Hot bite on Tetonka…

My two boys and I went to Lake Tetonka (Waterville, MN)Wednesday evening for an overnight stay. Thursday’s morning fishing was fair… we found big sunfish next to the tree-line East of Hoban’s Point. These fish were on beds and very easy to spot, in four feet of water… Tetonka is very clear right now. Just motor down the shore-line till you see these nests. Once you spot the nests, back off to a max. casting distance and work them with bobbers & 1/32 or 1/64 oz. jigs tipped with bits of crawler. Too close, the’ll run from the nests.
Stripers were going in the river inlet. They were holding in the mud line from the dark water hitting the clear lake water. I got several on Bagley’s minnow style shallow diving cranks… just slow cranking and twitching them. We did nothing for walleyes till nearly dark.
We got several keeper walleye right in front of “the channels” (or the lagoon’s as locals call it). These fish were on crawlers and leeches… though I had to see if they would bite ringworms! Yep, they did. At first, I had to tip the ringies with a bit of crawler… just from being unsure if the baits would work and not trusting that they would go for them… but soon I was hooked… so were walleyes! So.. I dropped using the live bait to tip them… I was catching them on just ringworms alone!
Lake walleyes on ringworms… that is “handy” cause I have about a zillion ringworms… in a zillion colors! Just too cool. Now too, I have some faith in the ringworms as far as being lake baits.
Friday noonish, my good friend, Mike Little, and his mom arrived. Fishing was slow for us, except for the sheephead that were just about anywhere and everywhere! Lots of “sheep-ie” action… when nothing else is going… it is not too Baaaaaa…d!
Mike and Mom visited us for some shore lunch, at my motorhome. We had new potatoes, corn/peas/carrots, hot-buns, and “Shore Lunch dipped deep-fried fresh fish. And some of Shirley Rossel’s home-made rhubarb/strawberry jam. Outa-sight!
After the great meal, we went to a drop-off on the East end of the sunken island off from Hoban’s Point. Rain and fast approaching, strange looking clouds… with distant “boomers”… sent us off the water fairly fast. A couple of perch and more sheepers were all we got there. Mike and Mom then called it a day.
After Mike left, the kids and I returned to the channels to find the walleyes were just nuts/hot there! No one else in the nearby area. It was just me and the boys… and we smeared the fish! Lots of doubles and non-stop walleye action till about dark-thirty. For me, the leeches went to the wayside and out came the ringworms again! I never had to change colors from the neon chartreuse pepper that I threw. It was a hot, hot bite… I ended up cleaning a dozen walleyes that were good keepers and kept one norhtern that was a “one packer” (it would only take about one package of bacon to wrap him up nice for the oven… this fish was about four pounds).
What a great time on the water! Great to get out and get some nice fish with my boys and friends to have a fish-fry.
Hawger

First of all, Thanks Dave! The lunch and the fishing were great, even if I did start to think that sheep shears might have to replace worms in the bait box.

Mom had a great time. She’s sort of an addict and doesn’t get to fish much in California. As a result, we pretty much stuck to doing things that did not require for her to throw anything the might find itself sticking into any favorite sons.

One thing that she noticed. We drifted in that wind just about as fast as we motored back across the lake. It was pretty gusty, but very pleasant considering the temps. The bite was good though. A few drifts told me that the daytime walleyes were hanging deep, around 20 feet.

Wished we could have stayed a bit longer! That’s the problem with short visits. We sat and watched the clouds move in, but Mom has a bit more character than I give credit for. I went around to the public landing, figuring on pulling out, but she made me stop in the middle of that bay and start fishing some more. The winds picked up, although thankfully the lightning finally stopped. Not many bites… another perch deep, but nothing special. I finally had to grab her and haul her in. She had that pouty look on her face and would have stayed out all night if I’d let her.

Mom was thrilled and has apparently adopted Dave and the boys. I’m no longer in the will. All she did the next day was talk about you. My job now is to make sure that she gets down to Owatonna from the airport. I’m the taxi guy.

Take your moms and kids fishing! It’s a lot of fun.