I was joined today by three guests on a Lake Wissota walleye hunt. We had a so-so walleye day...a molasses slow morning followed by a reasonable afternoon. Decent afternoon numbers of slot fish and shorts, although the "overs" eluded us today.Some of the trip highlights included the two 40"-class fish we had boatside. Mike Whittlinger hooked a small walleye about 5 minutes into the trip, which was promptly torpedoed by a 40"-class Wissota musky. Everyone had a chance to see it wallow and roll a few times before spitting out the tattered, quivering walleye and swimming away.
A few hours later, Ryan hooked a big rock that started to move. Well, 10-15 minutes later, we slid the Beckman under this Wissota supertanker flathead. 40" long and just shy of 35 pounds, this is the biggest cat that this walleye guy has been around in a long time. A few quick snaps with Ryan and the gang, and back she went.
Ryan didn't muscle this fish in with a crankbait and trolling gear. Rather, this Wissota flathead took a 1/8 oz Draggin Jig and a half-crawler, dragged over shallow rock in moderate current. Our ability to land this fish is a testament to the quality of the B-Fish-N tackle Draggin Jig (check out the cat slime still on the line!), the strength of the Cortland 8 lb hi-vis mono we're spooled up with (thanks Dean!), the quality of our St. Croix Legend Tournament 68MXF rods, and the smooth drags on our Shimano Symetre reels. Everything must work PERFECTLY to have a chance to land such an oversized, under-tackled fish, and all of this equipment performed flawlessly for us this afternoon.
And Ryan did a good job fighting her, too!
Congrats on your Wissota PB flathead Ryan....we'll shoot for a PB walleye next time out.
No comments:
Post a Comment