Fishing is good. I was up last Thursday to prefish and Friday and Saturday to fish the MTT event. Wednesday afternoon I jumped in the boat with a friend and we went out for a quick 3 hour trip. There was some wind and the fish were holding tight to a rock/sand transition in 13 feet. We worked them over for a couple hours and ended up with a nice mess of fish for dinner. All of them came on Jolly Roger tackle spinners in Seyka perch color.
Thursday was prefish day so we covered a ton of water. We found fish in weeds and rocks in 11-15 feet both on mid lake structure and along the shoreline. Spinners worked better than trolling crankbaits. Even in the afternoon with not a ripple on the water or a cloud in the sky, those fish were still as shallow as 11 feet and feeding.
Saturday was flat calm and sunny. We started on a rock/sand transition in 11-13 feet and spinners were putting fish in the boat right away. Fortunately mixed in with all the perch and 12-14″ Walleyes we were able to catch some nice fish before the bite slowed. On to plan B which was a mid lake hump with some small pockets of weeds. The fish were scattered and my trolling motor died(motel outlet not working correctly) so we dropped the trolling lines. Immediately we caught a few then the bite shut down. On to plan C and the fishing was lights out. It was Noon, flat, sunny, and the Walleyes were up in 12 feet putting on the feed bag. It was one of those times where I was kicking myself for not carrying 2 nets because the fish almost always came 2 at a time or right after the first one hit the net. Perch colored baits worked the best. There were other boats in the area fishing with spinners and catching fish too, but they looked to be catching perch too and we weren’t getting any.
Saturday was a South wind at 7-15 mph. Windy enough for a nice walleye chop, but not so rough we couldn’t troll into the waves if needed. Plan C was going right away in the morning and we put some nice 17″ fish in the boat right away. The boats pulling spinners were catching just as many. It slowed a little so we made a move to the rocks. The fish had disappeared which surprised me, so back to plan C again. At this point it was noon and the fish went crazy again. I can’t even guess at the number of fish, but it was rare to have both lines in the water at the same time.
Over the 3 days we boated walleyes from 12-23 inches, perch from 4-12 inches, and pike from 20-30 inches. For the Walleyes I would say the breakdown was 50% 12-14″, 25% 14-18″, and 25% in the protected 18-23″ slot. We had one so close to that 23″ mark, but were never able to find any over. My Dad and I ended up weighing 12 Walleyes for 16.99 pounds and finishing 9th in the 58 boat field. It was another fun tournament with my Dad and those few hours of chaos each day remind me why I like fishing Winnie so much. Congrats to the other IDO teams that did well.
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I need to get back up there. Its been a few years now.