Catching Several Firsts

Friday the 13^th and Justin was joining me in search of several firsts. He had smallmouth, sturgeon and walleye on the list and I aimed to complete it. I just didn’t know how the winds would play into the plans for us today. A big west to start, followed by a bigger north west around mid-day would make it a challenge, but I was ready.

I decided to begin with sturgeon and after scouting several of the regular areas, that were void of fish, I made an even longer run. I had been getting plenty of sturgeon at this spot, but they were on the smaller side. Hopefully today they would be big!

Justin ticked off his first species no problem and boated double digits throughout the morning. Despite the big waves, we were still able to hold enough to see the bites. He was amazed at how strong these things were and enjoyed catching each and every one of them! We stayed on them and he ended it with a bonus, redhorse sucker before we were done.

Smallmouth was the next target and he got into a smaller one quickly on a blade. Despite the slow bites he still managed to tick another fish off his list. I hit a few other areas near this one and he finally got into several more decent sized fish on one of them. The fish were biting lightly and many others were completely missed as well. After catching as many as we could from here, I decided to try one other place, looking for a few bigger bass.

I had made a long run to a small area and realized just how bad the north west winds were, along the way. When I finally stopped to fish, we were in rollers, being blown up current. It didn’t seem to matter however as Justin was locked up on his very first cast. He finally felt the power of what a big smallie was like on this fish and boated his best one of the day. He soon followed it up with an even better one and was loving the blade bite. We stayed in the area for a while longer and managed a few more fish before leaving, to try for walleye.

With limited time remaining, I decided to try a deep-water spot before we were done. Despite the cross drifts I was still able to make several partial drifts over the area and boated a few perch in the process. Justin had many hits from walleye but was unable to keep any on them pinned until the very end. It was literally in the last seconds before leaving that he finally managed to hook and land his very first walleye. Talk about getting it done under the wire!

This day was definitely a challenge with all the species we targeted and the conditions we were dealt, but we got it done. Sturgeon, bass, walleye and perch along with a bonus redhorse sucker were officially added to his list today. This may have been his first-time fishing here, but it won’t be his last! He plans on doing it again the next time he is in the city and probably through the ice as well. I will likely see him after the Christmas holidays and hopefully we will have safe enough ice to get it done. Either way, we’ll find somewhere to fish when he’s here again. Great times were had by all today!!