Spent the last two days hitting a few of our mixed bag larger lakes. These lakes can be intimidating and to be honest I don't fish them as much as I should. However the variety of fish and quality of a fall bite proved to make them worth it!
I started day one fast with a strong fish that just kept tugging. It ended up being the largest smallmouth of the trip for me:
I got three in a row and thought it was going to be on but the bite just sort of petered. This fella already had a big meal and I can relate
Exploring with sonar:
Well that's just cute:
I lost a really nice rainbow in the 18 to 20 inch range at the tube on a brown jig leech with @Northern watching. I think the pressure was too much!Somewhere around this time @Buzzy and @Starman77 left leaving Northern and I to explore. I don't blame them as the bite had slowed and it was a slower morning for sure.
As the day continued I watched Northern land a 22 inch Walleye that put up a great fight. That was a hoot!
Somewhere around this time I switched to an olive baitfish jig:
I started figuring out a bite over a 20 to 25 foot hump near where Northern caught her nice walleye and it was on!
The walleye were in the 14 to17 inch range for me but they fought surprisingly well! Caught several in this range mixed with smallmouth as the bites really picked up for me.
Baitfish and schools of fish were everywhere!
I don't know if it was just the coloration of a fall day but I'm not sure my pictures are doing the fish justice. They were striking, plump and fun as hell to catch!
I told Northern in the late afternoon that I felt like we were leaving just as the bite got good and she commented that she always feels that way. Isn't that true?
Day 2 to come....
I started day one fast with a strong fish that just kept tugging. It ended up being the largest smallmouth of the trip for me:
I got three in a row and thought it was going to be on but the bite just sort of petered. This fella already had a big meal and I can relate
Exploring with sonar:
Well that's just cute:
I lost a really nice rainbow in the 18 to 20 inch range at the tube on a brown jig leech with @Northern watching. I think the pressure was too much!
Somewhere around this time @Buzzy and @Starman77 left leaving Northern and I to explore. I don't blame them as the bite had slowed and it was a slower morning for sure.As the day continued I watched Northern land a 22 inch Walleye that put up a great fight. That was a hoot!
Somewhere around this time I switched to an olive baitfish jig:
I started figuring out a bite over a 20 to 25 foot hump near where Northern caught her nice walleye and it was on!
The walleye were in the 14 to17 inch range for me but they fought surprisingly well! Caught several in this range mixed with smallmouth as the bites really picked up for me.
Baitfish and schools of fish were everywhere!
I don't know if it was just the coloration of a fall day but I'm not sure my pictures are doing the fish justice. They were striking, plump and fun as hell to catch!
I told Northern in the late afternoon that I felt like we were leaving just as the bite got good and she commented that she always feels that way. Isn't that true?
Day 2 to come....
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