Backwater Casting had the pleasure of hosting Mike Holland, Minister of Energy and Resource Development. This was my first time meeting Mike and it was readily apparent that he enjoys the outdoors. This was a very short day because of his schedule and we made the best of the time available. As usual our buddy the weatherman missed the mark by a mile. Our forecast 1m or less per hour was a downpour long before we hit the water and the 14k to 24k wind was closer to a gale. Raingear on and off we went. Boat control became a major issue because of the wind and we moved around a bit trying to locate both fish and an area that was fishable. We started off on a flat that is usually good and I figured it would be even better with the wind and we tied on a couple of SK spinnerbaits. That is one of my favourite baits to throw in the wind. The unusual aspect was the Mike liked to used a baitcast reel and he loved my Curado DC. I got one small one and Mike had a big one come off almost at the boat. There were no more bites in the next half hour so off we went and picked up a couple of drop shot set-ups. In the deeper water off of the break we were able to see fish on the HDS Live units but it was a job keeping on top of them. We both caught fish on them but no real big ones. Again we experienced a lot of fish coming off on the way in to the boat. It seemed like they were short striking the bait and not getting enough of the hook. The photo is Mike’s first Smallmouth of the season.
We headed further down the lake and got into a small cove that was somewhat sheltered from the worst of the wind and we picked up half a dozen more fish there. Mike picked up two of them on a Jackall ReRange 110 jerkbait and I got two on a Jackall Pop Grande and two on a tube.
Our third and final stop was pretty much unfishable due to the wind. The 36v trolling motor was on 70 and I could barely hold the boat at that speed. we had a couple of great chats about fishing and his thoughts on fishing in general, kids fishing, conservation and some changes he would like to see. Despite the weather it was a good day out there and I wish we had a bit more time but the Minister had a meeting so we took off back to the ramp and got him on the road.
We fished 8lb mono on the dropshots with Jackall Crosstail shad baits and a wacky style stick worm. Everything else was rigged with 20lb Power Pro Super8Slick V@ with fluorocarbon leaders. Dropshot took most of the fish today but three came on the SK spinnerbait, three on the tube, two on the ReRange and a couple of the Pop Grande. We put about twenty fish in the boat on a half day trip.
#fishshimanocan #fishjackallcan #Lowrance
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