Have you ever had one of those days where you gut is telling you to stay home? To not go fishing because things just aren’t right. Well, next time my gut tells me to stay home, I’ll tell it to shut up!
Yesterday, under gray skies and an ever present threat of rain, we set out in search of lake trout. Our target lake was a short four portages away from the lodge. I planned on an hour to get there and set up, however the hard charging crew I was guiding helped power through and we were fishing in less than a half hour.
Right off the bat we landed a healthy 36” pike and 19” lake trout. In the back of my mind I was thinking, all right, “game on” let’s get this done. However, as happens so many times, the lake trout had other plans. We had a couple of hook ups that never made it to the boat and one bump that told us we just weren’t giving them what they wanted. We fished hard until lunch and only had a white fish and couple of eater pike to show for it.
After lunch we opted for fast action pike fishing and it didn’t take long to start landing fresh water gators. Although we were catching fish, I noticed the bite was different. The males were reluctant to leave their ambush points. It was as if they were scared. We were catching them, but something was vary different.
As we turned toward a bottleneck to exit a bay, we learned why! There was a thump on the end of the line that dang near stopped us in our tracks. I leaned back to the crew in the boat and said, “Boys, this one has some shoulders”.
Now, I have to stop here because there is an important element to this story that needs addressing. Back when James show cased our Walleye Dream Trip on his TV show, he gave me a pretty healthy razzing about using minnows. In fact, to this day, he often reminds me he caught just as many walleyes using a 4” ring worm from B Fish N Tackle as I did on my live bait. And he didn’t have to get his hands dirty. Enter Chris Granrud last fall. Same thing. He landed boat loads of fish using the ring worm and educated me on their effectiveness on catching all types of fish. Needless to say, I went out and purchased some.
Back to the locomotive hooked on the end of my line. I killed the motor and leveraged the rod against my body in preparation for the ensuing battle. I was using a 14/6 Berkley Fireline and knew I would have to dial back my drag when she decided to run. And ran she did. She ran, and ran, and ran and…well you get the point. I literally stumbled around the boat 3 times as she dictated the show. I’ll I could do was watch as she peeled line. At one point, we had to fire up the motor and drive away from shore. Beaching ourselves would have surely ended in her getting away.
After many minutes passed and very hard fought and fatiguing battle (for both of us), she finally submitted and I was able to lift her in the boat by hand (she wouldn’t fit into the net). When it was all said and done, she measured over 44” and weighted in just under 22lbs.
The question of the day… what did I catch her on? A 3/4oz Johnson Minnow, tipped with, you guessed, a 4” ring worm. Can’t wait to hear what James and Chris have to say now!
As a side note: As I type this, we just had a guest call and change his week. That opens up a Deluxe cabin from June 11 to June 18. If interested, please call me asap 866 333 5943
Until next time…
Chad
