Posted by MNAngler On July - 10 - 2013

By Tuesday night, Ken, George, and I had been on the water for a total of about 13 man-hours. The only good fish during that time was on my second cast of the week. The rest of the time was pretty dismal.

We decided we would head out to Walleye Alley to see what we could stir up and George’s wife, April, decided to join us (just to be outside, not to fish). We started on the East end and as we approached, we saw two loons with their little baby. We were all enthralled with the little family, but I didn’t want to waste too much time on the water without fishing. So while the others took pictures, I tossed out a line with a texas-rigged white pearl super fluke.

On my second or third cast, while still watching the loons, I had a strike, but lost it halfway to the boat. When I pulled my lure in, I discovered the hook didn’t come out of the fluke body after the strike. The tip of the hook had been buried too deeply. I remedied the situation and cast out again.

Within another few casts, I felt some resistance during the retrive and set the hook. It didn’t move much, but it was too soft to be a rock, so I knew I had a fish on. My suspicions were confirmed when it finally did move a bit. I didn’t know what it was, though, because it was just sitting on the bottom not really moving. Ken noticed my hook set, but when I didn’t really real in, he asked if I still had it. I replied with a simple, “yeah.”

When I got the fish near the boat, George responded with a net and I pulled this chunker out of the water:

It came in at 17″. Another qualifier for the BP Minnesocold Bass Derby!

I gave Ken my smartphone to take the picture above and I was so excited to get back in the water, I didn’t ask for it back. Little did I know, that he took pictures of my next cast which resulted in this series of pictures:

This one fought a lot more, but it didn’t feel very big. I was surprised how big it was when I pulled it out of the water. It measured 16″:

In hindsight, I probably should have weighed both of these fish. While the first qualified for the BP Minnesocold Bass Derby by length, I bet I would have gotten a little more weight credit than the length-to-weight conversion because of its fat belly. The second, while too short, still might have qualified by weight. I’ll have to make sure to do that next time.

After landing those two nice fish, Ken and George finally turned their attentions away from the loons and directed them toward fishing. It would be about a half hour before we got our next hit. This time it was George. He pulled in this 14-incher, also on a white pearl super fluke.

A bit later, I landed a 13″ smallie on a green wacky worm.

As the sun went down, we were noticing some topwater action near the point of the island near where we were fishing. We moseyed over there and on the way, I landed a small 8″ smallie on my 6″ white fluke. I should have taken a picture of that because it was pretty funny.

We then all switched to topwaters. Splashes were happening all over in front of us, but none of them on our lures. At one point, I had my Heddon prop out and was distracted with something else when I heard a bigger splash. I turned and saw my lure missing, so I quickly reeled up and set the hook. It was only a 12.5″ smallie, but at least I got one. Try as we might, that was the last fish of the night.

Overall, it was a good night. We got some nice fish and some nice numbers. We were able to add to the fish fry kitty a bit so there was less pressure for the next few days (we let the two big ones go). As the sun went down, April took this cool picture of me. It’s now my cover photo on Google+ and will soon be on Facebook as well.