Rainy Lake Guide – Jason Ellman of Northern Water Excursions LLC has once again been working with our youth and growing this awesome sport! I had been approached by the International Falls youth – Bronco’s Bass Fishing Club Coach ( Bronco Bass Fishing Club | Facebook ) to see if I had availability to join them as a boat captain. I was honored to have this opportunity, as many of the other boat captains are remarkable fisherman as well… including boat captains that are fulltime guides and even from the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame! In His Own Words…Larry Bollig, Borderline Bear – MidWest Outdoors –
Being a boat captain for these kids will only grow into the experience you allow it to be. What I mean by that is, if you do all of the work for the young fisherman are they actually going to learn anything other than your spots? The first trip I had was with Carter McBride (previous angler of the year) and Rylie Ritch in the boat with me. We had just entered a cold front the day before and the water had cooled off as much as 12 degree’s in certain area’s and 6 degree’s in most others over night. When the young men got into the boat and we managed to separate out into the flight order, I explained to them the challenge we were about to endure. Both guys didn’t miss a beat and said that they were ready to search for a pattern. I asked them where they wanted to go and we took off. So far working with them, we covered the current conditions, past conditions, developing a pattern, and a location. When we got to our first spot I asked them how they wanted to approach the area, once again putting them on the spot to make the call. I pulled the boat over to where they wanted and they started working the area over. After sorting through some different presentations and not pulling a fish yet, I then stepped in and started asking questions about what they are trying to target. After confirming what they were looking for, and being very familiar with that stretch of water, I made the recommendation to slide down a 1/4 of a mile as I knew it was exactly what they were trying to fish. Within the first 10 casts they had a fish on and boated.
Our entire day was filled with these kinds of experiences, once they nailed down the pattern we had fished roughly 7 different area’s of the lake. The significance of this experience was putting them on the spot and having them be responsible for the decisions. The pattern they had developed was a very odd/strange pattern for that time of year, and I would be amazed if I ever run across that again. Even though they were a little skeptical of the pattern (at first) I reassured them that they were on the right path and we should not leave that until the fish tell us too. The trust they put into myself was partially due to being a Rainy Lake Guide and the other part was that they knew I was there to help build their knowledge as well as confidence. To win these tournaments you have to have a virtually flawless day. Our boat dropped 2 fish just out of reach that would have had these kids in 2nd place on the day. They ended up in 7th and they were both satisfied how the day had went. More importantly they learned that they have the capability to make good decisions, follow through on them, understanding how much weather patterns affect fishing, understanding how to read current (very windy that day), and that they should never give up as we stuck 3 Rainy Lake Smallmouth in the last 5 minutes.
This was an awesome experience and I highly recommend that you take up the challenge and work with our youth…. they are our future! If your not sure who to get a hold of for this you can click on the picture below and leave a message on the Bronco Bass Fishing Club facebook page.
Captain J
