After a long stretch of guiding this Spring I took the past couple of weeks off to play around and hopefully seek out some new areas and presentations. If, and when, you decide to do the same on a body of water you know very well, you will soon realize why you spend your time in the same areas year after year……… cause you catch fish! While I didn’t discover a new secret spot for post spawn walleye, or a magical presentation, I eliminated a lot of water for future reference that I’m very confident does not hold post spawn walleyes on a low water Spring.
Last Sunday I went back to guiding and started May’s guide trips off with a bang. With the low water and low flows I went back to basics just dragging jigs and bait. My partner for the day was Chad Nissen. Chad is a stand up guy and a pretty good stick who just wanted to learn more about river fishing in general. The day started out slow with only 3 fish in the first 2 hours but we stuck with it fine tuning our presentation as the day went on. I new the presentation was an effective one, as it is in low water and lower flow situations, but we couldn’t get the fish to fully commit until we got the right color combinations put together. By days end we had a 3 man limit of fish and had come to the conclusion blue jigs were the best for numbers of fish, with orange or red jigs taking all of our bigger fish. Chad is pictured above with the best fish of the day taken on an orange jig. I am pictured here as well with another good fish that bit a red jig. Blue jigs did take a few fish in the 21” to 22” class for us as well. Mid morning to around 2:30pm was a very good bite for us on this day, at around 2:30 our bite fizzled with only 3 fish in the 18” class making it to the boat by trips end at 4:00. Thanks for spending a day in my boat Chad, it was fun to fish with you.
On Tuesday I spent the day with Gene Hastings and wife Cindy. We started our day down on the lake in search of smallies with little success. The areas we were trying to target were getting pounded with wind making boat control and casting light jigs horrendous. We tried trolling walleye for a short bit with only smaller fish and white bass making a showing. About 2:00 we put the boat on the trailer and headed back to the upper end of pool 4 and went in search of some more of those big eye’s. The Walleye fishing was slow for us on this late afternoon with only 4 keeper eye’s making it to the boat. At 5:00pm we called it a day and hoped that on Wednesday the walleyes would bite better in the mid morning hours like I had experienced on Sunday. I was right (for once), we saw action right away on Wednesday morning on in to the mid morning hrs with a lull around 11:00am to 12:30. The action picked up once again around 12:30 for us but about 1:30 the rain and lightning put us off the water for the day. The average size of the eye’s was down from Sundays outing with most of the walleye in the 17” to 20” class…… except for the one piggy that Gene is pictured here with. This was the best fish of the day taken on a red jig/leech combo. I would like to thank the two of you again for spending a day in my boat it was a hoot to fish with the both of you and hope to do it again in the future. Have a safe trip back to Kansas.
The best depths for my boat on the past couple of outings have been in 5’ to 9’of water, areas with a good mix of clams and wood have seen most of the action. Leeches and crawlers have both seen good action in my boat and the walleyes preference changes by the minute. Keeping one of each over the side of the boat is a good bet to keep you covered. I have not tried trolling cranks thru the areas I have been pulling fish on bait, the action on bait has been enticing enough for me to stick with it. I have heard some good reports of fish coming from the head of the lake area, bay city flats and up in to the back channel. Trolling cranks on lead core, long lining cranks and 3-ways with bait have all put fish in the boat in these areas from the second hand info I have received. The white bass action in the dam area has still been great. Guys camping at Everts Resort are giddy as all get out and not having a problem getting them in the boat.
Sounds like Summers almost here..…….get out and get fishin’!
I’ll see ya on the river!
Great report Dustin…Thought I saw your boat bobbing along north of Hok si la on tue.The smallies have really slowed for me,but maybe this rain will get them back up in the rocks and biting better?
That was me bobbing around for about 40 mins and decided it wasn’t worth sticking the trolling bite out in that area with the wind. Only a couple of small fish for us but had some good marks on the graph in that area that will get me to head back there soon when controling the boat is a bit easier to do.
Nice report buddy!
I am glad you got the opportunity to take the time and check those desired areas out! Always something to be learned out there.
Have the wingdams produced any fish for you recently?
There is only 4 wingdams on the upper end of the pool and I have not fished them since this Spring. So to answer your question I am going to have to say no.
How much is the water level up?
I have not been on the river since Wednesday and the water level was below normal for this time of year. According to the corps website the river has actually gone down since then
. I am almost positive that can not be right. Maybe somone who made it out today can help with this question.
Your reports are great to read Dustin…Thanks again and I look forward to reading the next one !!