If the fish aren't biting...

[joatmon]

I learned (or re-learned) a couple of things yesterday that may be somewhat counter to my earlier postulates.

1) persistence pays off. If you know you are in the right place and know the species you are targeting, keep trying. I was recently after walleye. The morning bite was nonexistent for walleye. The sunset bite was supposed to be better. I had been focused on walleye all day (in spite of catching a toad rainbow first thing - see point 2). After watching others continue to catch rainbows, I switched over to one rig for rainbows. About 2 pm, I had a couple of lookers at my walleye rig, no bites. I decided to lower my rainbow rig (gizilla) to see if it worked better. On the drop from shallow to deep, a fish appeared lower in the water column and hit my gizilla. Fish on! Small 11.5” walleye. At 5:10, I had a strong hit on my walleye rig and pulled in a 13.5” walleye. Persistence pays off.
2) sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. In my very first hole, very first offering for walleye (minnow head on a buckshot spoon), I saw a fish at 12 feet on my flasher. I pulled my rig up and bam!, fish on! It was a very chunky 21” rainbow. My personal best for length and girth (and probably weight, although not weighed). I hadn’t planned on pursuing any trout. But glad (and lucky) to land a nice rainbow.
3) it’s okay to spend time with friends, even if fishing is slow. Enjoy the outdoors. Don’t measure the entire success of your trip on the amount, size, or species you catch.