Mathew brought his sons along today, for a great morning of fishing! Michael, Juliano & Luca were eager to get a line in the water as we left the dock and eagerly anticipated their first bite. What was supposed to be a full day trip, scheduled for the following day was changed to today for a couple of reasons. Weather definitely played into it as an all-day rain and possible electrical storms were predicted. Also I had a client that booked on line who had never returned any calls or messages. This group was happy to change, even if it was only for a half day!

I made a long run to an area that I expected quick bites and wasn’t disappointed. It didn’t take long after a quick instruction on how to fish the baits, before the first fish was landed. Unfortunately there were more fish being missed than landed, before they started getting fish to the net. I think that they landed about 10% of the possible bites! Fortunately there were still many fish caught before I made another move.

Our next stop had quick bites as well and there were even a couple of nice walleye caught from here that immediately went in the livewell. Someone was going to be eating well tonight! Along with these tasty treats, many smallies were caught as well before we made an even longer run to try another spot. We spent a little longer here, targeting smallies before I decided to go for something much larger. They were about to land the largest fish of their lives!

I slid out to deeper water and began marking exactly what I was looking for and it didn’t take long before Mathew was tight to a good sturgeon. This time I was ready and had all the necessary equipment to get the job done! After about 5 minutes of battling this beast, Mathew was finally able to bring it to net. A few quick pics later and a release and we were set up for more. It didn’t take long for the second fish to hit and Mathew once again battled an even larger fish. Jumps were spectacular and the runs were even better as he brought another dinosaur in for more pics.

After the release we set up in hopes of one more and weren’t disappointed. This time however, Michael took the rod, with a little help from his dad and took a beating. They tag teamed the sturgeon and eventually put it in the boat for more pics. I don’t think they were expecting to finish off a half day trip with fish this big! All I know is that they will be talking about this day for a long time. At least until the next time when they’re back for more and I’m sure they will be! Great day for fishing!

After having to cancel the last couple of days due to extremely high winds and heavy rain, it was nice to finally get back out. Don and his family were joining me this afternoon for a half day of fishing and hopefully the recent weather didn’t mess it up too bad!

We began a bit early and hit the water at 11:00 instead of the usual time. I decided to make a long run and try for smallies and apparently it was the right decision. His daughter Kaleigh managed to hook the first one quickly on a soft plastic bait. Although smaller than I usually see, it was her first and I knew there would be more.  His wife Gail followed up with another soon after and this was definitely the size I expected to see from this area.

In a few hours they were able to land plenty of smallies of all sizes before I switched to slightly deeper water and had them fish a drop shot. It was definitely slower than I anticipated but they managed to hook into a few fish from the first couple of spots. I think there were more being lost than landed though and I kept moving on!

The skies had now gone from sunshine to heavily overcast and I could see by the radar that there were showers on the way. I wanted to get them more fish and hit one final area before we would have to leave. It was here that they managed to land several fish, but this time they were walleye. Some of them went into the box but many others were released due their size. I would have liked to refine the area more but the clouds were upon us and I could see the rain falling close by. Time to make the run!

We managed to stay in front of the storm all the way back and decided to give one final area a try before pulling out. Unfortunately it didn’t take but one drift before we had to go. No need getting totally soaked when our time was almost over anyway!

Although it was a short day, there was still plenty of action and everyone had a great time catching both bass & walleye. They even managed to bring a few of their catch home for a nice meal tonight! I’ll be back again tomorrow with a new gang and hopefully the action will be fast and furious in the morning as it’s another short day. I guess only time will tell!

Been a strange week with weather and working on other boats! I even took a road trip to Cabelas to buy a long overdue, summer rain suit! Managed to pick up a couple of seats as well so that I can get mine redone! I spent another day on someone else’s boat making sure everything worked fine, after he recently purchased it and had a few new things installed. All good!

Today I was back out with John, who was flying solo. Nice to have so much room in the boat for a change! He started out with fast moving blades but only managed one bass before I realized the cool water temps had them sluggish. By switching up to more of a finesse approach, we soon turned it around. Although this first place didn’t have much action, I hoped the next move would change our luck.

