Macbride 4/22

I just got back from Macbride. I got out on the north arm in the creek channel when the weather was sunny and nice at about 5:30, with a light breeze out of the east. Nothing much was biting. Then the clouds rolled in, the wind shifted to the NW and picked up, and it started raining–classic walleye chop. At that point, the walleye and crappie decided it was feeding time. In about an hour, I caught twelve crappie and three walleye, all on minnows. I kept my personal limit of ten crappie, all of which were between 8.5″ and 10.5″. Two of the walleye went 14″ and 15″, so they went in the basket, too. The third was smaller. All the other boats headed in–I sat out there in the rain and wind and laughed at them when I wasn’t reeling in fish or re-baiting. It would have been funnier if I had brought my rain gear–I’m very wet right now–but I caught all the fish I wanted, so who cares? Time to take a shower and fry up some fresh walleye.

I am envious…

I have yet to catch a walleye at MacBride. Sooner or later its got to happen.

You hit the front at the right time. I wonder if they’ll turn off during this cold spell? Its really howling out there right now, and the temps are plummeting.

I too was out. I was at the causeway and nothing was happening. I drove around to the dam and plucked a few mushrooms and fished the face of the dam in the rain without success. I’ve had good luck this time of year catching walleyes with almost everything from live bait to gold spoons.

I braved the winds and put in at Macbride this afternoon to see how the crappies reacted to the cold front. The surface temps on the north arm were at fifty-seven degrees, down four degrees from Friday afternoon. From 5:30 to 7:30 I didn’t catch a thing, although the fish were down there. Then from 7:30 to 8:15 I caught five 8.5″ to 11″ crappie, and a smaller speck, all on minnows. With the high pressure and cooler temps, I wasn’t surprised to see most of the fish staying about 12′ to 14′ down, rather than the 6′ to 8′ they usually prefer in the creek channel. No sign of the walleye bite that I got into Friday evening when the weather squall blew through.

I thought about heading down after supper, but the wind got the better of me. Sounds like you did allright.

Now I’m entering the four day countdown to the spring fishing getaway. I should probably start thinking about getting stuff around, since I need to be out of town for two days this week!