First sign of spring!

Forget robins! Not sure why I forgot to mention this…. Dustin and I were out last weekend fishing and we caught a few exceptionally large male walleyes. 22″ – 25″. The largest males were already dripping pretty serious quantities of milt. Now that to me is the first sign of spring… even if it has been cold as heck!

I noticed the same thing when I was out on March 3rd and March 5th last week. Lots of males 20+ inches. What a blast to catch!

We’re in for some DANDY fishing over the next couple weeks at least. Weather looks good. I start guiding Monday next week and go hard and steady through April. Looking forward to getting out of this darn office chair and getting back on the water.

Don’t you like us??? J/K!

Isn’t there something……………….in a song somewhere……………….mentioning “6 males a milting”?
Maybe we should write one? “The 12 signs of springtime (are in a fishery)”? Anyone?

Must be a place for five gold RINGWORMS

And an EEEeeGull ….. in an Oak tree!

Three 10 Pound SHEEBAS

hey james,
i’m reading a book right now called “Walleye Wisdom”. i think it’s written by gary roach and it’s all about walleye and how to fish them. in the book it says that during the spawning periods, walleye can be almost impossible to catch. the large females get some kind of lockjaw and won’t bite anything for the time right before and during the spawn. young males are the only active fish. i found this to be very interesting because i always thought that the spawn was the time to be out there and catch a big one. it sounds like thats what you count on, too. i’ve never fished the river before May before so i really don’t have any experince with this subject.

I think you should work everyday at the bait shop so that some of us rookies might be able to snag one! Hope to see you at the bait shop or on the water the weekend of 23rd we are staying at everts 23 24 25

Now thats what I call signs of spring! Alright!!! Thanks, Bill

Heh Jake,
it will be interesting to hear James’s reply.
I can give some insight as to how walleye react during the spawn on lakes and flowages. Since the mid 80’s a group of us have traveled to the Chippewa Flowage for a 5 day trip for the opening of the WI inland lake season. Depending on the weather you might hit the spawn right on, or be post spawn. During the years we land right on top of the spawn there are several rock bars & islands one can really load up on walleye. I am talking 100+ fish a day(we release guys so no unpleasant reminders needed). However of those 100 fish, 90 of them will be small milking males in the 12-15 inch class. You might catch 1 or 2 larger (20″ +) females. So… while certainly not conclusive, that book you are reading has matched up pretty well with our experience. We seem to do better with larger fish if the opener is well past spawn(and yes past the “post spawn”).

Its very interesting learning how this river fishing works, and I hope you have a great spring Jake – and alot of fun.
BTW: I have a 14 year old nephew named Jake who is a fishing maniac, so I enjoy seeing your posts.

Inge

I’ll say you are right on about the first signs of Spring. and I can not partake. Am leaving tomorrow for a week and a half to go out to CA to do some family business and see some family and old friends. My brother has a desent computer so am looking forward to keeping myself updated here on the board while I’m gone. will not be back til 3/22. by then I’d expect things to be gangbusters. While I’m out there I do have one day scheduled for a day BASS fishing to see if I can get another 10 pounder. that would be toooo cool. So I willl not be in so much pain about being gone during the next few weeks. Keep those posts coming in, will be back on the river the end of the month. Jack..

Well…I don’t buy the fish don’t bite during the spawn and on the river there really isn’t much of a post-spawn lull either. Or maybe the real point is “not all fish spawn at the same time!” Anyway… Many of the heaviest weights in tournies are caught on pool 4 days after what is often considered the peak of the spawn… heavy and HUNGRY post-spawn females and I count on a good pre-spawn bite for some DANDIES and good action on numbers of above average sized fish.

The big thing guys have to remember is that after the spawn, the larger females can move a LONG distance in a short amount of time. Where they were at spawn time is NOT were they end up days after the spawn. And telemetry studies I’ve read don’t have the females spending much time on the spawning areas during the day. Those movements occur just prior and on into the dark and the females will move a distance from their day-time resting feeding areas to spawning areas. The key is being able to follow these movements…. the males will linger at the spawning areas for weeks and the females are often long gone. Figure out how to follow the movements of the females during the spawn period and you can stay on these larger females much more consistantly. Stick with the “action” on the spawning areas, catching one male after another, and you’ll be convinced the females have lockjaw while the reality is, the females just aren’t there.

