Our next stop was at Bill's Live Bait in Northbrook… Can't say I've ever been to a bait shop like that before… it was a bit "rustic" to say the least. Nice guy. Didn't have much to say though… We were on a mission anyway and were eager to get back on the road. Next stop was Renfrew, where we stopped to pick up the essentials… beer, Tequila, Jagermeister… oh yeah, and groceries too.
Finally got to the trailer around 11 in the afternoon, unpacked, got set up, and downed a few brown pops so fast we didn't even taste them. After much debate, we decided to go lay down for a nap then get up and hit the lake after dinner. Well… around 4 o'clock we got up, and while we were debating on what we were going to cook for dinner, my grandma arrived unexpectedly with dinner in hand - Spareribs with all the fixin's and peach pie for desert. Gotta love grandma!
So without delay, we quickly set the table and scarfed down her delicious meal, and then sent her packin… there's fishin to be done!
It was probably 6 by the time we uncovered the boat and got out on the lake… and as soon as we got there, we each hooked in to a couple scrappy little bass off our first casts. That's gotta be a good sign if I've ever seen one! We gradually worked our way down the shore, and the action was as close to non stop as it gets. Lots of scrappy little largemouth… all in the 1-2 lb range. My buddy even managed to land himself a nice 3 pounder. I thought for sure that was going to be the big fish of the weekend...
Just as it was getting pretty dark and the bite had died off, I was just about to pack it in. I thought, one more cast... I threw it out, and just as I was putting my rod down for a second to close up my tackle box my line moved 6 feet within a blink of an eye… So I quickly set the hook, and nearly had my rod pulled out of my hands. It proceeded to peel line off for a couple minutes, until I managed to get it turned around. I guess then it started to come towards the boat... for a few seconds I thought for sure I'd lost it because I was reeling as fast as I could and could barely feel any weight … then it got within a few feet of the boat and it gave me a nice flash before it dove down under the boat. "Oooh boy - she's a biggun Lenny - grab the net!" After fighting it for a few more minutes my buddy quickly netted it, and before I could take it out of the net, my buddy was hovering over me with the scale saying you gotta weigh that puppy, Ty! So I put it on the scale - 3lbs… No way!!! That can't be right… oh yeah, forgot to zero the scale. 4.5 lbs - woo hoo!! A new personal best! "Would love to let you go, buddy, but you've got an appointment with the camera man!"
On my buddy's next cast, he was just saying that he hadn't seen a bass that big since… WHAM!!! "…this one right here!" He'd just gotten a big hit… and it took him down in to the weeds right away. Buddy kept pulling and pulling but it wasn't budging. He didn't give up though… slowly but surely, he pulled himself over to where he was stuck, then finally it let go… up came the pile of weeds… we figured it was just a small one wrapped in 10 lbs of weeds, but as soon as we got the pile of weeds up to the surface, it quickly shook the weeds off and took off. "She's a big one, Ty! Get the net!" Netted it a couple minutes later, and threw it on the scale… almost 4 lbs (3lbs 15oz).
After that, it really slowed down, and it was already getting really dark - to the point where we couldn't see where we were casting. So... satisfied with our catch we headed in to take a few snaps of our big ones, and let them go. Spent the rest of the night celebrating my new P.B.
The next morning, we got up bright and early… heavy fog on the lake, and the water was as smooth as glass.
After a quick bite, we headed out on the lake. Another picture perfect day for weather. And the fishing wasn't too shabby either! In the 3 hours we were out, I managed to boat about 20 bass, and my buddy got about 10. Nothing real big, but all nice ones.. 1-2 lb range.
At one point, my buddy had a small bass on, and when he got it close to the boat, a nice sized pike came up out of nowhere, and hammered the little bass. He played with the bass in the water for a while, while the pike circled the fish completely unfazed by the boat. It was pretty cool! I haven't seen anything like that in a while.
The fishing eventually slowed down as the day went on, so we packed up and headed in.
Went out and tried a different spot later on after dinner… nabbed a few, but nothing compared to earlier, or the night before.
The next day was cold and windy... a perfect day to sleep off the hangover from the night before. By the time we got up, cleaned up, and had breakfast it was about 11, and we headed out on the lake to try out a new spot. I kept myself occupied with lots of small ones, but my buddy wasn't getting anything. After a couple hours it really slowed down, so I decided to change my tactics a bit, and put on my favorite lure. First cast, I had a nice follow… didn't notice it until after I'd pulled it out of the water. So I threw it out again without hesitation, but this time I did a figure-8 at the boat, and WHAM!!! Mr. Piker came outta nowhere and nailed it right at the side of the boat. Biggest Pike I caught all year. She was about 28 inches long, and just shy of 6lbs. Sure doesn't look that big from the picture.
Went out later after dinner and did some deep trolling in hopes of maybe nabbing my first walleye. No such luck, but I did manage to catch a bullhead, and more sunfish than I could count. Better than a skunk, anyway. It was windy, the lake was rough, and it was raining pretty steady, so it didn’t take long for us to give up and pack in for the night.
Sunday morning it was still raining, but it was just a slight drizzle, so we braved the weather and went out for some more trolling. Again just a bunch of deep water Sunfish. Better than nothing, I suppose. My buddy was throwing everything in his tackle box at them, and got the big bad skunkola for his efforts.
After dinner, the lake calmed right down, but it was still drizzling a bit. We'd decided that trolling wasn't our thing, so we decided to go hit the spot where we picked up the 4 pounders the first night. The spot produced much like the first night (40+ fish), but unfortunately no real big ones. I did manage this nice 3 pounder before we called it a night though.
Monday - our last day, was a pretty lazy day. Still windy, cloudy, and a steady drizzle. No motivation to fish whatsoever. So we just sat around the trailer all day, played cards and pounded the hooch. Around dinner time, it cleared up enough to motivate us to go try one last time. Trolled up and down the "pike strip" hoping to land some toothy critters, and did pretty well. Each got 4 or 5 a piece (pretty much one per pass). Eventually, the trolling motor ran out of juice, so we switched to casting the shore line. I boated a ton of small bass/pike, but my buddy only had one follow. After a couple of hours of not catching a fish, my buddy pleaded with me to go back in. And since the mosquitoes were getting pretty bad, I didn’t need much convincing.
And that was it for our weekend adventure. By far one of my best trips to the trailer this year, with over 100 fish boated, and a new P.B. Can't wait to get back up there in a couple weeks!
Keep in mind that while there are not huge numbers in the lake the fish average 3lbs and upwards and definately DO NOT feed on the same thing as sunfish 
Congrats on the bass and pike though, and a lil fact for ya if ya didn't know... Smallies are a natural element of White lake but Largies and Pickerel are not 
P.S. They also used to stock it with musky fry!
Who knows?