Within an hour after arriving at our first spot, we got chased back off the lake by a thunder storm.
A half hour later, we left the launch site for a 2nd time and despite quite a bit of rain, we never did see or hear anymore lightning or thunder.
The fish didn't seem to be bothered in the least bit by all the bad weather activity over the past few days. We ran out enough line on the crankbaits to tick bottom in 12'-15' of water and the walleyes responded almost immediately. Some fine tuning to figure out the the best color pattern for the day was about all that we needed to do. After that, it was troll, troll, troll!
The walleyes were hot to. One after another was coming over the side of the boat. Actually, several did fall off or come off on there way into the boat but the action was steady right up till about 1:00pm or so. That's when the clouds cleared up just enough to let some hot sun shine through.
And that's when we switched over to crawler rigs. We slowed trolled them behind bottom bouncers along the same 12-15' depths. The action was slower for most of the afternoon, but the guys still managed to pull in fish on a fairly regular basis and they ended up with a nice limit of eaten size walleyes and saugers.
Looking back on it, I would say that nobody in this boat appeared to be bothered much by all the rain. It kept most of the recreational traffic at bay and it appeared to make the walleyes more active and willing to bite. The guys were sending verbal jabs back and forth as they were catching fish and in my opinion, they sure looked like they were having a great time.
For me, when I see the clients having fun and catching fish, that's about as good as it gets!
The little yellow data recording booklet that Tim Larsen sent me at the beginning of the year got another major workout today. The total for the day was 21 saugers, 26 walleyes and 3 crappies. We also caught some sheapshead and stripers, but not very many.
Scott and Jim, at your age, that's probably about as much fun as you can have while sitting in the rain. Glad you guys chose "Ballwegs Guide Service" cause I sure enjoyed spending the day fishing with the two of you.
Good luck and hope to see you guys again!
Boog
