Later in the evening, Ken, George, and I headed out on the pontoon. One of our usual spots we hadn’t hit yet was the three bays between the Prune Lake and Liz Lake portages. We first started in the bay near Prune Lake.
I started with a bubble gum fluke because I was after my species trifecta. Using a fluke allows me to target multiple species at once. A couple of casts in and I was on the board:
Species: Smallmouth bass
Size: 10″
Lure used: Bubble gum super fluke
George also got a hit, but couldn’t bring it in.
After casting with the bubble gum fluke for a while, I couldn’t remember if I had ever caught a Northern on bubble gum, so I switched to white pearl. Ken was using a Rapala and ended up getting snagged on a rock on the North side of the bay near the entrance. After getting him free, I started concentrating on that side of the bay as well.
I dropped one cast passed a rock and worked my fluke back. Just as it got to the back side of the rock, I got hit hard enough for my drag to get pulled out. I fought it for a few minutes and we were all holding our breath wondering what it was and how big it was. It ended up being just a little Northern:
Species: Northern Pike
Size: 13″
Lure used: White pearl super fluke
Species trifecta complete!
Having gotten little more action, we went around the corner to the bay that was more of an alcove. I recounted our adventure last year in this spot where I caught a nice 16″ smallie on a wacky worm.
Having landed the third in my trifecta and getting impatient with getting no more Northern hits, I went back to the texas rigged KVD coffee worm. The switch paid off with a nice 14″ smallie:
Species: Smallmouth bass
Size: 14″
Lure used: Strike King KVD Big Tex Ocho worm, texas-rigged
I got no more hits on the KVD coffee worm, so I switched to a wacky worm. That didn’t yield any results. George was now on a topwater prop, but Ken stuck with the white fluke.
In the second bay George got a hit on his topwater, but couldn’t bring it in. With no other action, the three of us motored to the last bay and I switched back to the KVD coffee worm. It landed me one more for the night:
Species: Smallmouth bass
Size: 12″
Lure used: Strike King KVD Big Tex Ocho worm, texas-rigged
While in those last three bays, Ken missed a couple of hits on the fluke (he’s not used to waiting for the weight), but did manage to land a 14″ smallie. I can’t remember where he caught it, though.
Before it got too dark, we tried a bar off an island more toward the middle of the lake. Ken took us to the windward side of the bar, but I suggested he take us leeward as the fish would likely be waiting for bait coming over the shelf.
Ken moved to the other side and throwing a KVD coffee worm, I got a couple of hits exactly as I thought, coming right over the shelf. However, I couldn’t get my hook set into any of them.
Not a bad night. I got my trifecta and added to my week’s tally:
Week tally: Smallmouth bass: 12 (double digits!), Walleye: 1, Northern Pike: 1
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