Saturday night on Mendota

Got out for about 3 hours Saturday night. Had a few hours free so thought I would spend it on the water. Went to my favorite spot and was marking some good sized fish in about 25 feet of water. Didn’t have any live bait along so I planned to troll. Started with lead core and managed to hook up right away. Half way to the boat, it snapped off my leader. Figure it was a pike. Trolled around some more and continued to mark fish with no hits. Switched gear and long lined some deep diving baits. Hooked up on a good sized fish, and after a good battle, brought a 37 inch pike to the boat. Trolled around a little longer and decided to switch things up again.

Switched over to slowly pulling bouncers with stickbaits and that turned out to be the ticket. 50 feet after getting the rods set, I hooked up on a good fish. While fighting that one, my other rod hooked up. Ended up snapping off the first fish that hit, but managed to get the 2nd one to the boat, which turned out to be a nice fat 25″ walleye. I continued to hook up on fish pretty consistently over the next hour plus. The total for the night was 2 pike, one 37 and the other 34 inches, 7 walleye with the biggest at 25, a 4 pound smallie, a whitebass, and a catfish. Big rattling rouges and big floating rapalas in clown, blue/silver, and firetiger did all the damage.

Probably my best outing ever on Mendota. Hope to get out again this week and see if I can repeat the success. Didn’t take any pictures as I was by myself and the camera that normally is in my boat was sitting by my computer.

That’s a pretty darn good outing!

And I thought for sure I was going to see a catfishing report from “you know who” when I clicked on that title.

That’s good stuff Makes a guy wonder how many fish would have come to the net if you had some big live bait.
Too bad about the camera, would have liked to see some pics of those pretty Mendota pike and eyes

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That’s a pretty darn good outing!

And I thought for sure I was going to see a catfishing report from “you know who” when I clicked on that title.

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I hear you. I did catch one catfish though so it was kind of like a whiskerkev report. He’s going out with me tonight to see if I found a pattern or just hit upon dumb luck.

Yup I’m famous for big fish on Mendota reporting. and a tip of the hat to you too Mr Ballweg. I was leaving my spots alone this last weekend so I could take the big shot guide out and see if he knows everything about all species. I’ve been wanting to get a daytime bouncer bite going here so I am excited Jon found one decent fish while he was out. Right where I’d expect them to be too.. I’d not be surprised that he got broken off a few times, although I’d argue they may have been stronger than pike.

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I was leaving my spots alone this last weekend so I could take the big shot guide out and see if he knows everything about all species.

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I am nowhere near an all species specialist. Which makes it plenty of fun when I do get a chance to target hard fighting fish like catfish, pike & salmon.

Hopefully, I’ll being tangling with two of the three species listed above within the next couple of days or so.

Choosing between cats and kings would be tough for me. They are both very high on my list of fish to chase. Looks like nice weather on the weekend for either species. I might just bail work on Friday and make a day of it.

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Yup I’m famous for big fish on Mendota reporting. and a tip of the hat to you too Mr Ballweg. I was leaving my spots alone this last weekend so I could take the big shot guide out and see if he knows everything about all species. I’ve been wanting to get a daytime bouncer bite going here so I am excited Jon found one decent fish while he was out. Right where I’d expect them to be too.. I’d not be surprised that he got broken off a few times, although I’d argue they may have been stronger than pike.

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Hey catfish boy, cats don’t bite through 15 pound power pro leaders.

Without even working up a sweat. Why do you think I use 20? They roll and get a peck fin on that stuff and they can part it.

Well it was a nice try on Monday. Thanks for taking me out again. Those white tipped baitfish are fickle. They seem to only bite well when conditions are crappy.

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Choosing between cats and kings would be tough for me. They are both very high on my list of fish to chase. Looks like nice weather on the weekend for either species. I might just bail work on Friday and make a day of it.

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Cats will out do a King anytime! Kings just make that 200 yard and belly up

I’ve done both and I don’t think you can compare them at all. I’ve never caught 30 kings in an outing… and I’ve never had a king break my rods only my leaders. He chose well actually because conditions sucked for most of this weekend. It only gets better from here until Labor day. If you want to get out and see shoot a PM and I’ll arrange a demo for you.