Back up north for my annual fall big northern smallmouth lake trip to possibly my favorite lake in the world (at least north of Gaylord and south of St. Ignace) Mullett Lake. Drove most of midday to get here on this shorter trip this year so we only had a few hours this afternoon to test the waters. And the wind is howling. Not the 45 mhp mess we always seem to get part of our week long trips, but it is definitely blowing 30 or better!
Not a whole lot of the lake is fishable (unless you like getting really wet while going up and down a lot!!). Luckily, we only have a few hours anyway. So we launch in the NW and the waves are still wrapping around Dodge Pt. It’s shallower so on every swell as I wait for cameraguy to park the trailer, my motor is bottoming out on the sandy bottom!
As we’re getting ready to head out, we run into Ryan and his dad. Then bender calls because he and Langer just got up too and they’re looking for a place to fish without getting slammed by the wind.
The water is pretty churned up. Lots of sand and mucky bottom suspended in the water column. Ryan says they didn’t get a bite and it was rougher than blazes around the point. We decide to stay in the NW corner so we don’t have to brave the white caps.
We don’t get any bites for a while and then cameraguy gets a ‘snag.’ Only his snag starts swimming and then comes out of the water… TOAD!!! BIG… BLACK… TOAD SMALLIE!! Since we’re not in a tournament, he gets it in.
If you’re going to only catch 1 or so, this is the one to catch! Shortly after that, I get a bite and fight something that quickly goes for my trolling motor. Then under the boat. It won’t come right up. I tell him I first thinks it’s a decent bass, but then it heads under the boat and there’s weight and power.
It also pulls off! Shoot! A few minutes later, cameraguy is ‘snagged’ again. He says it feels like a fish, but he’s snagged over something. He finally gets his line off the snag and it is still pulling. Turns out it’s fighting funny because it’s a walleye! Pretty nice walleye, but we decide we don’t feel like going through the cleaning and cooking routine. The lucky walleye goes back into the lake.
The sun is starting to touch the tops of the trees and we need to check in so we decide to weigh cameraguy’s giant smallie. It weighs a whopping 6.5 pounds. His personal biggest… and we just got here!!! Slow start, but hopefully a sign of things to come.
Me… all I catch is another pike! I’m really on the pike lately.