And the Bite Goes On!

Quite the weekend on Mendota. I fished the morning and afternoon on Saturday and the evening on Sunday. My Buddy Matt Folz picked up a beautiful smallie and an 11" gill on Saturday ... And I picked up two nice walleyes, a 20" smallie, and a 21" - 5.5 lb smallie on Sunday. It was a different pattern for me on Sunday as I found the fish on a rock hump that came out of 50' of water and topped off at about 15'.

Just Typical ...

Spent last evening on Mendota again, but the wind kept me from my normal spot. I was forced to fish the west shore and I'd never been over there before. I looked for deep weed edges and started drop-shotting and floating leeches. I didn't take long to figure out that I was on to something. Ended the night with about 20 smallies to 18", 3 walleyes to 23" and a 32" cat. There was nobody else fishing within 1/4 mile of me. This lake is absolutely LOADED with fish!

How did this happen?

Can anyone tell me what killed this muskie?

Hmmm ... no responses. That's a good thing, because only a fish pathologist would really know how this fish died. Of course, there are a ton of wannabee fish pathologists who THINK they know how it died, but all they are is wannabees!

Smallie Bite Contuinues

The smallie bite has been incredibly consistent for me. I just have to put up with rough water and wait out the ever moving smallies. I found out Saturday that my boat can take on decent wind but it's really hard to chase fish in those conditions. So ... sit tight and wait for them to move around. Picked up a bonus 10" gill. She's in the freezer waiting to see if I get one bigger yet this year. If I do ... she becomes cat bait. If I don't she goes on the wall with the 11" from May.

Smallies LOVE the wind!

It got a bit breezy out on Mendota last night ... but it was well worth the bouncing in the boat. Smallies were eating live leeches and Gulp leeches like they were candy! Got them under float and on drop shots ... on the rock flats adjoining the weed beds.

Another Typical Mendota Day

Got out for the afternoon and evening Saturday. It took a while, but eventually found some smallies and walleyes on the weed edges. Got this guy drop-shotting live leeches.

At sundown my buddy caught this 30.5" channel on a leech under a slip float. It pretty much convinced me to take some bluegill chunks out the next time I go. We also saw a number of cats rolling on the surface.

Tying Hair Jigs For Bass Fishing (HD)

Definitely want to start tying some hair jigs for those days when the smallies are a little more finicky!

Two Pigs in One Day

Took my wife out fishing smallies on Mendota for a couple of hours this afternoon. She completely out-fished me ... including this 31" and 13 lb cat. Fought like a beast. I had vison of a 30" walleye coming up but this was pretty cool too. An hour later I caught this 20" smallie. Amazing fish, amazing fight!

Dogged by more than the dog days.

Here I am nearing the end of vacation and ... sitting at home n the air conditioning. Not by choice, have you, but because of boat issues. First I almost sank her on Saturday when the live well pump broke off about 3 miles from the launch. She took on water VERY quickly! Got my daughter and her boy friend out of the boat and into my buddies ... then baled and drove her as fast as she'd go. All ended up OK. Then I fixed her up and took her out again last night only to have her stall out about 2.5 miles from the launch. Yup, this sucks! So now she's in for repairs and I'm planning an early morning venture old school style ... bassin' the docks in my waders! Anyways, here's a few fish from the past week when things were going well: