Cory joined me this morning and he brought his niece Kala along for her first time. We would be back at the dock by mid-day and changing Kala for Skylar, his 5 year old daughter. Today was daddy, uncle day!

The morning run to our starting location was met by a dense fog that engulfed the waters. It was so thick that GPS was required more than ever to navigate safely. We managed to arrive exactly where I wanted to be, despite the heavy blanket over the water. Oddly enough, this was a severe cold that was almost bone chilling too!

I set up in an area that was very productive yesterday in hopes of similar fishing. It was going to be tough though, not being able to see where to throw! I instructed Kala on how to cast and it didn’t take long before she caught on. In fact, she was making almost perfect casts quicker than I had imagined and looked like she had been doing it for a long time.

We held in this area for quite a while with very little action before Cory had a bite. He immediately passed the rod to Kala to battle her first smallie. At least we had the skunk out of the boat! Not much happened after this, but a few fish briefly fell victim to a blade. As fast as they were on, they were gone!

I had held here for almost 2 hours before the fog lifted, allowing us to finally see the entire lake. Time to make another move!

Next stop was a shallow spot and we were soon into  more bass. There was even a double header at one point that had both Cory and Kala battling fish! This area was responsible for several nice smallies but now it was time for a long run for some giants!

I set up in a deeper area with limited time left and hooked Kala up on her very first sturgeon. She fought it like a champ and boated it quickly too. Not long after she released the first one, I had her into another one and it was double the size. Once again she battled it like a champ and more pics were taken before we released it again. Cory was the next to fight one and just in the nick of time too as we had to head back to exchange girls for our afternoon trip.

Back at the dock it was looking like another weekend nightmare as I couldn’t even find a spot to be able to pick up his daughter. Boats were parked everywhere as if it was a beach! As usual, it was out of control! The parking lot was also a nightmare when I finally went back to the truck for a kid’s lifejacket! I had to use the passenger side of my truck to get in due to the vehicle parked just inches from my driver’s side and hoped I would be able to get out at the end of the day.

We finally headed out for the afternoon shift and went back to another area close to where we had left off. I decided to try a little deeper drop shotting with Skylar as I thought it would be much easier for a 5 year old to manage. Well, this proved to be more difficult than I had thought and bites were few & far between. Eventually I decided to try for sturgeon and with a little help from her dad, she was soon able to bring her very first fish ever into the boat. I shot several pics before Cory released the fish back to the water to fight another day!

Conditions weren’t ideal for fishing this afternoon but apparently they were for pleasure boaters. The traffic was just insane everywhere you looked, making it difficult to fish. The flat calm waters were rolling from every direction, from all the waves and trying to feel a bite was difficult at best. I wanted to get Skylar into some bass & walleye and covered plenty of water to do it too. Both Cory and I had multiple chances at hooking up on smallies, but lost every one of them. I could tell that Skylar was getting anxious and thankfully we stumbled on a spot that provided relief. We spent the remainder of the day anchored up with the electric, pounding on bass & walleye and Skylar reeled each and every one in. In fact, she was even able to catch 3 good keeper sized walleye to go home with. All the other fish were released to grow!

It was nice to get a little air flowing on the run back and see the smile on Skylar’s face, from catching all those fish! Amazingly enough, I was even able to pull right into the dock and park the boat for take out! Too bad when I went to the truck, I was still pinned in and I almost needed the passenger side to get in the vehicle. It wasn’t easy pulling out but I was perfectly straight and drove out with only an inch or so clearance!

Today worked out almost perfect with the two trips and both girls had a blast catching fish. They had experienced fishing for the very first time and managed to fight a few big fish too! I only wish the rest of the day was as good!

The boat was quickly on the trailer and pulled out of the water as usual, but this is where it goes south! Out of everyone’s way I prepped for the drive home when another vehicle pulled his boat out and drove over a curb smashing his raised Bimini top through a tree. I guess the tree had it coming or something! He then proceeded to park ahead of me, blocking over half the road leading in and out of the park. Then he began prepping his boat as if there was no one else around! Weekend warriors! Needless to say, I was not going anywhere until he was done! After about 15 minutes he finally drove off as if nothing ever happened! Now I could head home, or at least I thought!

As I drove out of the park, I heard a loud grinding sound coming from my trailer and thought it was a wheel bearing. Once on the road, I could see what looked like smoke coming from one of the tires and thought it might be a locked up brake pad too. I eventually pulled off the road to investigate and was surprised that all the hubs were cool to the touch. I tried to move forward again and still more grinding and smoke from one of the tires. Now I knew I had a real problem!

