Forcing the Issue...

[Team Otter]

The Issue: Drastic change in water temperature, transitional 'eyes and unstable weather.

After a couple of dismal scouting trips, going into today's guide trip I wasn't sure what to expect other than some more head scratching. But, right away in the morning my spirits were quickly lifted when we started out dragging jigs and plastic in 8 - 10' of water and BAM! Not an 'eye but rather perch and sheephead. A few nice perch as a matter of fact but not enough to hold us in the area, so on we went. We made the move to shallow cover and we were immediately getting bit but could not connect. So, we slowed the boat to a crawl, tied on Northland Fireball jigs for the short shank, hooked the minnow into a headstand and BINGO. My client instantly connected with a healthy 15" 'eye for the box. Game on? Not so much. From there, it was small fish, so I opted for the trolling sticks. On our first pass, literally 45 seconds in, we got bit by a nice 'eye but it came unbuttoned about half way back to the boat. Good sign? Again, not so much, as far as trolling goes. We passed through the area for a good hour or so with nothing, so I told my client, "it's time to force it". We beared down and casted cranks the rest of our outing, which ended up being ~4 hours straight. And that's all it took to get the action going. #5 shallow Shad Raps in 4' of water were getting bit hard and often. Any cranks with a white belly was the ticket. The only problem is that we would have traded the quantity for quality as many of the fish were in that 13 - 14" range but still nice fillets for the pan if that's what a person was after. We just kept a few. I was actually quite surprised, with the conditions, that we were able to get some fish to go by going right after 'em.

The best is yet to come! I'm off to Brainerd this Thursday for 4 days on Gull but then I'll be back in the area until late October for a Mille Lacs run.

[katofishingguy]

Hey Otter glad to see you had better luck today. Tough day friday but still a good time thanks for letting me tag along.

[Team Otter]

Saturday was "night and day" to Friday. Friday was about as tough as it gets. Amazing the difference in just 10 miles. I'll make the trip up to you before the snow flies.

[SCONASOTAN]

You 'bin getting em' on casting cranks still. If so, you working weedlines or shallow rock/gravel. Going out Sat. and want to have a clue where to start with presentations.

thanks

[Team Otter]

The presentations are laid out in the report; castin' cranks and jigs and minnows.