Wow, talk about wind. 21MPH steady (Then figure gusts added in) the first two days and a little less (not by much) on the third. Stayed at Woodland Resort and as always, an awesome experience. Had some main cranking battery issues on day one that set us back a bit but Mike at Woodland Marine gave us a loaner as they recharged our main. What a champ! Thanks Mike!
With the wind out of the ESE on all days, we launched from Woodland Resort on Day One (Thursday) and caught the wind tail quartering over to six mile bay. Rough water for sure, but going with it was easy enough. In six mile, we picked up a few here and there (walleyes and pike) dragging crawlers on spinners but had fun all afternoon until the lightening started at 5. Now how do you get through that main lake basin again (back to Woodland Resort) with qualified 4 footers and a few 5+ foot rogues? You don’t! We tried but it was just too hairy, even with the WX2100. With 5 guys in the boat, 64 gallons of fuel and water in the livewell, we were getting soaked as we crawled back into the wind nose up at 5-6 MPH. So we turned back (lightening still cracking in the South part of the lake) and docked at Bayview Resort (mostly wind protected and a sure relief). We were met by a nice fellow (the owner I think) and he drove one of our guys back to Woodland to get the truck and trailer. I can’t tell you all enough how nice that was. Gotta find a way to identify who he was and thank him.
Ended up with a bag of 12 eyes and a few nice pike that day. All walleyes in that 16-19 inch range. Tried jigging the bridge by HWY 19 in six mile but couldn’t get the anchor lock to work properly on the trolling motor. Just would not hold a spot with the gusts of wind throwing the bow one way or the other. Steady wind is no problem, but that gusty wind, no wind, and back to strong gusts just wreaked havoc on the anchoring function.
Day two was a day for rethinking which end of the lake to launch/fish on. Headed South to launch in Black Duck bay and fish the wind protected side. Did a little better for numbers but the chunkers were still eluding us. 16 walleyes and a couple of pike was the count dragging spinners and 3 ways. But boy was it nice to be out of most of the bigger waves. No rain on Friday to speak of so it was a dry day to boot. We found a couple of real nice White Bass that tasted mighty fine in the fryer to boot!
Day three (Saturday) was another run to the South side out of Black Duck bay but got a little more adventurous and got into the windier points and reefs. Nothing scanned on the reefs and only a couple on the points. Wind was blowing pretty good but we plowed over to the bridge of HWY 20 in East Bay and plopped down for some jigging rap action. BINGO! 5 man limit caught in the afternoon. Natural perch was the color that produced best. Some nice chunkers in the mix too. While the longest walleye was only 21 inches, that had to weigh 4+ lbs. What a football! That wind was creating quite the current on the back side of the bridge we were on and yes, there was a spot on the spot there. 5 other boats in the area but none producing like our boat as we much have been hogging all the current seam to ourselves.
Fish fry every evening put every one in a food coma and laughs were had all along the way (except for the first day heading into the wind near 6 Mile trying to get back to Woodland, then every one was wet and grumpy). Water temps were 60 degrees all over. What a fun trip!
