I had the opportunity to share my boat yesterday with Mark and Julie LaBathe of Forest Lake, Mn. After a brief discussion in the morning as we left the launch, I learned that both Mark and Julie have never been on Pool 2 and that they were interested in learning how to fish wingdams and the various techniques that I like to use to targeting walleyes on them.
We started the morning out stopping at a couple of my usual haunts that have been producing fish for me on the recent trips only to find little to show for our efforts. We pitched hair jigs, plastics and cranks and still could not buy a fish for the first couple of spots. After a few adjustments, I shifted gears ands changed my attack plan and decided to run and gun rather sitting a little too long in one spot. After our next stop, things started off in a hurry with Mark sticking a nice 26” walleye that came on a Cotton Cordell wally diver (CD5) in the chartreuse color pattern that he was pitching to the wingdam. After we got a quick snapshot of this fish and a release, we continued to probe the wingdam a little more with no further results. Again we decided to stay on the move and hop around to many different wingdams.
Our very next stop both Mark and Julie score right away after making the first couple of casts to the wingdam and the nothing. This told me instantly that we better stay on the move in order to put the odds in our favor. A couple fish here and a couple fish there was the theme for the rest of the day as we quickly spent 10-15 minutes per wingdams and kept moving. Yesterday did not pay to stay put and probe out any more biters out of the area. The active fish were on the chew within minutes of our arrival and then nothing!
Both cranks and Jimmy D’s hair jigs produced for us throughout the day. There was really no specific crank that worked better than others for us yesterday. The Bomber 6A got the most attention from myself, but Julie and Mark caught fish on wally divers, Grappler shads, and Rapala shap raps. As I statedi nmy previous report, maintaining contact with the bottom is really the key this time of year. We found ourselves overcastting the wingdam by 30 feet or so just so we could keep the lure in the strike zone for longer periods.
We took a break from the wingdam pitching about noon to run south and troll some backwater cut areas that have been productive in recent trips during the midday hours. After about ½ hour of trolling and no fish, we quickly regrouped and headed back to the wingdams only to get bit once again within minutes of our arrival. It was a gorgeous day yesterday and I want to thank Mark and Julie for spending the day with me. I had to cut the day a bit shorter than I normally would due to the fact that I had to run up to St. Cloud to speak to the Boy Scouts of 221 and talk fishing! Twist my arm! We topped the day with several 25”-26” fish and a nice 28” fish that shook off a crankbait at the boat side. We had a blast as the day rolled by way too quickly as usual. Thanks again and look forward to the next time we can share a boat again!
Good luck fishing!
Nice fish Steve. We tried our luck at the trolling bite on monday evening around the 494 area. Not much there for us. Managed 1 large sheepie. 3 hooks in the mouth and 2 in the head for the sheepie. They dont mess around with a crank bait.
There was plenty of leaves in the water from the storm on sunday. Water levels didn’t seem to be all that high. Water looked just high anough to make it easy to find the wing dams.
Looks like I should of choose option B yesterday and pulled out the pitching rods. That will have to be the plan for wensdays trip.