Lincoln area lakes

Just wondering if anyone knows if the walleye spawn has started yet around the Lincoln area lakes?

Jebb, welcome to the forum. I don’t know if the walleye have started to spawn down there yet. They are probably in the pre staging areas right now and will be on the beds within a week or 2. Ben might have a better answer for ya. The bigger female walleye that my son caught last week had eggs visibly coming out but they were not quite ready yet.

Welcome to IDO Jebb. I see you just live down the road from me. I wouldn’t be surprized if a few aren’t dropping eggs already. It usually peaks around Apr. 5 or so. I’m heading out to work on the boat right now and may try to get out for a little bit tonite. I’ll report back if I see any action.

Thanks for the info I look forward to seeing how you do tonight. Good Luck.

I stopped by Pete’s to see if he wanted to hit the water last night and he couln’t pass up the opportunity. It was a little windy when we first got started. We started the evening pitching plastics to rip rap along the dam. With the spawn so close we were hoping to find a few males in the 15 to 20 inch range for a meal or two. We pitched BFT purplecracker and goldcracker ringworms on 1/16 oz. Precision Jigs. We were working the jigs down slowly, letting them make occasional contact with the rocks. This has been deadly in the evenings and into dark for me in the past. We had a few short hits but failed to land any fish. The wind was making it tough to control the boat and work a jig the way we wanted. We fired up the kicker motor and got set up to troll. We wanted to get the trolling run dialed in so we started off running Berkley Frenzy 3.5 in. Firesticks in firetiger. I figured it was a cheaper bait and I wouldn’t feel horrible if we snagged up and lost a couple. After a pass or two along the dam we figured out that running 4 rods in the wind was going to be a big hassle so we went to only running 2 rods. Pete ran my 12 ft Bass Pro trolling rod right along the rocks. He had that bait dialed in so it was running in less than 2 FOW. I ran my 7.5 ft St. Croix Tidemaster just inside of Pete. The wind was making boat control tough but it was also creating perfect conditions for prespawn walleyes to feed shallow. After only a couple of passes Pete’s rod finally got hammered. We were both still running the Firesticks and Pete landed his first walleye of the season. She measured 26 inches and if I had to guess her weight she had to be right around the 7 lb. mark. We put her in the livwell for a little recovery time before pictures and got back to fishing. Pete was the master for the night with the only walleye. I, on the other hand, am continuing my streak of small fish. I landed a dandy 10 in. channel cat and a largemouth that was about the same. There was deffinatly some feeding activity and I would have to guess that the walleye spawn couldn’t be any closer to starting.

Now is the time to get started if you haven’t already. Don;t let the colder weather headed our way scare you either. Just a few weeks ago a lot of us were bundled up to go ice fishing. Now’s the time to get bundled up and get in the boat or put your waders on.

Nice walleye! Not a bad way to start off the spring fishing season.

Ben don’t be so hard on yourself you always manage to land a hog or two when it matter$.

Nice fish, Pete.

Quote:

---

you always manage to land a hog or two when it matter$.

---

Funny how he does that, isn’t it??

Nice job Petey! That pic is definitely a keeper. Nice!

Very nice Walleye! Thanks for the report Ben.

Nice Pete fish

Made it out again last night. Todd joined me in the boat this time. We had a couple of small channel cats, 1-16.5 in. walleye, and 1 decent bass. Todd thought he had a decent walleye until it jumped about 4 times. After last night I would say the spawn is under way. We heard a few rolling up on the rocks. Sure wish we could have fished later into the night. Early in the spawn is a great time to put some eater males in the boat. The shore anglers are starting to show up, so the weekends might get too busy on the rocks for boats. I’ll leave the big girls alone at night from here on out. I’ll probably focus my efforts on staging males during the day. Time to break out the ringworms and jigs. Good luck this weekend. Don’t let the colder weather stop you from getting out.

Way to go on the hog Petey…. I also made it out the other night to a Salt Valley Lake and ended up with 2 smaller eyes just barely over the 15″ mark and a couple other that came off on me. Heading out again probably tomorrow, with the warmup. Give me a shout when you get a chance Ben.

Layne Monroe

You calling me a Hog? Hey it’s the desk job.