Telemetry?? What is that? I had to run it through Websters to figure out what James was talking about. James, was this on the word of the day toilet paper?? For those of us without a robust vocabulary Telemetry is:
1 : the science or process of telemetering data
2 : data transmitted by telemetry
3 : BIOTELEMETRY
See you on the river.

I 100% AGREE WITH JAMES. Guide customers and I have caught many females dropping eggs with the hook and bait securely in the mouth. On Petenwell Flowage,(Wisconsin River), in particular it is not uncommon to see 2 or 3 other minnows somebody fed them get spit up. When the majority of walleye females that live other places than where they spawn seem to disappear, (some are resident to that area year round), the large male bite especially saugeye can be just plain incredible, but it often only last 2-3 days. Followed closely by the best large female sauger bite of the year. All in all the spawning beds some years are full of nice females from right now till mid May.
Last year to my amazement we were catching spawning sauger the last week of May.

Excellent points… telemetry studies down on Pool 12 or 13 (can’t remember which) demonstrated that some walleyes actually swam the whole length of the pool, did the “spawning thing” and then migrated back downstream — in the course of a day or two… that could be 20 miles or more in one direction. The females move big-time. The smaller males tend to linger in the spawning areas, which are what people are typically catching.

Fish are amazing.

An exerpt from the WI DNR Telemetry Study done on Pool 8 ( http://www.fishtheriver.com/articles/pool8.htm ) showing how far and how fast pre-spawn females move prior and following the spawn…

Both fish traveled 34 miles and passed through 3 dams. Number 865 made the trip in 3 days and 745 in 4 days. After moving up the Bay for approximately 2 miles, 865 left the Bay and moved northwest through flooded timber. She reached Lock and Dam 5, 5:00 a.m. on April 23. She stayed in the vicinity of the dam both April 23 and 24. She spawned either along the Wisconsin shore-line below the dam or in flooded timber in the vicinity of the dam. The other walleye, 745, spent April 22 in Kieselhorse Bay and April 23 in flooded timber in the Fountain City Bay area.

Many miles… multiple dams. And often back to their starting points within days of spawning. Prett cool, yes?!

fish ARE amazin… and facinating…. I read many of the fish return to a rather small home range… I would have thought they are more nomadic.. but perhaps not….

thanks for the all the replies and clarifications guys. i appreciate it.

so here’s another one. how do fish go through dams i could see how they could go down stream over one (just stop swimming and hold on), but how do they get back up??? or don’t they??? does the water get high enough for them to swim over??? maybe they hitch a ride through the lock

in the spring when the water is up they pull the roller dams up out of the water, the fish can go right through… so can boats for that matter, (if the driver is a bit wild and crazy!), oh… and dont forget its illegal to drive through the dam like that…. as well as dangerous….

James…that study was done by Jim Holzer, plus others, but he was the head guy, now lives in Eau Claire I believe, but I talked with him several times and he told me that the biggest impact on the spawning eyes was, the water level, When they had a bad year class it was due to the Corp dropping the water too fast right after the majority of the spawn had occured. Thus trapping the eggs on land. He always wanted the level to be kept up, but said he was not always successful in doing so.

If you look at our recent years classes, it definitely shows support for that argument!

A couple more thoughts… as mentioned above, fish can move upstream through the dams. This likely happens most often when the gates are completely out of the water. Complete gate removal happens more frequently at some dams than others. However, velocities increase substantially once the gates are lowered due to constriction of the water. Its likely that fish passage decresease due to these higher velocities. It also varies by fish species. Some species are better swimmers than others.

Point 2… lots of factors affect initial year-class strength. Water levels and temperatures can play a big part — however, the Corps doesn’t have a lot of control over this — especially when the aforementioned gates are out of the water. At this point, its an “open river,” and mother nature is in control.