Rainy Trip and Gear Report

7-20 to 7-27. Canadian side. Fished Seine, Swell and Redgut area. 5 Boats and 12 guys. 5 guys have been going for ~30 years. Very nice weather. Low winds. Only rained one morning. Day temps 72-85. Water temps mostly 74-77 but dipped to 72 one morning.

Walleyes – Day one was slow for all the boats with few fish caught and most under the keeping slot of 13 3/4” to 17 3/4”. The rest of the week was good to very good. Lot of fish in the keeping slot and many fish from 18”-23”. Biggest was 26 3/4”. Some spots that have been good in the past were never fished since no one marked enough fish to warrant trying. Other spots were good for a few days. Sometimes fished one spot the whole morning or whole evening. Used LiveScope a few times to present slip bobber and leech and was effective about 40% of the time. Did use LiveScope while riggin’ to see fish to the side or ahead of the boat and then steered the boat through them.
Barotrauma- One 22 1/2” walleye wouldn’t go back down. I attached an ice fishing clip on weight to another rod and clipped it to the pectoral fin. I lowered it down near the bottom and gave a yank. It didn’t release but the fish started to fight. I had to fight it back up to release the clip on weight. After releasing the weight, it went down on it’s own. So I fought the same fish twice within a few minutes. I haven’t needed to use this technique for many years so what I did wrong was clipping it to the side of the pectoral so the clip was between rays of the fin. I found out it doesn’t release that way. You need to clip it to the tip of the pectoral across the rays. This way it will release easily. See pic.

Smallmouth – OK year for the smallies. Most caught while riggin’ for walleye. My biggest was 16”. Biggest in the group was 19 1/4”. Three of those caught in the same day. I knew of a shallow rock hump and LiveScope showed that fish were on it. Had one on for 10-15 feet that hit a chatter bait with a plastic trailer. Saw that come up off the bottom to hit the lure. The smallies were bustin’ minnows on the surface so I put on a Spit ’n Image. FIrst cast had a 15-17 incher that jumped 4 feet out of the water and threw the lure.

Northerns – Troll big lures for norts. Biggest of the group was 39”. A handful in the mid-30s with most in the 29”-32” range. I only trolled for a few hours with no strikes.

No muskies.

Now for the gear review. Mostly UPF clothing since I’ve had a precancerous patch removed from my face and a questionable mole removed from the base of my neck. Plus, I hate using sun screen, especially when fishing.

New sun hat from Solbari in Australia. Made out of the UPF50 material. Way better protection and way cooler than my old Columbia cotton canvas hat. https://www.solbari.com/collections/sun-hats/products/men-outback-travel-hat-upf-50?_pos=8&_fid=ac416c589&_ss=c

Duluth Trading dry on the fly pants. I had been looking for some UPF50 pants and tried Cabelas and LLBean’s. They fit well but the pockets were very shallow on both. The Duluth pants fit well and the pockets are deep. The cargo pockets have a side zipper on the crotch side of the pocket. Makes it easy to get the phone out for pics when sitting down. Very happy with them.

New UPF pullover long sleeve shirts from Stryker and Columbia. Very lightweight and very good protection.

Sun buffs from Aqua Design work well for covering face and neck. I have some of their long sleeve button down shirts also and like them as well.

Maui Jim Peahi with bifocals. These are schaweeeeet!!!!! No more taking sunglasses off and putting cheaters on for tying hooks or other close work.

Got to enjoy the medium Sixgill Lykan spinning rod a lot more. I used it for Lindy riggin’. As I have posted before, it handles the fish 18”-23” much better than a medium light rod. Their medium heavy Kranken crankbait rod with their Hamarr reel was used for casting for the bass. Like this set up as well. No backlashes so far!!

Saw 2 eagles make a total of 3 attempts at a fish but must have been too big to grab.

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Good report!

I agree on the Duluth Dry on the Fly pants. Excellent product that I’ve used for 3 years now.

That looks like a awesome trip. Great pictures. I’m going to have to look in to the dry on the fly pants.
I also wear all upf shirts in the boat. To many years shirtless has questionable spots on my back.

Yep UPF clothes from head to toe. Also fingerless gloves and sunscreen ONLY on the face.
Doctors orders after removal of a melanoma on my arm 15 years ago.

I also wear fingerless gloves but all the gear I mentioned was the first time in use.
I had a few bad sunburns in my early teens and never used sunscreen in the late 60s and early 70s. My dermatologist said just those burns can lead to skin cancer later in life. She also said that sun exposure is cumulative so it’s best to do some kind of protection.

One more thing about the fishing, most fish were caught from 18-30 ft but sometimes 10-15 feet. A lot of times we’ll catch more smallies in the shallower water. The two smallies in my pics were caught in 28 feet.

I hadn’t been on this trip since 2018. I was ready to do it again last week!!

Good report. I’m in the same boat with precancerous skin issues. I wear long sleeves and pants and stay cooler than with short sleeves. Glad to see the PFD too!

If a PFD fits properly, you don’t know you have it on. If rainy or cold I’ll wear a vest type over the rainwear or coat, otherwise an inflatable. (new pill installed this spring)
This year I’ve also started wearing the kill switch tether.

Netguy wrote:

Saw 2 eagles make a total of 3 attempts at a fish but must have been too big to grab.

22 1/2 inch walleye?

Netguy wrote:

This year I’ve also started wearing the kill switch tether.

This is actually required by new regulation. Lot of people are not aware of it.

Looks like a great trip!

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

22 1/2 inch walleye?

Good one, Jon!!

The barotrauma fish was caught the day before and was ~7 miles south (as the crow flies) but ~15 by water and against the current) of the eagles.

One of the fish I kept was on its side for quite awhile (barotrauma) in the livewell. It’s gills were working and it finally righted itself and was totally fine. Since I was keeping it I was going to fizz it but the needle didn’t get into the boat when I went through a tackle box I took out of the boat to make room for 2 other fisherman. Afterwards, I remembered Wiebe’s crappie study and should have clipped a weight to both pectorals. It may have been able to equilibrate its swim bladder quicker being upright.