An Epic Adventure
October 23, 2021
Eric had hoped to be able to fish for sturgeon today, as he had this species on his bucket list. The winds were already blowing hard from the west and expected to increase as the day went on, but we were going to give it a try!
Unfortunately anchoring up in the big waves didn’t last and we were forced to vacate the area much sooner than I wanted. The electric motor just didn’t have enough strength to hold us firmly in position with the 40km west winds. Also we were bouncing out of the water constantly, adding to the problem!
I decided to search another area in hopes of locating a few fish to try for, but ended up pulling the plug on this species altogether. We were going to try for walleye instead. Even this wasn’t easy as a slow troll over the area only produced one quality bite. Although I was marking fish, they didn’t seem to want to eat. We even tried dropshotting with a slow drift and this didn’t work either. After several passes in both directions, I called it quits and moved to another spot further away.
The run to the next place wasn’t pretty with waves building from the increased winds. When I arrived to fish, I realized that it wasn’t a good choice and had to abort. We just couldn’t fish here in a cross wind and 3 to 4 foot rollers. It was more like an ocean than a lake! I headed to another small spot nearby and found it to be the same. These two places were supposed to be guaranteed spots and had been holding plenty of fish in the previous days. Too bad we wouldn’t get a chance to see it today!
I finally decided to completely abandon all the areas I wanted to fish and head back to the other side, in hopes of smaller waves. This proved to be interesting at best! I was surfing 4 & 5 footers the whole way back! Once we arrived, I saw that it wasn’t much better to fish. At least we were closer to the ramp though and thoughts crossed my mind of ending the day!
We stuck it out all afternoon and moved around plenty, trying to get into more fish. At one point later on, I moved back out to a flat that I hadn’t been able to fish earlier. It was here that we remained for the balance of our time. With each drift there were multiple hookups and several other smaller walleye came in the boat. Some were keepers that were released and others were unders. All I know is that somehow we managed to salvage the day, despite the wrath of Mother Nature!
Today wasn’t easy, but Eric had a good time regardless of the hell we went through. It’s not always about the fishing, but rather the journey getting there. Having a boat that can handle conditions like today doesn’t hurt either! All I know is that I was glad to finally have it on the trailer at the end of the day. I’m sure that our bodies will be sore tomorrow after the roller coaster ride we had today!
