I had an afternoon trip today, just in advance of the gulley-washer we’re now experiencing. I am happy to report that the chew is on!
My client and I spent the afternoon pitching bait and pulling cranks in the Yellow and Chippewa Rivers. We found crank-hungry walleyes in emerging weed beds in the Chip in 8-10 fow. We took these fish by longlining SR5s upstream. While this trolling bite has really been taking off over the past 10 days, we had our greatest success with the jig. We enjoyed great multi-species action by pitching, dragging, and even slip-bobbering light jigs tipped with fatheads over current-swept rock in the Chip. By the end of the trip, we tallied 14 walleyes (including 10 in the protected slot), 4 smallies, 3 pike, 2 decent crappies (10 and 11″), 2 rock bass and one big pre-spawn channel cat that hit the tape at 31″ and tipped the scales at 10 lbs 7 oz. Late May/Early June is typically when my clients and I start to see these girls show up. They are a HOOT on light tackle!
