What was supposed to be a day off turned into an afternoon of fishing when Vasyl booked a last minute trip. He wanted to bring his family out for a few hours and I prepped the boat for a 12:30 meet. I just knew they would have a great time!

Vasyl, Iryne and their two sons, Tim & Paul joined me as we headed out on the water. After a long run to our spot, I set everything up for a troll. With the sun, heat and lack of wind, I also raised the roof for a little more relief. It was definitely another hot one!

Within minutes of lines in, the first reel fired and they were soon on the board with a decent sized pike. Seconds later, another reel went off and number two was also landed. The kids were having a blast catching big fish and when the third reel fired, I made sure Iryne had a turn. Number 4 also fired and the parents were into another double. To my surprise, they had a pike & a largemouth. Great mixed bag!

We had so much action going on that there was very little time to relax. If we weren’t hooked up on one fish every couple of minutes, it was a double or triple. Vasyl even managed to boat a big walleye that was released after a few pics. Reels were firing so much that there were times when I had two lines out of the water with fish landed that it didn’t matter. Before I could get them back in, another fish was on!

What was scheduled as a 4 hour trip turned into half that when they decided they had caught enough. Never in their wildest dreams did they expect to catch so many fish in such a short time. I can only imagine how many they would have landed, if we had of continued fishing!

I packed everything up and took the long way back to the docks to give them a little more boating time. They were just happy to be on the water. It was such a relaxing day that their youngest fell asleep on the ride back. I guess he wore himself out with all the big fish he caught! Priceless!

Angelo, Rob & Hugo joined me today for what was to be their best day of fishing, ever! We started out trolling and within minutes, had a fish on! It only got better too!

The first hour saw action that was just unbelievable! Pike after pike and walleye after walleye hammered the baits we trolled and it seemed like everything was on fire. Plenty of them were double headers too! Once the action slowed, I moved around and got on the active fish once again. Although there were a few slow periods, I always found fish for them to fight.

The afternoon was filled with plenty of aggressive fish as well and the numbers kept climbing. Doubles were pretty much the norm with many triple headers as well. From shallow to deep, we hit fish everywhere. At one point I think we put a dozen fish in the boat in under 15 minutes. It was just insane!

I had decided to leave some time to get everyone their slam and with about 90 minutes remaining, I packed up and went for smallies. This too was on fire and everyone had multiple shots at bass, throwing soft plastics. It didn’t take long for them to complete their grand slam and the rest is history! Several more bass were also caught before we called it a day.

Today was just one of those days when all the stars aligned and the fish gods shined on us. Mother Nature was also kind with only a five minute sprinkle and no hurricane winds! I think everyone was afraid of the weather forecast today as there were very few boats out fishing. Great day to be on the water!

After the last outing, I cancelled the following day due to similar conditions! Today however was a much better one, with 1 to 2 foot chop, as the winds were slowly dying off. It would make for a much easier day of fishing!

Mike & Cory joined me and we headed right for some bass action. It seemed that the fish were in a bit of a funk after the last couple of days and very few of them were actually aggressive. I was forced to slow down their presentations after only a couple of fish were landed. The soft plastics however did the job and several decent bass were soon boated. In fact it was like this throughout the morning with every location we fished! Cory even managed to land a nice keeper walleye on a soft plastic that immediately went into the livewell for dinner tonight!

The afternoon saw us changing up to trolling in hopes of adding to their walleye catch. We spent the remainder of the time covering water and although we did manage two more, only one of the fish made the cut. The other was too long and immediately went back. The number of pike however were incredible and a few of them were quite large too. Too bad we couldn’t do that with the Walters!

Time flies when you’re catching fish and before we knew it, we were heading back to the dock. The ride was through 2 footers or more but it seemed like a breeze compared to the last time I was on the water! Oh yeah, the small engine ran great now that I redid the start & stop buttons!

What a difference a day makes! From scorching heat & humidity, to post frontal cool air and insane hurricane winds. Pierre & Gilbert had the pleasure of experiencing giant waves at the start, but at least we were heading straight into them on our way to the first spot.

I had planned on trolling an area due to the conditions and stopped in slightly calmer water to set up. As if I hadn’t had enough motor issues this season, I now had another problem! It seemed that the long run in big waves somehow caused the start button on the small engine to malfunction. It flat out didn’t want to fire! I soon realized after moving the wiring a bit that it must have cut through, causing a break from the run. Oh well, another day without the kicker once again!

We managed to boat several northerns and a couple of bass in the first few hours by making some adjustments. I would troll into the big waves using the main engine and switch to the trolling motor when going with the wind. Not my preferred method, but it worked!

After trolling for quite a while with just a few more fish, I bit the bullet and decided to go elsewhere, casting for bass. I picked an area that was somewhat protected from the big winds and we were all happy. It was nice to not be constantly fighting the hell, Mother Nature had unleashed on us, for a while!

As I was limited to where I could fish today, I tried picking areas close to each other. We remained in this one and they managed to boat plenty of smallies while there. After a while however, the well went dry and we were forced to fight the winds once again!

I was now fully exposed to her wrath and fished in a giant crosswind with plenty of current hitting us as well. Thankfully the anchor mode on the electric made it all doable and once again both Pierre and Gilbert managed to fight plenty more bass. I worked this area meticulously, with them picking at every fish they could. Gilbert even managed to catch a nice keeper walleye that went directly into the livewell for dinner tonight.

I hit one final spot once the action slowed, in hopes of getting a few more fish. Gilbert was looking for another walleye to bring home but it just wasn’t happening. I made one cast with a jig and was immediately locked up. Thinking it wasn’t a bass, I told him to get the net and he happily dipped it under another eye. After one more bass, I readied the boat for the long run back. Although it didn’t look too bad, we were in for a big surprise!

As I got more into the open water I could see that the rollers were much bigger than I thought and I was forced to head back like a sailboat. I had to tack multiple times along the way in the waves and even at that, we managed to eat some water. Thankfully we made it to the ramp only a little wet and everyone was happy to be back.

I’m not really sure how big some of those waves were today, but they were definitely in the four to six foot range at times. I’m sure glad the motor performed and the Ranger got us back safe & sound! Just another day in paradise and another one in the books!

James was back again with Randall and this time the brought Chuck along for a day of bass fishing. We were in for another scorcher and it looked like a windless one again too!

I didn’t expect it to be difficult catching bass right after the opener but today was a shocker. The water had fallen so much that the spawn seemed completely over and all the shallow fish had vacated the usual haunts. What should have been a crap shoot turned into a difficult morning. Plenty of smaller fish were landed but the good ones were few & far between!

It didn’t take me long to figure out that I had to change up presentations and tactics in order to get the bites I wanted. We hit a few off shore places and finally started to catch better fish! One of the areas saw aggressive bites from several good fish just before a storm. Just after noon, we actually had to pull off the water with as it got closer. We remained on shore for close to an hour as thunder and high winds added to the heavy rains.

When the storm had passed, we were able to head back out in more scorching heat! Limited time remaining had me trying a couple more areas and one of them produced quite well. Several fish were missed and caught with Randall getting the best one of the day. James almost had his second lunge with me too, as another big toothy critter took a swipe at the bait he was throwing, only a few feet from the boat.

Time had run out and 4:00 hit fast in the afternoon with the weather break. We were done!

Despite all the changes, I was able to make the necessary adjustments to turn this slow morning into a decent day. Some good fish were caught and Randall even managed to add another species to his bucket list. He landed a drum in the morning that was his first ever! Hopefully in the coming weeks, the summer fishing will be in full mode making for actively feeding fish all over. Great days ahead!