Dropshotting in deeper water didn’t seem to be much better as we attempted to fish an edge. After about ten minutes with only a couple of missed strikes, I decided to move on. We would try another area nearby, hoping for better success!

Well disappointment soon set in as we covered the entire area without a strike! Time to move to another spot and this time I would begin much shallower with hopes of a few big bites.

Throughout the morning we had been faced with a big south wind, but it was finally letting up. Fishing slowly was much easier for John as he was finally getting a better feel for working the bait. It wasn’t long before he was tight to a really good bass and the first big one of our day. Finally, a Kodak moment! Unfortunately it was the only strike and after about 45 minutes of covering the entire area, I relocated again.

Our morning was getting on and the water turned almost flat calm, making presentations much easier. It was here that the fish finally started showing signs of aggression and numbers of quality bites were had. We covered the area slowly and John put many more big bass in the boat before we were done. Things were finally starting to look up!

Another move to an offshore spot had the bite almost the same when we arrived. Slow presentations and light pickups resulted in many more fish, including an unexpected walleye. I kind of knew what John had before it even appeared as the fight was sluggish at best. Nothing huge but a high end keeper that was lucky to be released today!

With mirror calm waters, I decided to make a little run to explore some other areas not fished yet this season. I also thought we’d try a few deeper places with a drop shot and see what we could come up with!

First drop and John was tight, but only briefly! I actually saw his fish on the Lowrance as it swam off after coming unpinned. Quite impressive too!

We made multiple drifts but were barely moving without any wind and unfortunately only managed smaller fish out here. Time to move in and see what we could do!

Once back in the shallows, it didn’t take long before John got was in the groove with multiple fish being caught. He may not have been getting any giants but they were all quality!

We were seeing a lot of sturgeon jumping out in deeper water and I decided to idle over the area to see what was there. To my surprise it showed lots of fish and I had some gear in the boat to give it a try. I also hadn’t realized that John never battled one before until I set into a pretty big fish. He was now experiencing the power of these beasts and knew why they were so sought after. He even got to witness several aerial jumps that were absolutely spectacular! Not having the big net with me I was forced to use what I had in the boat and eventually managed to get its head in the bowl enough to be able to tail it with a glove. Success!

After several good pics he released the beast to be caught again. Needless to say we were done with this for the day, but I will return soon with the heavier tackle. This just might be the start of the longest sturgeon season I’ve ever had if it continues like it began!

With limited time remaining in the day, I thought we’d finish it off with a little drop shotting before we were done. I set up on an open water flat and almost immediately John was tight to another walleye. This too was a good keeper and also released to fight another day. We spent about 20 minutes longer and could only come up with missed fish before we were done.

Today was an interesting one to say the least, as we both saw! John got to refine a finesse technique that put almost all the fish in the boat and I saw that the sturgeon bite has begun. Definitely a win, win on the fishing! I can’t wait to get back out for more, of everything!

Today was a totally different one than yesterday with the winds laying down. Although they were still blowing at the start, it was completely doable and we headed out in pursuit of the smallies.

Rick & Dan were with me this morning but were only fishing half the day. An afternoon booking would have me turning around with the second group after dropping them at 11:30. We had several hours to “get er done”!

I wanted to go back to where we had crushed the bass on the first day, but to my surprise there were 4 or 5 boats already fishing the area. Looks like a tournament was on today! In fact there were plenty of boats all around causing me to find a place that we could fish. The area we chose had a boat blazing through with fast moving baits and we were able to fish nearby and wait for him to leave. By slowing down both Rick & Dan managed to boat several nice bass before I decided to make a move.

I headed offshore to a spot that I hadn’t hit yet this season as bass fishing only opened a couple of days before. Too bad many others don’t abide by the rules too! We actually remained here for the rest of their trip because the fish were cooperating. By fishing the transition, they were able to land many quality smallies and they even had a double header too! I had planned on making another move but I just couldn’t pull myself away from here. As long as they were catching, we weren’t going anywhere!

The remainder of the morning saw us making slight adjustments in presentations and the fish just kept coming. We finally called it around 11:15 after one final fish and headed back to the docks. I was meeting the next group by 11:30 and these guys had a long drive back home!

