Trying to walleye fish

I was supposed to be on spring break this week for college, but my dad took me being off for a week and staying in the twin cities as meaning more time for me to work for him…oh the joys of a family business. Anyways I just had to make it down to the river at least one day (hopefully more but we will see) and yesterday was that day.

It’s not bass fishing, but pitching ringies to rip rap and sand flats feels almost like bass fishing. My game plan was to start out at the dam before everyone showed up and then jump way down past covill park and just work my way back up to the dam hitting various rip rap and sand.

The morning was by far the best for me and pro plue shad was the color. I got several walleyes in the 4lb range in the morning. And at about 1 I got an extrememly fat 27.5 inch walleye in 7ft off rip rap. I am not used to seeing them looking like they are about to explode…how much would one like that weigh? Continued working my way north until I got to Everts where Steve took my picture with the fish since I was fishing solo, then the fish was released. Thanks steve. The rest of the day I just dinked around up at the dam because I was too lazy to actually go pitching anymore.

James just kept showing up all over the river yesterday, everywhere I went yesterday. One question for everyone. I did decent on eyes yesterday but I did really well on smallies and I ended up catching more smallies then walleyes. Is anyone else seeing this? I spent the whole day up until the last spurt at the dam in less than 10 ft of water with ringies.

Eric Ahlstrom

the kid in the brown ranger fishermen

Hey Eric

You and I basically hopped the same milk run… until we parted ways at 5th cut that is. You must have worked back up the main channel instead of taking the short-cut, eh?

We had one smallie yesterday. Not one of our better bass days by any means but then we stuck to sand bars for the most part with our one bass coming from rock up near the dam.

Your 27.5″ walleye would have been 8.5 – 9 lbs given the girth… I saw the pic in the baitshop… very nice. We had a 28.5″ walleye in the AM that weighed 9.7 lbs so that “guesstimate” weight should be pretty close on your fish.

It was good to see you yesterday. Too bad we didn’t have more time to chat.

Hey James,

Yeah I did work back up the main channel. I hadn’t been out there since about october so I was just feeling things out. That 27.5 did come on rocks on the main channel.

I focused on rocks most of the day just because I have more confidence fishing them…maybe way I caught so many smallies. probably fished 75% rocks and 25% sand. If I can get down there again this week I would do things a little different but just getting out on the water was a ton of fun.

Maybe next time I am down, there will be more time for talking.

Eric Ahlstrom

Why change?… lol You caught a heck of a nice walleye and a bunch of bass. Sounds like fun although those smallies just don’t have the spunk they will later when the water warms.

Haha…there are always things you can tweak just a bit to improve your fishing. I think I could have done better on the walleyes. The smallies were really sluggish. The first one I thought it was a walleye at first then it started coming up like it was goign to jump then just didn’t have the energy. That was my best one at almost 4 lbs…lots in the 1.5-2.5 range.

I did manage to catch a 5lbs head of a carp…had to be the nastiest thing I have ever caught. Hooked it right in the mouth to so it looked like the half decayed head bit my ringy. At one point it was attached to a really big carp..lol..got it to the surface to unhook it and it was one of the worst smells you can imagine.

Eric

I wish I would have came out earlier in the morning like you guys did. I didn’t come out until later in the afternoon. I thought that I’d do good late in the day up at the dam and didn’t. In fact I didn’t see many people pulling fish out of there up by the dam. I was going to do like you did Eric and hit the rock and rip rap. I looked at my watch and saw that there was only an hour or so left to fish so I stayed a the dam still hoping they would turn on….they didn’t for me. James was still there when I left….how did you do after I left??? I’m gonna be out on Friday and am gonna hit more sand flats like Jarod said to and hit more of the rocks and stay away from the dam, unless they aren’t biting of course….something has to work.

PS I was the one following you on drifts Eric with the blue Princecraft.

Yuck is right! A couple years back I snagged a huge paddlefish that looked like it had been hit by the prop on a barge or maybe a fishing boat…. the head was lopped clean off. That bugger was a mess to deal with so I can relate.

We were having a heydey on 3 – 4.5 lb walleyes until a couple of boats anchored up on the drift and stopped the bite. After that we basically tried to pick around the edges of where the fish were and never stuck another fish. The guys that anchored didn’t either. Prior to that we had very consistent action but it really wasn’t that big of a deal in the end. We were all pretty content and just winding down and talking more than anything.

