Monday July 13

5:15  cloudy dark with east winds and cold front conditions. Not how you hope to start the week fishing. Geeze give me something to work with. It’s an easy drive to Parshall Bay on Lake Sakakawea due to the strong winds pushing my tired old Dodge. I try to get a weather report on the marine band I keep in the truck. Things don’t sound good with morning rain and severe thunderstorms predicted for later in the day. I hit the half way mark before the rain begins.

John and Tom arrived late yesterday afternoon from CO looking forward to a week on Sakakawea. Both are seasoned fishermen with stories ranging as far south as the Amazon and extending north to Alaska.  John has ¾ of a century behind him, Tom is only 3 years behind. Today our goal is to get fish for supper with enough left over so John can eat cold walleye for tomorrow’s lunch.

I often find myself picking up where I left off and sure enough I’m back to my last best spot. Big rocks in 20 feet on a long point straight across from the low water ramp in Parshall Bay. First pull and there goes the first crank of the day. It’ll be two more before the day is over. I try the  20-18-15 foot depths for one white bass and one skip jack before we move on for a pull headed north at 15 feet. More of the same, nothing.

Two more stops put us on the east shore in the pump house area for a run in 18 feet. Reef Runners matched up with Bomber 24a’s get us a small sauger Tom lets go and a keeper walleye for John. One more pull and we call it good as the guys are hoping to have lunch in their cabin at Brendles Bay. Sandwiches and drying out are about a dead even priority.

During lunch I get ice for the cooler and eat a quick snack in the boat while waiting at the ramp for John and Tom.  It’s not long before I’m overcome with this urge to drop in a jig and crawler. Hope meets reality, as John would say, after a dead spell but this is the reality I’ve been hoping for all morning. Bingo, my second cast , my first walleye. I manage one more right off the concrete ramp before the guys are back from lunch.

Your probably wondering , is Schoneck smart enough to figure this out? Jigs-crawlers- up shallow- back bays. Well--- kind of. At least I didn’t head straight back to where we left off and pull deep cranks. We dredged Parshall Bay back waters clean of tons of vegetation but removed not a single fish. Good Grief, now what? Jigs were my afternoon plan.

Open water is calling but will have to wait another day as we have 20 mph winds  out of the SE with more lake up in the air than I care to tackle. Back to the morning routine and as you would suspect, same results. We call it good at 4 pm with the days total at 3 good fish. Not a great day by no means but we did get supper and if John eats extra salad he will have cold fish for tomorrow’s lunch.

I hope to make a couple of calls yet tonight to see if I can get any info for tomorrow’s strategy. Right now it doesn’t look like the severe thunderstorms are going to show. I don’t know how they can as cold as it is. The boat is covered and I’m right behind, soon as I check tomorrow’s weather and make those calls.

July 14 am