Drove up frid aft by myself into a 50 mph wind. Got 5-6 mpg, had to pull off every 80-100 miles for gas. Miserable, could only go 40 mph up some hills on the Interstate it was so bad. Got in really late. Blizzard from the border north. Drove on slush, snow, ice, or all three. Boat was caked with ice and snow.
Hit the water about 10 sat, it was 23 degrees with about 3″ of snow and slush. A nice 30 mph north wind. aaarrgggh. Fished about 20 minutes and Lester got an 8.3# fish, beauty. Another guy I know comes by and says they’ve got 2 biggies trolling up north from the church back to sugar island in 14-16′. We fish til about 1 pm, no more big fish so we troll and catch about 5, none over 22″ or so. See a 13# caught by another guy trolling. 4 boats are trolling about a 1.5 mile break. Fish til dark. 30 mph winds all day but it warmed to about 39.
Sunday – Jigged again, caught some smaller fish, guys wanted to troll north again, no boats around at all. We spent two hours, no fish. I said we should go to a spot I like further south. Go about 1.5 miles and I catch 4 or 5 but the other guys blank. We saw a 13-14# caught in an area I’ve got a lot of 8-12’s in the past at so we go back and jig, probably catch 100 fish, None over 20″. Guys around us say 6 over 10# came out of that spot during the day. Fish til dark, one of the last boats off. Perfect weather, but the water dropped 4′ (yes, 4 feet) in one day.
Mon AM – backing in the boat a guy comes up I don’t know but looks at my website. He said another boat got two 11’s on the other side of the island (south) we’d been jigging Saturday. We go back to the powerline area and jig til 930 – just dinks. Head back to the island, talk to those guys – they have zilch. Head to the spot we did well on in 05 on the north side, catch some dinks. Those guys radio they have a 29″ fish. We fish another 5 minutes and they report another 28 and 30. We join them and catch a few dinks and call it at 2 pm. Weather was miserable, rain, 25 mph wind at times. Drove home into 25 mph wind. Truck is up to 8 mpg, yippee!
Fun trip, caught a pile of fish – probably 200. WAY more than normal, but they were mainly 12-17″ fat sauger. Only saw a few 22″ or so and then the 8. Some guys we talked to did better, some a lot worse. I think we fished right, but got the wrong bites if that makes sense. Oh well. We were a week late on the bite, the weekend before some guys got 20 over 26″ (8# up there)
water was 47, down to 44-45 when we left.
Tell me another place within 10 hours from Nebraska where an 8# fish is disappointing and you can see 13-14# caught!
I better save up more vacay for next year, I squeezed this trip in, too much going on.
Some day I’ll get the elusive 15 I’m looking for!
Todd
I might have to make that trip some year.
…and it’s all got to do with global warming!