Cory was about to pass me when he saw I was pulled over and did the same. Between the two of us, I was going to have to remove one wheel to be able to get home, limping! We managed to loosen all the lug nuts and then I saw the real problem. Turns out that it wasn’t brakes or bearings but actually something rubbing on the rear tire. Someone had smashed into my trailer while I was parked! They had mangled a step up that fits between the tires to get into the boat. It had to be the guy parked next to me that was so close!. It took a while but I managed to remove the bent step up and was finally on my way. I was glad that Cory stayed with me for the help and as I drove away all was good again! What looked like a real problem turned out to be something that was fixable and I was relieved. It still doesn’t alter the fact that the guy that hit me was an ass because there’s no way that he didn’t know. It was bent so bad that it had to be hit pretty hard! I’ll be looking for his vehicle and any trailer damage he might have every time I’m back at the ramp and hopefully we’ll meet soon. Definitely an interesting day both on and off the water!

Chris & Vi were finally with me today, after their two previous rescheduled fishing dates. One was for the monsoon like rains and the other was hurricane winds. Third time is a charm!

We ventured out in flat calm conditions with an overcast sky that was supposed to give way to sunshine, later in the day. Our first stop was to be an open water shoal that had been holding some pretty good bass the last few outings. With zero wind, drifting it would be a breeze!

Vertical drop shotting was the presentation and we covered various depths of the area. Both of them had fish on, but landing them seemed to be a problem, as they just kept coming off. With each drift similar results were had but eventually they did manage to bring a few of them aboard!

I wasn’t seeing the size that I had expected to from this spot and decided to make a move after several passes. The next stop would prove to be the same as they went zero for eight before actually putting one in the boat. Too bad too, because on one drift Vi managed to hook into a real giant, that tossed the bait when it took to the air! This was a disappointment that took her a while to get over but eventually after several fish, all was forgotten!

We hit many different areas throughout the morning and managed to pick at the bass from almost every one. Some nice fish were caught and plenty of average sized ones as well. By mid-afternoon the action heated up when I stopped on a shallow, rocky area. This is where we spent our remaining time, tossing soft plastics. It was just loaded! I’m not sure how many fish were landed from here, but it was definitely a great way to end the day!

Overall today was a bit of a grind with so many lost fish, but they both rallied in the end and redeemed themselves with many landed bass. We even had a slight wind increase late in the day that seemed to turn on the smallies. This might have accounted for the great finish to an almost picture perfect day. Too bad we never actually got to see the sun though! I guess the weathermen were bang on one once again as clouds were on us for the entire day. Regardless, it was still another great day for fishing!

Karen & her father Richard joined me today for a slower than usual outing. We wanted to try for sturgeon after last year’s bucket list fish, but unfortunately found no concentrations to anchor up on. We would have to settle for bass & walleye I guess!

I jumped around and hit various places, hooking them up on mostly smaller fish. A couple of good bass were lost after the jump but that’s not uncommon when they shoot for the sky! With the winds non-existent, I required the electric motor to move us along in many places. The current was minimal too and several times we were barely moving!

They had both landed bass, but Richard was the only one with a few walleye. Too bad they were all unders and needed to be returned! I made several passes over the area that he had hooked them and on one pass he locked up on a really big fish. We were drop shotting and I actually thought at one point that he might have a musky. This fish beat him up pretty good with its runs and I had a rough time keeping it off to the side for him to fight. It’s never easy on light tackle, but we were finally able to bring the fish up and to our surprise, it was a sturgeon. Although considerably smaller that the behemoth from last year, it was a great fight on the rod he was using. To my amazement it had actually eaten the bait as well. I guess he was dragging the bottom or something!

Having the big net with us today was a blessing and made landing the fish all that much easier. A few quick pics later it was returned and we went back to drifting & drop shotting for the targeted species.

Karen managed to land a couple of nice walleye in the next several drifts, along with more bass but the bite was slower than I had hoped for. I kept moving to many spots and each one seemed to be holding some fish for them to catch. At one stop, Karen put a third keeper walleye in the well and I knew she would be eating good tonight! She also managed to catch a decent bass that became photo worthy too!

