My brother-in-law, George, had planned to come in to town on Father’s Day weekend so that he, his childhood friend, Greg, our father-in-law, Ken, and myself could all go fishing on Greg’s boat. A few days before he was due to arrive, we found out George couldn’t get the time off he wanted, so we couldn’t go.
I sent a text to Greg to see if he wanted to go anyway. He replied that he was heading to his cabin instead, but that we could head out some evening the following week. We settled on Thursday. It turned out be the perfect choice because it was the only day of the week that didn’t rain.
We hit a lake on the Northern edge of The Cities and got on it a bit before 7:30. We first tried some weed beds a few hundred yards off the boat launch. I started with a bubble gum fluke and Greg threw a beetle spinner. After a few casts, Greg suggested we move in closer. We both switched to topwaters. After no hits on those, we cruised down a little further.
As we drifted, I dropped a jig and pig and got a nip. I bottom bounced through that area a second time and got a second nip. Greg offered to drop anchor, but I said to wait. I went through the spot a third time, but nothing bit that time. We continued to drift.
After a while of no action, we decided to head deeper into the weeds. The bed had a few holes for us to drop lures into. The jig and pig was pulling up too many weeds, so I went back to my magic lure, but in white. A few casts in and I pulled in my first fish of the year.

About 9″.
After a few more minutes of no action, I switched to a wacky rig. Greg had never seen one before, so I showed it to him and told him about the nice fish I got at Ken’s lake last year. Just then, I felt a weight on the line and set the hook into something that pulled on my drag. It felt hefty and was putting up a good fight. We both waited with anticipation as I reeled it in. Greg asked if I needed a net. I replied that I didn’t know yet. When it finally came up to the boat, we were both disappointed.

It turned out to only be about 10-11″. We thought for sure it was going to be bigger than that.
A few minutes more with no action and we headed deeper into the lake. We tried a weed line near a bay and small island. Neither of us caught anything and the sun had already disappeared under the horizon. We decided to head back toward the boat ramp and try the trees and weeds near there until it was time to head in.

I dropped a white super fluke under a fallen branch and got a good nip, but got excited and tried to set the hook too soon. The boat was drifting and turning and Greg got his chance at the spot. He dropped his lure in several times with nothing until one time, he got a taker. He pulled in the biggest fish of the night: a bucketmouth at about 15″.
I got one more bite that I missed before we finally called it at about 9:30.
Overall, it was a very fun night. During the outing, Greg and I talked about some other spots we could hit together in the evenings. One idea was to fish the Mississippi river. Hopefully, we’ll be able to follow through on our plans sometime in the near future.