Well it is official. Black fly season has come early and just in time for the long weekend, which us Northerners call the May Run. I called my friend Les to see how the fish were hitting on the lake he lives on. Well all he said was come on up, so I jumped in the truck and was on my way. Well when I got there it sure didn't us long to jump in his boat to get away from the black flies. With winds 25 to 35 kmph those little buggers stayed with us when we tried to cast our jigs with gulp and power baits while drifting. So without a trolling motor on Les boat, he fired up his 20 horse. With a short cast out the back of the boat using a 1/4 oz white or chartaruse jighead with a 3 inch white power grub or 3 inch glup chartaruse minnow grub with a small piece of worm on we trolled a weed line. Well in two hours of trolling like this we landed 20 Walleye all between 14 to 18 inches long. We also caught a lot of small Pike and some decent size Perch. The trick was not to let the jig hit bottom and to give it a little snap. However at times we just dragged the jig a foot off the bottom and without the piece of worm on and still caught fish. Every fish inhaled the Gulp or Power Grub.
The rods that I used for this method were Shakespeare 7 foot Ugly Stick Lite with 8/3 Fire Line Crystal with a 18 inch leader of Berkley Triline 100% Fluorocarbon 20 lb Professional Grade. The reason for the Ugly Sticks were for the softer action as the hits were hard and with the no strecth line, the rods act great as a shock absorbed. The NPS T-Shirt that Dan dropped off for me on his visit up here was also part of the equipment used and is now broken in after a fun pack two hours of fishing. So the next time out if your trolling motor dies and the wind is up near a weed line, I hope you remember this article. Sharp Hooks everyone.