If you’ve been a fan of IDO for the past few years, you may recall that April 10 is a special day for our very own Dean Marshall. Dean has a tradition of sticking a 10 lb (or heavier) walleye on this day, his birthday. I consider myself very lucky to have joined Dean on the 2009 version of the Dean Marshall pig hunt.
Dean and I started our day as the sun was still hidden by the trees in the east. Our program was the same in each of the 4-5 spots we fished: anchor up on or inside a well-defined current seam, and pitch a variety of baits to the shallow, calm water inside the seam, working them towards and into the seam itself.
Whether it was blades, ringies, hair, or the old reliable jig and minnow combo, Dean and I stuck a bunch of fish today. We had sporadic action before lunch, with fish coming to the boat more reliably in the afternoon. Our two big fish are shown below…a 20-21″ sauger that I caught on an orange 3/16 oz jig, and a 22-23″ walleye that the birthday boy popped on a 1/8 oz white hair jig/minnow combo. Both of those fish were caught in very shallow water well inside the current seam, while our better numbers (of primarily smaller fish) were hooked right in the seam itself.
Our best baits? We caught a number of fish on gold or red blades, on oystershell ringers, on purplecracker/chartreuse tail ringworms, and on a plain orange jig dressed with a lively fathead. Jig weight is key right now, perhaps moreso than color. You need the proper weight jig to be able to sweep effectively through the shallow water that is holding the quality fish. Being off by 1/16 of an ounce, either too light or too heavy, will make all the difference in the world for your catch rates. For the areas we fished today, 1/8 or 3/16 were the right weights….1/8 to work the very shallow water with little flow, and 3/16 to work moving water closer to the seam.
Dean was planning to stay out till dark….hopefully he’ll chime in with news of a 10 pounder to keep his April 10 streak alive. Thanks for a great day on the water Deano!
Thanks for the day Jason & Dave and all the great guys on the water today. 
Great catch Dave. 
Now hopefully my program will get a few piggies to the boat tommorrow as well! 
See you in the am. 
I better sleep fast 4am is right around the corner. 
