A Much Needed Weekend: Monday

With the weekends fishing being a little more difficult than anticipated, I knew I was going to have to go for broke in order to catch fish. The night before it was decided that we were going to get up early and head out to Swan where I had not been before. This was a gamble as I had only done research on the lake, but had not actually been on it before. I had heard that there were a fair number of pike in there, as well as walleye.
Ryan was the only taker on the offer and at that we got up at 5am and grabbed our gear and coffee for the jaunt north. I am used to lakes being 4 minutes away so I felt 25 minutes was insane, but the reality is, it really is not that far.
When we arrived, there was only one other boat headed out, and the wind was blasting into the boat ramp.... We did our best to get the boat out into the lake, but the water was super shallow and the wind was hell. Thankfully, the smaller boat was manageable but I knew this was going to be troublesome for the morning's fishing. We headed straight into the wind and crossed the whole lake, finding shelter from the wind. It didn't take long before Ryan had a nice pike follow his jig right up to the boat. I knew we had the right idea. We switched up some tactics and boated some fish!

Drifting the shoreline, it took a little under an hour and the wind had all but miraculously disappeared. We were able to take our time and work whatever structure we could find. A tic-tic on the line and Ryan laid into another nice one. When I looked down I about fell out of the boat!


HOG!!!

With a huge monkey off my back, we had a slob on the stringer. Yeah, I know we should have released this fish, but I was not about to release the only walleye we had caught all weekend.


We continue to boat pike, but nothing over the edge huge, but it was a nice change of pace. When our deep water structure disappeared we boated to the next point in the lake. We no more than got there and I had a dandy waldo follow my crankbait right to the boat. I could see the fish slink back into the depths but continue to follow the boat. I pitched my plug behind it and gave it a twitch. He came right up behind it and nipped at it. I gave another aggressive twitch and he came up and slammed it right behind the boat!

Another dandy waldo for the stringer!!!

Once the sun started to get higher, the fish really shut off. We had about an hour of fantastic action, but after that, they shut down. We took this as a sign, and headed back for the apartment, as everyone still had a long drive ahead of them for the day.

Two waldos on the weekend was tough, but it was better than none.

My only regret is not figuring this out earlier, and getting Austin and Jerry in on the action. I suppose this was a learning experience for me.
I cleaned fish while everyone ate a quick lunch and packed up for the trip home.


It was over before it felt like it even began. There was a lot of commotion and a lot of things going on all at once, and even Mocha passed out the minute the dust settled.

It was great to have everyone there for the weekend, and I am glad I was able to at least get some fish for those that came out. It was nice to have little ones running around all day and I was able to get plenty of baby time with Myla. She sure is growing fast!


And to my dearest Rachel, this weekend was because of you; I would not know any of these people if it were not for you. Without your decision to bring us to Clark, none of this would have happened. We can have a full fridge, and a roof over our heads because you work your ass off. For that I am forever grateful. Let's pray that things go through, and work will improve here shortly.






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