West Sister Shoutout

Being fair means posting the bad as well as the good I guess, and today was the bad for what it is worth. Looks like I am going to have to bite the bullet and load up the trolling gear - which is not my first choice. Two of us with lots of experience were shut out casting this morning north of West Sister. On the water by 7:30. Called it about noon when turned flat and hot....with all of 4 white perch to show for about five hours casting. Marks all over the finder. Top to bottom full of fish....I mean full of marks....everywhere we stopped....but none were hungry. Nice chop to start. Decent drift. I threw all my go to baits and colors - mayfly rigs, various weight forwards. Dragged a couple of harnesses on the bottom on second rods. Fished from near Sister out to near border. Out of the pack. In the pack. Up and down the column. Even stopped and tried shallow water on way in. You get the drift.

Not even one short walleye. Not one sheephead. Narry a yellow perch. Only good thing about today was had plenty time to scrub the boat. Some trollers did get limits....but radio traffic sounded like many of them too were struggling. Guy at gas dock said same thing. Don't know if it was the mayfly hatch or full moon. Buddy fished yesterday all afternoon/evening and only got one...I thanked him for making me feel not so bad.

Ooops...title should be shutout, surely not shoutout....won't let me edit.

Thanks for the report was.planning on going out Sunday morning casting but I will wait for some reports see what tomorrow does first.
Thanks again

The fish were there. Have to eat sometime. See wind picked up this afternoon so maybe should have not rolled out so early at 430 this morning. Forgot to mention the gnats were plentiful too. Also way more than I expected ugly algae slicks from W Sister to A Can. If you look at modus I thought that band was sediment from the rain and blow but turns out it is in big part algae too...

Thanks on the report. Have truck loaded and ready to roll up to my rig to get out tomorrow morning but now think we will pass on it and wait until Wednesday when we will be there for 5 days. Appreciate the heads up as I was planning on running up there in morning north of the island. Primarily a drifter but have all necessary trolling gear. Have been hearing of big hatches as well.

You never know. Don't want to discourage any body. Like I said, I had marks - and different marks - top to bottom all over my fish finder so something was there but not hungry. Mine isn't the newest and highest tech but it does show various sizes of fish. Last time I saw that many marks on it was one evening last fall, when we caught maybe 50 walleye shorts in about an hour of casting. Imaging too that the heat will be brutal out there about mid day.

Honestly LEfriend I really appreciate the truthfulness of your report. I have a son and wife who are my regulars and as much as I want to hit the water in morning I think it will be brutal for them by 11 am or so. Slow bite equals slow minds. After starting to fish this lake in 1980 and being part of the family charter business for 20 years i realize sometimes ya just gotta say no. We'll have plenty of time, mother nature of course, to get out next week during our little family get away. Good luck to all and stay safe!! Thanks again for your input.

headed to deeper water canuck side 32ft, ran 2oz guppies 20 back and on the small boards, big bad boyz were busy gouging on mayfly hatch near top, smaller ones came off bottom bouncing, ran snells of no.6 colorado silver back wonder bread pink/blue/on silver with 6mm beads clear lime green /clear pink and pearl white combos, don't know why they wanted that mixture but they were slamming it. Its all about finding that perfect menu they want and it takes alot of time and effort.Back out today following the herd that I had found when I went on a hunting expedition Thursday...:cool: