Fishing Following A good Rain.

Out here in the Dakotas I have found the major key is to work with the situations that you are given. In a lake that is relatively featureless as far as depth changes it is important to work with current and temperature changes, and another thing I really want to talk about. RUNOFF. On some lakes the adjacent shoreline may be a clay slope or mud bank and withe even a little rain will provide some good runoff. This done two things it dirties the adjacent water as well as warms it up. When this happens fish move aggressively into this warm darker water to use it as a smokescreen to find bait. About a week back me and a good buddy hit a local haunt and were rewarded with some nice fish up shallow the morning after a day where a good rain had moved through. The wind did not blow very well but the rain pounded down on a clay bank and the resulting circumstance was about a 20 foot buffer of murky chocolate milk water that transitioned into clearer deeper water. We hit the area aggressively with loud cranks. A mix of rattle traps as well as clackin raps yielded a few nice fish. Later on as the mud line or “run-off” line started to dissipate we trolled this line with smaller #5 shad raps and contacted a few more fish before the line was all but gone. This is a great pattern to consider when you fish the day following a good hard rain in the dakotas. When fishing these conditions fish are shallow so they are aggressive. I like to go with larger 5 inch K- grubs in firecracker chartreuse tail pattern as well as lipless cranks like the clackin rap that puts off a lot of noise and vibration. I just got a large supply of the rapala rippin rap and cant wait to give this bait a try as I know the rattles will work good in the dirty water. So next time you get out go find a large clay bank, or perhaps a large bare edge of a farm field next to the water. These dirty water walleyes are hungry and ready to feed when the move this shallow. This worked for me about a week back and with recent rains should work again. Best of luck to everyone and be safe -Quintin

Dang those fish are pretty!

BK, with the basin type lakes they are starting to stock some channels in the lakes with a few that have established lake locked populations. How far of a drawing power does that secret 7 have. I might need some relaxation one super calm night.

Good idea on fishing those mud lines. Do you target any creek mouths right after the rain. I have a few spots on the river that very shallow runoffs flow into the main river. Right after a rain some of these can be flowing pretty good. The noisy ones always seemed to be the better ones to hit and attracted a lot of different species of fish. Crawlers where also a very good choice of bait in these areas as I think they where feeding on them as many got washed into the river.

Mike good point. The presence of creeks is not very prevalent, but as I stated earlier there are some flood releif canals that have been cut in from smaller sloughs. I mentioned them in a previous post. I have caught fish on crawlers before in mud lines. I personally have made a shift though to fishing when I can with more plastics as well as cranks. I will not snub my nose to live bait if it is what is catching fish. If fishing crawlers I like to fish a half crawler on a bright colored jig with just enough weight to give me some control over it. Bfishn tackle precision jigs give me great control over jig size. Thanks for your response Mike.

Quintin,

Are you trolling parallel to the shore/mudline, casting up into it working your baits back to the boat primarily? Is your boat position in the mud or outside of it?

Yep. You cant beat the H20 jigs and draggin jigs for fishing crawlers. I like to run about 2″s of crawler on a jig on the river. Some of the mud we get on the river you would never think they could kind a little crawler on a jig but they do. Other days its the rattle of those crankbaits that they key in on.

Do you get much fluctuation in water levels on the lakes you fish? We are looking at a additional 5′ on the river in the next few days and its still raining.

As far as general position I usually place myself outside the mudline just because it does not really take up that much space and I am usually able to cast almost all the way to shore. When trolling I have made use of planer boards to get myself up closer to shore as well as into the mudline.
Mike in regards to your question the lakes do not fluctuate very much they may go up a half foot or foot with a super big rain but not that it effects fishing overall that much. I don’t know what my plans are yet for memorial day weekend. I may be back in MN to see the parents was thinking about fishing the Minnesota but with this rain that is probably a waste. Will see just might have to throw some cranks to flooded timber out here.