Roger was at the dock waiting when I returned back to base in my new Lund Pro V GL 208. Everyone gets excited when they get a new boat. I had a smile as I came off plane pulling into our bay. I drove a 250 hp Suzuki for a few years it was a quiet motor. My 250 hp Mercury Verado Pro redefines the word quiet and easy smooth steering. I was returning from the last day of Jason and LuAnn Gatts’s Chairman II trip. Roger and I visited and set a game plan for Tuesday’s fishing.
We met for a 7:00 AM breakfast and hit the water by 7:30 AM. We were going to fish smallmouth bass, walleyed pike and northerns during the day. We traveled to an area and started to cast plastics, top water bass baits, and Husky Jerks on points with a little wind blown in. It did not take long to find out the bass were on fire along with the walleyes. As we pulled in towards the second point both of my Humminbirds1198 c SI and 798 c SI showed fish all over where the point came from ten to seven feet.
Often fishermen get so focused on the tip of the point or the visible underneath area and don’t pay attention to the portion not visible. Fish your way into the points catching the outer fish first, move in closer as the bite slows.
We switched to top water baits and it was non stop action. The bass that missed the Tiny Torpedo or Skitter Prop got a taste of Trigger X crawfish or a Kalin five inch tail watermelon color. We could have caught smallmouth in the first bay all day long, they were hot, and active.
We moved to another area to see what stage the smallmouth were in on a different area of the lake. We soon found beds, they were hard to see as the water is about a 1 1/2 feet high. There was no response to a top water bait or crawfish. Roger tossed a small black maribou jig in and bang a good strike and landed bass. The bass was a large male. The reason for the non activity was spawning. The male bass spray their sperm when caught, this one was doing the same. The female would not strike.
Next we tried fishing pike with buzz baits. The little pike were active but we were not seeing any big pike until! A large pike 36-38″ absolutely crushed my Northland Buzz Bait. Trouble was he ripped the bait to shreds, all I ended up with was a straight wire and a hook, no prop, skirt or anything else.
Walleyes for supper, next on the agenda. We started with a small breeze in the morning, it was flat glass by afternoon. Fisherman first thought when it is hot and still is to go deeper. Not mine. Go shallower. We fished a reef that was in 15 feet of water, casting plastic tails and jig and a minnow (1/8 oz. jig) up into four and a half feet of water. Almost a walleye a cast and guess what, the plastic caught as many walleyes as the jig with a minnow!