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According to my calendar this is the first day of summer, but for me summer actually happened last Monday.
That was the day the weather and my schedule actually coincided and I could go fishing. So I called my fishing buddy, Dennis Henthorne, to see if he was interested. That was a silly question as Dennis is always ready to fish.
It was also a good chance for me to experiment a bit as we trolled around the lake. Dennis would use a Shad Rap and I would try a couple different lures I hoped would work wonders on the walleye population. I was wrong.
We had barely made the first turn out of the cove when Dennis held up a keeper walleye for me to see. He had barely put his line out a second time before he caught a nice crappie. I was just getting my line in the water and I was having second thoughts about my choice of lure.
For some time I had thought that a Beetle Spin would catch everything from walleyes to perch so I had ordered a couple. Unfortunately, the order got messed up and the Beetle Spins I received were lightweights. Rather than send them back I felt the lighter lures would still catch crappies. I was wrong again.
Dennis continued to catch fish while I had to be content to drive the boat and troll the lightweight Beetle Spin. I might not be a great angler, but I am definitely persistent; often to my own disadvantage.
I did, however finally switch to a nightcrawler harness, but again I was fishing too shallow, but was too stubborn to add more weight. The harness did entice a few bites, but whatever bit just grabbed the nightcrawler and missed the hook. It looked like I was a great boat driver and was putting Dennis over fish, but the skipper of the Barbie J fishing pontoon boat was about to get skunked.
This is when having a good fishing buddy is worthwhile, and Dennis is a good buddy. Not only did he hand me one of his extra lures, but in deference to my eye problem hooked it on my line. Then I started to catch fish and my buddy took charge of removing my catch from the gangs of treble hooks. I'm still hoping to have that eye fixed, but the surgery was scheduled for just before the virus hit so I'm still waiting.
Monday I was lucky to have a buddy who would help make up for my lack of vision but what if I'm fishing alone? That could be a problem dealing with sharp hooks and sharp walleye teeth, so once again I'm on a quest to find a lure that will have fewer hooks and still catch fish.
The lure that caught the most fish last Monday was running down about 8 to 10 feet. But was it the depth that made the difference, or was it that lure's action? Could it have been the color? It's time to find out. I just wrote about this before, but now I'll begin to experiment in earnest.
I have a lure similar to the one that caught the fish last Monday, and I plan to change its hooks. Most of these lures have two sets of treble hooks and I'll try removing one set. Can the treble hooks be replaced with a single hook without ruining the action? There is just one way to find out, and that is to troll two similar lures, but with different hook arrangements. I'm sure Dennis will be happy to help with this experiment, especially if he catches fish.
Experimenting can be fun when it involves fishing, but I read somewhere that Thomas Edison had many, many failures as he perfected the light bulb, but he wasn't discouraged. He just claimed that each failure meant one more thing not to try. We all know that Mr. Edison was not only successful, but his success brought light to the world.
My fishing experiments are not in the same category as Edison's light bulb, but maybe they will bring more success to your fishing. At least Edison did not get to eat his failed experiments, but I'll be having my latest success for dinner tonight.