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I headed out around 11:30 last night to work a local lake that is known to have some small to middling largemouth bass and the occasional smallmouth. It's also the lake where I have caught a handful (5 - 6) big walleye, including 3 on a 7" Slammer one memorable night a few years ago, but recently it's been pretty much all bass, and mostly smaller ones. So why go there? It's close to where I live and when I drove by the other day, I noticed the water level was really low, which means that there are a couple of spots that tend to concentrate the fish. And, perhaps most importantly of all, it had been a while since I'd caught a bass at night (okay, 7 days, but that's an eternity at this time of the year). The night started off decently, with a trio of small smallmouth pouncing on the 7" Slammer. It used to be light trout, but now it's best described as heavy rash with flecks of light trout. Wickedly effective though and while I know I should retire it, I can' t help but throw it. Here's the best of the smallmouth - like I said, nothing to write home about. The one thing that smallmouth did remind me of was that I'd left my normal camera at home, and all I had was the camera on my ancient iPhone (it's one of those single-digit models). I would really regret this later on. After the 3 smallies, a largemouth that was maybe an inch or two longer than the Slammer took a whack and came to hand, and then another economy-sized smallie. It was a good night - lots of action, and the odd sounds of baitfish dying in the dark, sounds that were suspiciously catfish like - that classic hissing strike. I fired off more than a few casts in the direction of the distressed baitfish but to no avail. Then things got interesting - I lobbed a cast past a prominent rock and as the Slammer came waking back, it got crushed. I could tell right away that this was something bigger than the pint-sized bass I'd been playing with so I went ahead and flipped on my headlamp - the fish had weight and arced away from shore before I convinced it to come back my way with the seasoned MH Okuma. Walleye, and a big one! You've got to love the way those eyes light up in the dark when you hit them with the headlamp. Instead of flipping the fish to shore, I beached her and then really really wished I had a good camera with me. I tried to take three pictures with the iPhone and only one was sort of okay. Alright, it actually sucks, but it's all I've got of this 27 - 28" walleye. It was pretty warm so I didn't keep her out of the water long enough to get a weight, but she was solid, and feisty. After that, my night was made - it had been years since I'd caught a big walleye on a wakebait and I'd just done it again. Still, there was more shoreline to cover so I went back to work. About 50 yds down the shore I picked up another largemouth, still nothing huge, maybe 12", but again, a strike's a strike in the dark. After I released the bass, I fired off another cast to the same spot, and the Slammer was hit before I could even move it. The fish wasn't big, in fact, it felt quite small but when I swung it out of the water, the shape was wrong - too long, too skinny. Headlamp on, and there, gleaming in the light, was a hammer handle of a northern pike! What??? I knew there were a couple of pike in the lake, but I had never caught one, and I'd never heard of a pike being caught at night. The night was now not only made, but trending towards epic. I released the pike, washed off the slime it so kindly left on my hands, and kept working the shoreline - maybe another 100 yds to go before the habitat went bland again. Another mini-smallmouth made it's presence known, and then I had two good strikes, one of which was very walleye-like and the other which was probably a decent bass, given the way the fish jumped and then casually tossed the Slammer back in my direction (it missed). At the very end of the decent habitat, I fired off one final long cast and, halfway back, the Slammer took one more hit - this time the hooks held and to my surprise, a 2nd northern pike flashed across my vision as I swung it onto shore. This one was at least twice as heavy as the first, maybe approaching 24" long - not a giant or even a respectable fish, but still, a northern at night is a northern at night. The final tally for the session. The first two northerns I've caught at the spot in over 12 years of fishing it And a hefty walleye to boot, with lots of little bass tossed in for good measure. Yeah, it was one heck of a night.

Caught a bunch of big walleye on the perch colored negotiator in 34 degree water temps. They were following it from below to the boat and smoking it boat side when I gave it the right side to side twitch and pause.

Last year in northern Manitoba I caught so many 20-26" walleye on the K 9 was deadly on those white fish and Cisco eaters

I'm living in a dreamland - I keep heading out and running into solid fish. It's got to be a dream, since I'm on a run of big fish that I just can't believe! I wanted to get out after bass and walleye again last night but had to wait until my wife got home, which was late enough (almost 2230 h) that I almost didn't go. Still, the thought of getting my last topwater action on bass (we're hitting 30s at night and the snow level is dropping - one ski area is opening on Thursday!) and maybe a bonus walleye was enough to get me going. When I got to the lake and met my friend I was shocked by how bright the moon was and how chilly it was - the phone said it was about 40F, but the finger-meter said that it was colder, especially when the breeze cut through the layers. But we were there, and we had to fish. We couldn't buy a strike on anything close to or parallel to shore - not topwater, not wake bait, not slow sinking Hudd or SS175. After a while I switched to a slow-sink BBZ-1 Jr., fishing it straight out and counting it down to what I assumed was 10' - 15', and then slow rolling it back in with occasional jerks and pauses. That did the trick - around midnight I hooked and landed a solid walleye. She was 28" long, and felt heavy, but until I got her on the digital scale I didn't realize how heavy - 10.4 pounds! The fish just be loading up for winter! My friend hooked up soon afterwards with a nice bass, right around 18", on a 68 Hudd, also fished straight out. Then I followed up with two bass, one of which might have gone 16", also on casts straight out. He landed another bass on the 68, and then I finished up with a single bass on the Whopper Plopper cast parallel to the bank (I just had to try for one topwater strike). The water is definitely cooling down, and, at least last night it seemed like the bass who've been hugging the bank are now in deeper water. I'm sure we'll throw topwater again, just because we're stupid that way, even though all indications suggest that going subsurface is the way to go.