Above is Saturday’s catch of eaters.
I know this is a week old, but it’s been a busy week, so here goes anyway.
After being in Spirit Lake for the past 4 years my son, Derek, decided we should fish the openner. The lad has a good head for decision making 
His uncle Paul and I decided we would make the trip from NE Iowa on Friday, and despite bucking a strong cold west wind all the way out, shortly after we arrived the weather turned sunny, the wind died down, and the shorts and t-shirt I like to travel in were very comfortable. After being stuffed on delicious homemade/smoked vension brats, fresh aspargus, potatoes, and rhubarb crisp, we finished loading the boat, and were planning to meet up with friends near Triboji to troll cranks on West Lake after midnight.
Arriving at the access, just a few blocks from Derek’s house. We put the boat in, and I warmed up the Merc while Paul and Derek were placing the light poles when we found we had no lights, in fact no accessories of any kind 
After some colorful language, some 45 minutes of tracing wires, and removing panels to check for problems, we discoverd that when the cranking battery was re-installed the little red key that shuts off the entire electrical system had been removed and left on floor of the aft compartment. 
A quick replacement and we had lights, and accesories
Now with 30 minutes to get halfway down East and all the way up West we were ready to roll 
Did I mention it’s in the 30’s outside. 
Dressed for ice fishing we were still cold as we obeyed the 25 mph night speed limit on the lakes. The no wake zone at the Park was a welcome relief. We met friends on schedule, and setup a game plan for trolling breaks in and around the Pike’s Point area. After several passes on what was a beautiful night, our livewell was empty and we were frozen and despite a call from Derek’s fiancee’s brother to let us know they were catching fish below the spillway on East, we couldn’t get enough courage to go past the access where we left the trailer and decided to call it a night around 3:45AM.
Saturday morning came extremely quickly 
and after a good breakfast we were back on the water with a plan. 
We would work shorelines above the Narrows and see if there were any panfish, and just maybe some walleyes. Well the panfish were not cooperative, and after a couple of hours we were sneaking into a greedy tree to retrieve a couple of bobbers, when Derek notices one of his poles is moving, infact bobber down, a short time later a nice legal eye was in the well. Took a crappie minnow, hmmm, he was going to make sure he had a minnow on at least one his lines. It wasn’t 20 minutes later and his ultralight went into convulsions, and after he did a mexican hat dance around the boat trying to keep line out of the motor, and from breaking off under the boat, I managed to get the net and we awaited seeing whatever this thing was. When she finally came up enough we could see a glimpse of golden flash past we were really excited, could this be a 20 plus inch eye, and on an ultralight? About 3 minutes later we finally got to see about a 3lb channel cat. 
Since Paul’s dad really likes cat, into the box she went. We spent another 30 minutes working shoreline and then decided to move and see what was happening up around the spillway.
The spillway has been running full for some time with all the rains in the area and that runoff from Spirit into East Lake had drawn many hungry fish and many more anxious boaters wanting to connect with old marble eyes on the opener. We approached the throng of boats slowly and decided not to try and get too close, seeing many were anchored, we stayed out 100 yds and anchored up as well. I grabbed a rod setup with a lindy rig, threaded on a minnow and cast it out about 20 feet. Only being in 6-8 feet of water she sank quick and I just kept a tight line. Within minutes paydirt, the first of about 25 walleyes was boatside. Many were sub-legal 13-14 inchers, but we managed to find 9 that fit into that 14-16 inch category for a nice fish fry Saturday evening. While a few were taken on crawlers, jumbo leeches were the ticket, and a quick run by a family friend put another container in the boat to help us entice that 8th and ninth keeper fish. Saturday afternoon the weather was superb with just enough wind for a little chop on the water, and a decent sunburn where the SPF 30 didn’t cover completely. After a delicuus fish fry Saturday evening, we relaxed and planned for another assault on the water.
Sunday came to greet a well rested crew at our place, and after a leisurly breakfast, we hit the water around 11AM. The weather was nice, but the wind that provided a nice chop Saturday, was picking up and the local on the 8’s forecast said it would reach 25 – 35 from the SW as the day went on. As the access faced SW launching was a bit tricky, but the wavewhackers kept the boat dry at the landing, and after comparing notes with a couple of guys just coming in to head to the banquet, we learned that in the last half mile from the narrows the wind was a b..ch, and they were in a 18 ft Angler with a 115. Needless to say we would take caution in our 17ft tiller/60hp. Heading out was really rather easy, if a bit breezy, and after we got around the point out of the breeze we were smoothly on our way though the Narrows and up to the norternmost part of East Lake below the spillway. Water temp was 56.2, and taking the advice from the folks in the Angler, we stayed out about an extra 200 yds from where we were yesterday, probably 4-500 yds below the spillway, It paid off as after just a few minutes one of our jumbo leeches was bouncing off the bottom just enough to entice a nice legal eye. In fact we connected on several fish in the first half hour despite the fact the wind made our anchor let go of it’s stranglehold on the bottom. In the next half hour, as the fish weren’t coming boatside with any frequency, we decided to pull anchor, and head back closer to where we had started. East Okoboji is a rather shallow lake to begin with and even with the high water, we were only fishing in 6-7ft so we made sure to leave about 25 foot of free anchor rope to hopefully get a solid hold on the bottom. This plan worked for about an hour, but the wind had other ideas. Gusting fairly steadily in excess of 30mph, we had many dancing sheep on the water and more than a few waves sending a refreshing spray into the boat. The nice part was the fish were hungry. We found the large spottail shiner minnows were the favorite of the white bass, each of us catching one, the shortest about 13 inches the largest, around 16. We tried some Gulp and crawlers, but the jumbo leeches were the best bet, and by 3 o’clock we had landed some 20 to 25 fish including a 3 man limit of legal eaters in the 14-16 inch range, so Paul and I could take some home for the family to enjoy.
The trip back to the landing was slow and wet, about 3-4 miles directly into that wind we were enjoying so much. Did I mention going into that wind, with 3 guys and a full livewell, it takes a bit to get on plane The no wake zones for the bridge and the narrows were truly welcomed, and by running close to the west shore we were only exposed to the brunt of the wind for maybe 3 minutes until we got to the landing. Slightly wet, but triumphantly pleased we had a Walleye Weekend to remember, and were even talking about maybe doing it again 
dave