We jumped around plenty for the remainder of the afternoon and picked at the fish the entire time before we were done. Although we weren’t able to find any sturgeon to anchor up on, Richard did manage to catch another, completely on his own! They had also landed a good number of bass throughout the day and Karen was bringing fresh fish home with her, for a family dinner tonight. Overall I consider that a very successful day!

Scott, John & Darren joined me today on another flat calm one! There doesn’t seem to be any in between for conditions. It’s either howling or dead! How about a good chop for a change?

We began in deeper water looking for a few quick bites and some current flow and John managed 3 nice bass fairly quickly. Seeing as how I wasn’t marking a lot of fish, I did a little recon and made several passes before moving. I just wasn’t seeing much and didn’t want to waste our time. What I was seeing however were plenty of sturgeon, both jumping and right on the bottom. Might just have to give it try!

I idled around looking for concentrations and ended up settling on a few good marks. Lines in and after waiting for quite a while, we had our first hook up! These fish aren’t fighting very much after their spawn and are quite skinny. It didn’t take more than a few minutes to boat the first one and Darren put us on the board. After a move or two, he got to fight another one and this time he had to pass the rod off to John to finish the battle. This fish just didn’t want to come in and we were amazed at how strong it actually was. A few quick pics before the release and we were done!

We headed shallow after pulling the lines and tossed soft plastics for a bunch of smallies. I didn’t like the size of these fish and an hour later we were switching it up once again! Off to the swamp and hopefully some largemouth!

Lately I haven’t been able to find water above 68 degrees but by heading into the shallows for these green bass, I actually encountered 74 degrees. I was sure we were going to get bit!

Scott had the first encounter but unfortunately it didn’t stay on long. He did come back with a vengeance however when the second one hit. This time it didn’t get off! John had a couple of missed fish as well and Darren actually managed to get bit once and boated his first ever largie.

The area we were fishing wasn’t easy to fish and would have required a slow flipping technique to monopolize on the biters. It just wasn’t in the cards for these guys today, so we pulled out after an hour or two of covering water. We were going back for smallies and deeper water once again!

With a little over an hour left in the day, I wanted to see if the smallies would bite. I had been getting bigger fish from this area lately and knew the potential was here! By the time we were done, everyone had managed to get a few fish but it was Scott that landed the photo worthy ones. He actually got into a couple of quality bass in the remaining time, before we were done.

Today was a strange one to say the least with almost no current on the water. We had to change areas as well as species a few times to make it work, but in the end it was a success. Some good ones were boated and Darren saw his first sturgeon and largemouth bass. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Probably a hurricane or monsoon or something bizarre after the flat calm day we experienced today. I guess only Mother Nature knows for sure!

Another last minute cancellation for this morning had me hitting the water with Christiane instead to scout out a few other areas. We fished for several hours and managed to get into more bass & walleye but nothing great. Water temps are 68 degrees at best and way too cold for this time of year!

Tony & Sabrina managed to pick the best part of the day by booking an afternoon trip. They were both very new to fishing and were instructed on how to cast first. Once the orientation was complete, we slid in for a few bass!

With cool water temps everywhere I wasn’t expecting a great shallow bite but thought we’d give it a try. At least they would practice their casting! After what seemed like forever, Sabrina finally managed to bring in a smallie and although small, it was the first fish of the day. We covered plenty of water and only managed a handful of others before we made a long move.

I had noticed that the NE winds switched to SW and this was the first time in 3 days that the direction was returning to normal. With this change, I headed to a spot that I was sure would produce.

Tony managed to catch a couple of bass and Sabrina as well but these fish just weren’t active. We practically had to deadstick the baits in order to get bit. Time to change locations again!

Well this area didn’t seem much better as we picked up a few more bites before I decided to change depths completely. I headed to a deeper ridge and switched them to a drop shot. First drop and Sabrina was tight to a nice walleye. Too bad after a couple more drifts this was the only fish landed!

Time was passing by quickly, so I decided to try a highly trafficked area in the channel hoping for better success. It was here that we spent the remainder of the time making a series of drifts over open water reefs. It was also here that the majority of fish were caught before we were done. Both walleye and bass were taken and multiple hookups were seen on every pass. Too bad we didn’t come here earlier! The biggest problem was all the boat traffic and waves they created while we were trying to fish!

Overall today was a success and although the fishing was tough, they still managed to get into a bunch of fish before we were done. For first timers both Tony and Sabrina did well and now have a better understanding of what fishing is like. I think they may even want to try it again sometime!