained our composure and set the lines back hoping for a few more eyes for Keith to take home to eat. It was either going to be spaghetti or fresh fish tonight! I wasn’t worried even in these conditions. As luck would have it, he wasn’t eating Italian for supper this evening. With the wind seemingly getting worse, we pulled the plug after both lines landed large eyes. Being overs, we took a few pics and returned them to the ocean. The run back was interesting to say the least but I always feel safe in this Ranger. With the exception of a few little splashes from the spray, we both stayed dry. These deep hulls definitely take the big waves much better than low profile rigs. We may have gotten tossed around while trying to fish today but at least we didn’t get beaten up like the pike. Better days ahead, I hope!!

A quick posting had me booked for this afternoon, after a cancellation opened it the day before. I decided to head out early to check new water for future bookings. Too many guides spend part of each day on their clients time, not me! I take advantage of my spare time to locate new water and hopefully, fish. It seemed that what I was looking for was scarce but I did find a couple of places and landed nice walleye in each. I immediately left hoping to come back this afternoon with my guests. Noon came quickly and I met up with Plamen, Milan & his son Antoine right on time. We began in an area for a combination of both pike & walleye but it was the pike that were most abundant. One over walleye and an under were mixed in with the northerns and I decided to move. All morning the winds were substantial but after we arrived and began to troll, they practically died off. Despite the weather forecast for high winds, they lied and we had almost flat calm. So much so that those damn dog pecker knats were in full force. I did manage to find some walleye but we were only able to catch a half dozen or so. I was seeing them on the electronics but they were pressed on the bottom with this wind and didn’t want to move. I tricked a few of them into eating when I switched baits several times. I finally had to leave when everything just died, wind and all. The next few areas had only northerns and one smallie that jumped the hooks after several leaps. At the very end I realized that I was going to have to go back to where all the walleye were showing just to get a last fish. We managed the first walleye within 4 minutes but it was an over. The next fish was also the last and Antonio put another keeper walleye in the well. I had stayed out a little longer just to get that last fish and it was worth the long run to get it. We ended on a high and called it a day. I may not have put them on as many fish as I wanted but the numbers were still up there, despite the lack of wind. They left happy knowing that they had a great day and would be having fresh fish for dinner!!

I knew by the wicked cold front last night that this morning was going to be a challenge. Phil joined me on the lake with a couple of his sons to see what we could accomplish. Ari had boated plenty of good fish in my boat last season but this was a first for Eli. In fact he had never caught a walleye, but this was about to change! We hit the lake just after 7:30 and ran in a pretty decent roll from the NE. Once we arrived I saw that the water temps had fallen, to no surprise. I was marking fish though and at least this was encouraging. We set the lines and started to troll for about three minutes when the first reel fired. Unfortunately it was a pike and so were the next few including a triple that at least Phil got to take part in. Eventually after about 10 minutes or so, Eli finally got his first walleye. Although not huge, it was a keeper and went into the livewell for them later tonight. We continued trolling with the NE winds in about a two foot roll and marked all kinds of fish on the bottom. Unfortunately that was where they wanted to stay and we had to work hard for each bite we received. I covered plenty of water throughout the morning both old & new and picked at fish here & there. Then the wind died and I knew we were in trouble! The damn “Dog Pecker Knats” arrived and brought along their friends the “Caddis”. We had tons of flies all over us and the fishing amazingly, got even more difficult. I had to work even harder now for each & every bite we got. I decided to try a few other waypoints from last season, seeing as how this area was almost dead and apparently it was the right move. Not all of them produced but the ones that did, really did! We boated many more eyes including a couple of personal bests for Eli over 4 pounds. Still not giants, I searched on looking for bigger & better. Eventually he brought to net one over 5 pounds and was now, all smiles! Late in the afternoon I found one small area that was holding quite a few fish and we picked at them pretty good. I think our percentage between pike & walleye was 60/40. Not bad considering how many pike this lake actually has. We stuck it out until just after 4:00 and I ended with everyone catching another fish before we headed back to the ramp. The last three fish were remarkably all walleye as well. Despite the difficult conditions for fishing we still managed to boat a great number of fish by anyone’s standards. I on the other hand know that if we could have had stability in the weather, the outcome would have doubled. Either way, it was still a great day of fishing as plenty of fish were played with all day long!!

Alan brought along a couple of coworkers today looking to catch a few fish for the table. One of them was local and the other all the way from China. Walleye was on the menu but the conditions weren’t great. We started off with winds from the west blowing 20 knots or better, with even stronger gusts. I had a long run and managed to keep everyone dry and not in pain from all the pounding. We set the lines as I instructed them on what to do and began. The first fish of the day was once again a double and they were both walleye. One keeper and one over were what we were rewarded with and each one was placed into different waters. These conditions were tough to troll in and I found myself off course several times while making turns. Despite the poor boat control, we still managed to catch several pike and walleye. Everyone was reeling in fish with some of them being kept while the bulk were being released. A couple of rather large perch even found their way into the livewell for the dinner tonight. Sometime late in the morning, the winds actually diminished and trolling became simple once again. I was able to cover all the water I wanted and managed to hook into pike and walleye regularly. We built up the numbers and thought things were going great until it started blowing even harder than earlier. I was actually glad it was only a half day trip as we were now trying to fish in three footers. When waves are like this about the only troll you can do is downstream. I had no choice but to cover all the area quickly and continue with the wind at our back. Many more fish were landed before we finally pulled the plug with the last double of the day. Considering that I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to get out this morning, I think we did really good. It still turned out to be a high numbers outing and all three of them couldn’t believe that they had landed as many fish as they did. Mother nature may have thrown a curve at us this morning but we still managed to hit it out of the park. Great day on the water!