The three days they spent fishing may not have been what I had expected, but adjusting to the water temps made it a successful trip. Unfortunately Mother Nature had a nasty streak in her on the second day but we salvaged it by going green! Largies are always a good backup plan!

Mark & his father Dave were with me this afternoon and I hoped to get them into action like this morning. I would be changing it up a bit by starting out with a troll and set the 3 lines in as soon as we arrived on the spot. Too bad we trolled for almost an hour with only one pike to show for our efforts!

Not wanting to waste any more time, I changed the trolling gear for bass rods and headed to another area to cast. Within minutes after instructing Mark on what to do, he had his first bass of the day. In his life he had landed maybe 3 fish and I told him that that would all change today!

They fished through this first spot and managed a few more with several missed ones as well before we made another adjustment. The next place was a little tricky as I had to figure out where the fish were due to the extremely low water. Where I usually fished was almost dry!

By moving around a bit I was able to see that the fish had dropped into a nearby deep area and once we found it, it was game on! For the next couple of hours there were many fish landed as well as missed. I would have liked to take more pics of the larger ones, but most were hooked deeply and I didn’t want to stress them out too much, after removing the hooks! They were getting the bites but not reacting in time to get a proper hook set.

Eventually the action slowed in this area and I made one final move to another spot to finish off the day. We spent the last hour here with plenty more fish coming aboard, before we were done.

Mark may not have caught a lot of fish in his life but today that all changed. He learned how to cast properly and boated a good number of bass. In fact he never imagined that he could catch that many fish in a half day after having landed only 3 fish in his life! It was definitely a challenge today but it all worked out in the end!

Rick & Dan were back this morning for another day of fishing. This time they were joined by my brother and hopefully it would be equally as productive as their previous day. All I wanted was for the forecast to be wrong as giant winds were expected!

We headed across the water to our first spot in 2 footers and I decided to take refuge in an area for largemouth bass. All the smallie spots would be a real challenge with the winds today!

I don’t usually target largies when I fish bass but under the circumstances we didn’t really have much choice. It was blowing quite hard and open water was not the place to be!

It didn’t take long before we had our first encounter with a bass when Mike latched on to a really good fish. He had thought that it was a weed by the light bite and unfortunately it took to the air and tossed his bait. Not the way I wanted to start the day but at least we had confirmation that they were here!

A little while later Rick hit another and this time he managed to get it into the boat. This too was a really good bass and well worthy of several pics! A few missed strikes followed before Rick locked up on another one. All the bass we were seeing were quality and this one was no different.

With the water temps still holding around 65 degrees, these fish weren’t moving far to get the baits. We had to really slow down in order to have a chance at catching anything. I held in each place and had them make multiple casts to all the water before moving on. It was a challenge but the results were definitely worth it!

We spent the entire morning fishing this place and although many chances were had, about 50% of them turned into landed bass. Eventually we had to make a decision about where we would go next but our choices were very limited.

I attempted holding on an open water reef that had been very king to Rick & Dan yesterday but trying to keep them on fish in 3 to 4 footers was next to impossible. Plan B soon went to plan C & D and we were no better off. With each attempt at another move, reality set in. This wasn’t looking very good!

After having attempted multiple spots to fish, it was unanimous. We were officially done! Now all I had to do was get back to the ramp, safely. The open water looked more like an ocean rather than a lake and I knew it was going to be a little splashy on the way back. White caps were more pronounced now and the waves were much bigger. Three footers were average with occasional 4’s & 5’s every once in a while! Fortunately we were in a Ranger and I knew it wouldn’t be a problem.

After tacking multiple times along the way back, we were finally at the dock and still dry. When we looked out all we could see were walls of white with many wind surfers enjoying the big rollers. It definitely looked nasty out there!

All things considered, we managed to make it work but the fishing was still tough. It felt like I was handcuffed, not being able to get to places that I wanted to fish. Tomorrow is another day and both Rick & Dan will be fishing the morning before heading back home. Hopefully Mother Nature will be a little kinder with the winds allowing me to put them on plenty more fish. We’ll see what the morning brings!