The weather cooperated for most of our trip over the long weekend. I had the pleasure to travel and share a boat with Larry Blackledge of Larry’s Guide Service, we made the overnight 11 hr. trek and hit the water early Thursday morning. By noon the winds switched 180 degrees from blowing out of the SW in the morning to sweeping through the islands from the NE at 15-25 mph. The charter boat chatter on the radio was not of the inspiring type to say the least. The bite was shutting down, a cold front moving in. We were not to be denied our opportunity to fish so we kept at it. The first day was slow, overcast, windy and wet. We were only able to muster up a couple fish. On Friday Larry put together the program for our success, he fished spinners and crawlers, I pulled cranks. Cranks were not the ticket for us, our numbers were coming off spinners. Here’s Larry with one of the many nice eater eye’s he took.
We were not graphing many fish and with the sun breaking through midmorning I decided to switch over to spinners and crawlers too. Larry commented that with the sun shining bright that the fish would be moving up to feed. So taking a cue from that I set one line 20 ft. back from the board fishing the top of the water column and set the other to fish the bottom 80 ft. behind the board. This next fish came off the line running the top of the column, a healthy 28 inch fish. We boated most of our remaining fish this day on the lines running just below the surface.
I made this trip with 13 guys from the MASF fishing club out of St. Paul I belong too.
This fish pictured here was the club tourney winner on Friday, a nice 30 incher I landed mid Friday. This fish was caught on a line running the bottom of the water column in 32 ft. of water. Saturday our club event was won with a 32 inch, 11 lb. 6 oz. Fish caught by one of our other club members, one of 4 fish he boated over 10 lbs. that day. They got their crankbait bite going Saturday on rattling rogues.
Each day I started out fishing cranks but quickly abandoned for the crawler and blade bite. I fished 40-50 colors and sizes to no avail finally switching to meat each day. What we sacrificed in quality we more than made up for in quantity.
The presentation we capitalized on was pink and purple beads and large #5 Colorado blades. I ran hatchet blades with success also, Blue, Pink and White in color. Here’s another eater, check out the spinner set-up.
We fished the Kelly Island area with many of our club having success on cranks but not us, our bite was crawlers and blades. We produced far better numbers this way in the ever-changing conditions. Saturday night storms rolled in and many boats were to be seen at the various places not venturing out on Sunday morning. We ate breakfast and hit the road back. A great trip for sure. If you ever get the chance to do it, you’ll never forget the experience.
Great report and pics Tim. The length/weight of those beauties correspond with our LBDN open water walleye. They do not get to the girth of the inland fish (Mississippi types) due to their nomadic openwater patterns.
My biggest out of the LBDN was 32″ and weighed 11.2 lbs, unlike the 30.75″… 14.16# monster boated my James this spring!
Nice report Hooks !! For Sure !!!
It’s good to see you with some dandy walleyes in your grasp again !!
Nice fish Hooks!!!
That’s got to be a blast, especially with that many guys in your group.
Great report Hooks.
Gator Hunter
Here’s two of the bigger fish caught during our club tourney on saturday. These were both heading for the wall. One was just shy of 11 1/2 lbs. and the other was over 10 lbs. Don’t remember the exact weights. These two had the best color of the fish weighed.
I talked to a group of high school friends who have been out at Erie since last Thursday. They did very well yesterday, all 3 boats limited out plus they threw back quite a few fish. If I remember correctly, they threw back 6 fish over 26″ yesterday. They kept their limit of “eaters” 22-25 inch fish. They were headed home this morning due to the forecast. The best bite for them was bottom bouncers and crawlers with a hammered gold, green and perch colored blades being the best. They were running two drift socks to keep them slowed down.
Yeah, I talked to my old fishing partner last night, he said the weather made the fishing tough. After day two being cancelled I’m sure he’ll be heading home early.