I just about puked once the smell got to me. But I felt better about 2 min later when I caught another smallie A few years back some guys pulled up a body (don’t remember in which pool) so I can be thankful it was just a carp head for me.

I will be out fishing mon for sure. Going to a Christian school they give us off mon so that kids can spend Easter with their families and not have to worry about driving back to school. But my dad still thinks spring break is just a week…I have to get out fishing somehow. Then I am hoping to get out either fri or sat as well, depending on which day I work.

Eric

P.S. I really want to catch a paddlefish…although with all body parts attached and still alive.

I’ve landed a few paddlefish but they’ve always been inadvertantly snagged while verticle jigging. I’m not aware of a way to actually catch them in a traditional sense. They are supremely cool fish to see and they have an unbelieveable amount of pulling power when you do hook into one. Dustin had a 45 lb paddlefish he snagged trolling on Pepin a couple summers ago that stripped out over 200 feet of line off his Diawa linecounter reel before they got it stopped and turned back around.

I didn’t do that well drifting at the end of the day. I was over on the MN side for a while then went over to the wis side. haha…don’t know how you walleye guys drift all the time. I have to be doing something and I really am not fond of people all over which is why I try and stay away from the dam…but sometimes it is just nice to pull a bunch of fish and not have to think. I couldn’t do that all day though.

Eric

They look like a ton of fun. And I don’t think there is a way to catch them traditionally. Out in Montana and western North Dakota they snag them. They eat plankton so snagging is pretty much all you can do. But it would still be cool to get one.

Eric

I’m not into that mindless drifting either. I usually work very short stretches of water…. I’ll make 15 passes through an area in the time most guys make their one long drift and when we hit a fish we go about another 30 seconds and then we pick up and circle back to get back on them quickly. I usually stick pretty shallow (less than 10 – 12′) and its amazing how few boats work those shallow areas…. until they see you stick a half dozen quick fish that is. Then they pull in, drop anchor, and kill the bite for everyone. Not that it’s that big of a deal…. we usually just go find another pod of fish.

I definitally took note of how short your drifts were and thought that was a great idea. If I do any drifting next time I will definitally be doing that. So question. Say I have an faily large area. Do you drift the entire thing until you get bit then start in on short drifts?

Eric

You definitely need to find some active fish before you really start focusing on one small area… unless past experience leads you to believe they “should” be there. Then making descisions based on experience kicks in and spending some extra time on a known producer makes sense.

Makes sense to me. I might have to work on my drifting next time I am out. I wanted to make sure I caught some fish over spring break which is why I hit all my main spots yesterday. If I manage to get out again I think I am going to go seaching for some new spots, especially sand since I don’t fish it much. Fishing is fun partly just because there is always something more to learn, a new tactic, a new area, a new something. I am sure I will fish alot of bad areas next time I am out but that is part of the learning process. I can’t wait.

Eric

Awesome attitude…. it is supposed to be fun! Too many guys turn it into a competition or a source of frustration and forget why they liked fishing in the first place.

I’ll be looking for you on the water.

You need to have a good attitude when fishing. When I fish tournaments then it is a competition. When I am out fishing for fun it is just that…fun, even if I don’t catch anything. Too many people are afriad of getting skunked and in turn afriad to go in search of new spots. I will probably start out at the dam next time just because I want to hit that before a million boats are out there. But after that I wouldn’t be too suprised if I didn’t catch much or anything just because I will be fishing new spots most of which won’t be any good. But then sometimes when you are out searching you find one of those perfect spots. And you learn alot even from the bad spots you fish. I am a math major and you will spend hrs upon hrs getting no where on a problem doing things that just don’t work and looking back you can’t believe you even tried that. But even your mistakes help. Same with fishing. Later on I might ask myself why I fished such a rediculas area but it is part of the learning process. LOL can you tell I just love to learn no matter what it is…there is a reason I am getting a phd in hydrological modeling as well as a masters in pure mathematics and plan in being a College professor.

I am trying to get one of my bass partners to come walleye fishing this week. Keep an eye out for me. I will show up at some point whether someone is with me or not.

Eric

Eric

Just sent you a note. We could also take your boat.

Fred

Competition and Frustration are the two main reasons I love to fish James.
now thats fun.

I know you thrive on the competition and as long as you’re having fun keep doing exactly what you’re doing.

Just wondering. Do you fish all the way down to the lake on the sand flats or how far down do you go?