Three neighbors and I (two boats) headed up Friday afternoon / evening to fish Friday & Saturday night hoping with two boats we could cover some water and try to put a pattern together. We stayed at Twin Pines and planned to cover from Garrison down to Cove bay if we needed too.
Friday Night
We ended Friday night a bit earlier then we wanted to due to faulty batteries and a short nap that turned into an 8 hr. nap. We missed most of what I believe is prime time (10pm – 1am). We ended up with 9 fish, all between 20.5” – 25”, most coming before 8:30 pm, all fat and sassy. All coming from one spot no larger than a quarter of a football field, no weeds (at specific location), 8-10’ of water, 1.6 – 2.0 mph (Bass Boat + 175hp 2 Stroke + two drift socks = Walleye’s weren’t scared in shallow water), no surging of the rod. We tried bobber for a bit in this spot (once batteries died) but nothing.
Saturday Night
After trying to troll, rig & bobber around Garrison and the deeper water adjacent to the spot from Friday night with no results in the afternoon we anchored out of the wind for a little nap before dark. We started our trolling around 6:30 in 8 – 10’ of water just before the moon was coming up. It wasn’t long and we pulled a 27 ¼” to the boat. A few moments and a trolling pass later another mid 20’s. We called the other boat over who was off scouting another spot to see if they could get anything going. Once again our batteries went dead after a few hours (only 1.5 yrs old) so plan B was to run our big motor kicking it in & out of gear to try to stay between that 1 – 2mph range. After two more fish (for our boat) the bite seemed to die off AND I was yet to get on the board (I make a great net man)!!!
A suggested we move to a spot from last year that we did well and that paid off. Same set-up 6 – 10’ of water, stick baits, trying to hit 1.4 – 1.8 mph with the big motor. This move paid off big time as 20 minutes in both boats had multiple hookups. From 10:30 – 1:30 we hooked up with around 15 fish between the two boats including me getting on the board a few times, including a PB of 27 ¾” for me (“skinny” fish). As fast as we found them on the new spot it shut off and we could only find one here one there not teh pods of them. Maybe they moved in shallower but we decided to call it a night around 1:30 as I had to drive home the 90 minutes yet.
We did get one last flurry of fish around 1:15 with the very bright moon while changing to a chrome / blue stickbait but otherwise it was dark colors all weekend. I was changing every 15 minutes (especially Saturday with the bright moon) trying to find some sort of favorite with the every changing moon conditions but we always went back to the dark colors.
All but the 27 ¾” fish were very fat and sassy. The 27 ¾” felt like a log coming in, not much fight just stayed on the bottom the entire time. One thing I noticed is we caught most of our fish while the big motor was being kicked to neutral. At least in our boat the fish only had the back hook most of the time and we lost a handful on the way to the boat plus some missed strikes which lead me to believe they wanted slower speeds but there was nothing we could do without the trolling motor.
Summary
Water temps – 49.4 – 52.2
~30 fish –19.5” – 27.75”
1.4 – 1.8mph
Dark colored stickbaits took most with a few coming on blue chrome
