Weekend River Outings?

The weather is pretty nice out there, except for the wind. I have not been on the river for almost a week now and won’t get the chance to get out until after X-mas. Just wondering how the bite was for those that made it out on this mild December weekend?

I haven’t been out but I heard someone say it could be 40 degrees tomorrow which will be good for river fishing air temps. 30 degree highs for next week which help the ice fishing temps.
Thanks, Bill

I was out this morning for a few hours and smoked about 12 walleyes. Pitching shallow riprap shorelines with Firecracker Kalins. All walleyes were in the 18-20 inch class. Saugers seemed a little slower today. Lots of little ones in the 28+ depth so I moved out. I only spend 2 hours with them but did have about 15 of them. Nothing real great. I was DOO’ing it. Off the water around 12. Ma wanted something for supper tonight so I brought her some. It should make her happy I am hoping Evert’s Ramps were in excellent shape. Was it James or Steve doing the salting?

Nice fish! Hope this weather holds till after Christmas so I can give it another go. Keeping Ma happy is a priority in most homes this time of year, if only it were as easy as a meal of fish I might be better out of the doghouse a little more often—or maybe not!

Nice eyes, I was on the water from 8 til 2. I was picking up decent sauger in 17 to 20 ft. Hair jigs tipped with fats or overbite jigs with ringworms were producing. Not the 100 fish type of day but enough quality fish to make it worthwhile.

Vick left this AM about 8 and I covered for him. I’ll be here on Sunay as well. Most people reported a good bite… lots of saugers for some, most didn’t catch many ‘eyes. Guys fishing down near Red Wing reported a solid bite as did those fishing south of the “Y.”

Tomorrow looks to be a dandy!

Thanks James, sound like you may be busy in a few hours down there, doesn’t look like you got to bed early, but who does anymore. am looking forward to hearing some good reports after Sunday afternoon. keep warm. Jack.

Mitch Mitties, Ken Zimmerman and I (Dave Gulczinski) were sauger fishing Saturday 12/20. According to Ken, we caught 77 fish – so the bite is tapering off from previous weeks. I was the designated guide and just couldn’t find big numbers of them this time (that’s what you get with a low-priced $0 guide). The good news is that the average size of the fish we did catch was substantially larger than on recent outings. The high quality of the fish did made up for the smaller quantity of them.

Below is a picture of me getting ready to release a 20.5” sauger that appears to have just eaten a small football.

Dave Gulczinski

Here is a picture Mitch holding one of many 17-19” sauger caught that day.

What kind of gloves is he wearing?

What kind of gloves is he wearing?

Saturday was a little chilly and gloves were a requirement most of the day for me. In the picture I was wearing lite cotton gloves with latex surgical gloves over the top. Keeps my hands warm and dry at the same time and you don’t have to take your gloves off when handling fish.

I have noticed one thing. All the walleyes that I or my customers have been catching the last couple of weeks have been males. Has anyone else seen this? Maybe they are just in the areas I have been fishing. Has anyone produced in female walleyes?

Jarrad,

The last several times I was out the few nice walleyes we caught appeared to be males (much skinnier than the football shaped female walleyes). I think more males may come up to the dam area before the females. Saturday we did not even catch a decent sized walleye as we spent most of the day targeting saugers in deeper water. Although we did try pitching to shore from 3:30–4:00 PM but it was still too early for the walleyes to go shallow on that sunny day.

Could you let us know what time in the morning you caught your walleyes and when the bite tapered off for you?

Thanks

Dave Gulczinski

Dave,

Ninety percent of the walleyes that were caught hit before the sun cleared the top of the trees. Cloudier the day the longer the bite. Last week the bite was gone and soon as the sun cleared the trees. The week before it was a lot overcast so the bite lasted until about 10am. Sounds like it will be another great weekend to be out.

Nice catch Jarrad, its hard to beat those cold winter water fillets. It dosen’t come any better than that.