NumenOn the Water
Date: 4-16-16
Body of Water: Whitefish Lake
Boat: DC's Lund
With: DC
Target: Largemouth Bass
Time: 1 PM - 4 PM
Conditions: Clear, calm and bright. Temperatures were about 65 degrees F, with mild ENE winds. The water was extremely clear, and temperatures were about 47 to 51 F.
The ramp at this lake rates as "Poor" at best, and this was the first launch of the season for DC's Lund. She was going to spend the next few months on this lake, and so the plan included me navigating the Lund across the lake, where I would pick up DC, having returned to his home with the truck and trailer. I got there first, and that gave me time to idle around looking for fish in the super-clear water.
I was able to pretty much eliminate the shallows since obviously very few fish were present there, and I found a mother load of bass and other assorted fish outside of the main weed line in 7 to 9 feet of water. This gave us an obvious place to start our search, and we both felt confident that the fish would find and eat our jerk baits, rattle baits, jigs or Ned's. We ended up trying all these and more as we fruitlessly sought something the fish would eat. For most of the day we were visibly over fish, but we received no bites!
Thinking perhaps that the shallow fish, though fewer, might be more inclined to eat, we made a foray into the shallows and found an inside weedline holding a few bass. While we worked them over to no avail, I saw a fish that was distinctively a walleye. That in itself was interesting, but proved to be only a harbinger for what we would see later.
While my faith rested with jerk baits, they weren't working for me, so I introduced a slow War-Pig into the equation. On the end of a long cast, it produced the only strike of the day; this fish hit so hard (and I was so unprepared for such a strike) that it ripped the rod out of my hands! I could barely believe this had happened as I fumbled for my rod before it went overboard, but I grabbed the line and regained control. In the time it took form me to confirm that this was, indeed, a fish... I lost it! Crap! Just another example of an unknown fish somehow being more important than the ones we actually catch!
Well, it was a beautiful afternoon and at least one fish had eaten, so we kept at. It. As we approached DC's home waters of the lake's northwest end, we started seeing more and bigger fish, just visible off the deep weedline, and often holding 10 or 12 feet down. I examined one particular log of a fish, trying to figure out if it was indeed a fish, what kind of fish, or just part of the shadowy bottom, when the characteristics of a walleye clearly emerged. This was a tank, but totally unresponsive to our efforts. With our new search images ingrained, we started seeing dozens of walleyes in this area of the lake. We saw plenty of nice pike and bass, too, but we were pleasantly surprised to see so many walleyes in this lake.
Nothing else bit, but it was cool to experience a visual survey of what the lake can offer!
The ramp at this lake rates as "Poor" at best, and this was the first launch of the season for DC's Lund. She was going to spend the next few months on this lake, and so the plan included me navigating the Lund across the lake, where I would pick up DC, having returned to his home with the truck and trailer. I got there first, and that gave me time to idle around looking for fish in the super-clear water.
I was able to pretty much eliminate the shallows since obviously very few fish were present there, and I found a mother load of bass and other assorted fish outside of the main weed line in 7 to 9 feet of water. This gave us an obvious place to start our search, and we both felt confident that the fish would find and eat our jerk baits, rattle baits, jigs or Ned's. We ended up trying all these and more as we fruitlessly sought something the fish would eat. For most of the day we were visibly over fish, but we received no bites!
Thinking perhaps that the shallow fish, though fewer, might be more inclined to eat, we made a foray into the shallows and found an inside weedline holding a few bass. While we worked them over to no avail, I saw a fish that was distinctively a walleye. That in itself was interesting, but proved to be only a harbinger for what we would see later.
While my faith rested with jerk baits, they weren't working for me, so I introduced a slow War-Pig into the equation. On the end of a long cast, it produced the only strike of the day; this fish hit so hard (and I was so unprepared for such a strike) that it ripped the rod out of my hands! I could barely believe this had happened as I fumbled for my rod before it went overboard, but I grabbed the line and regained control. In the time it took form me to confirm that this was, indeed, a fish... I lost it! Crap! Just another example of an unknown fish somehow being more important than the ones we actually catch!
Well, it was a beautiful afternoon and at least one fish had eaten, so we kept at. It. As we approached DC's home waters of the lake's northwest end, we started seeing more and bigger fish, just visible off the deep weedline, and often holding 10 or 12 feet down. I examined one particular log of a fish, trying to figure out if it was indeed a fish, what kind of fish, or just part of the shadowy bottom, when the characteristics of a walleye clearly emerged. This was a tank, but totally unresponsive to our efforts. With our new search images ingrained, we started seeing dozens of walleyes in this area of the lake. We saw plenty of nice pike and bass, too, but we were pleasantly surprised to see so many walleyes in this lake.
Nothing else bit, but it was cool to experience a visual survey of what the lake can offer!
What do I have to say about this?
There were two surprises this day. I have ever seen so many walleyes, and we were skunked! Both of these outcomes give us good reason to come back, and even though we didn't catch anything, we both saw plenty worth catching in the future!
There were two surprises this day. I have ever seen so many walleyes, and we were skunked! Both of these outcomes give us good reason to come back, and even though we didn't catch anything, we both saw plenty worth catching in the future!
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