The Weather Network said it was going to a nice day with partly cloudy skies and a temp of 9 degs C, Laker John and I headed west from Kingston on the 401 and the FULL moon was still shining at 0700. That bodes well for a good day of fishing, we said - full moons are the best days.
Launching the boat at Shermans and heading toward Thompsons we began to troll toward the west side. We had planned to head east of the ferry, but the south-southwest winds kept us from heading out there.
We had reviewed the posted results of the weekend and the best results were posted by Quinte Prince & Desi. We made our way to another area of Long Reach.
The wind was blowing straight up the Reach and we decided that to troll slow enough, (this being dictated by the 43 degs F water temp) we would troll up wind. This was good enough to get our speed down to 1 MPH right where we wanted.
The main challange was to choose a lure that I thought would work, scanning the boxes and the various colours, I chose a lure that I had never caught a fish on, the Manns Stretch plus 20 in the Blueberry Muffin colourd was the lure of choice.
We began the trolling at approx 0950 and hardly ten minutes passed for the first strike. VOILA- a beautiful walleye landed - scales produced and they tipped at 11.75 lbs. The rear hook of the lure had been altered in the spring changing to a Mustad Tripe Grip Treble - what a job it did.
There was little point in continuing with an unproductive lure on one line and the second rod was quickly changed to the same Blueberry Muffin. The second rod hadn't been out for 15 minutes and off it went. Laker John found the fish and it slipped into the net. Man O Man, the days a success as the scales tipped at 11.15 lbs
The trolling pass continued and at 11 o'clock the board went off again, I reeled in another nice 10.0 lber was weighted and released.
We have found the Mother Lode of walleyes - we had three fish in an hour all double digits - lots of smiles and laughing and handshakes.
At the end of the trolling pass, we started down-wind and found that the speed was too great, over the side went the trolling bag and as easy as pie the speed dropped back to 1 MPH. We trolled back and forth and after what seemed to be a long time, the planer board showed signs of a fish. Laker John brought this one to the net and the scales showed 10.75. Another Double Digit - HOLY COW!!!!!!!!
We hardly had time to eat a sandwich and have a sip of soup. The planer board reacted again at 1310 and I brought a much smaller fish to the net, this one was a mere 8 lbs.
We were both pleased at our results after four hours of fishing, but still there was plenty of time left in the day to continue fishing. We had a bit of time until the board went off again and Laker John reeled in another nice walleye at 1445. Another Double Digit - 10.5 lbs.
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We had landed six really nice fish and said we would make one more pass before we headed back to Shermans. At 1510, the trolling reel screamed and I was tied into another fish, not real big, but another nice one. The scales shiowed that this one was 7.0 lbs.
We continued the final trolling pass with hopes that another fish would make the total count of eight. Sure enought the board went back and Laker John grabbed the rod and the fish shook its head and the hooks pulled out - Darn!!!!! Oh well that's fishing. We had several hookups like that previously and they too shook free from the lure. The daily count ended at 7 for 12, Three strikes that didn't hook up and a couple that shook free.
We headed back to Shermans and pulled the boat and cleared the gear and were on the road back to Kingston by 1630.
Lakers John and I had our BEST DAY trolling together ever, we surpassed our record day of Nov 13,2003. I cannot say enough about the ability to slow the boat down and using Precision Trolling got those lures right in front of those fish.
At the end of the road home, we both agreed it was a day for our scrapbooks and photo albums.
Pplease excuse the lengthy diatribe, but these days only occur once in a full moon.
Cheers
David aka Superdad