4-15-13 Fox River skinny water eyes

4/15/13 Fox River – De Pere
Finally after a couple years of Mudshark and & I talking about getting together on soft water, we were able to make it happen. He was staying in Green Bay, so we had to make an appearance at the #1 destination in that area for the green & gold. No cheese heads for this trip and no desire to see Lambeau Field. We were looking for gold in the Fox River at De Pere.
Unfortunately, the weather continues to give us the most in challenging condition. From 1 am to 5 am thunderstorms pounded the region in wave after wave. With them came more monsoon rains, muddy run-off, debris, barely 38 degree water and a serious case of tight lipped walleyes.

Making the most of the opportunity to get out, we dropped in at 6 and got to work. After hearing of a few females being caught in the last week that were nearly spawned out, I had a hunch to stay shallow. That would lead to paying off during a time of miserable conditions.
We started out on the top of the drop-offs along the channel and maneuvered deeper and shallower until we found cooperating fish. It didn’t take long to find some active males in 5 to 7 fow that were willing to bend some rods. Knowing when the spawn in happening, where you find males, there is also a strong likelihood to be a few ladies nearby. That was the case today.
I went through the spectrum of my typical Fox River color schemes looking for a stronger color preference. Today just wasn’t the day to light them up on plastics. Generally, I do very well with most colors that include chartreuse tails. Firecracker & Purple Cracker with chart/ tails usually producing the best, with Chart/ green core having it’s moments. All of our bites on these colors were soft and short. I’m not a fan of stinger hooks and continued to change until I found a color combo they were willing to eat. For today, downsizing to the 2.45 Pulse-R in oyster shell with the bottom 1/3 dipped in chartreuse Spike-It gave the best action on plastics.

By far, the best action came on a pearl/silver Gizzard Shad lipless crank by Live Target. Vertical jigging in 5 fow gets interesting on the hook set. A bit weird to set the hook and instantly the fish is on the surface slashing around. But for today, this technique again proved to be vital for success.
We tried anchoring and fan casting the hump for what ended up to be too much time. By 9 am we were fighting wind gusts over 35mph and you can only hold so well with a trolling motor. To add complexity to our day, the sun made an incredible appearance and brought with it blue skies. The eyes held tight in the rocks and you really needed to have a bait in front of their nose.
We returned to vertical jigging and ground out a few more eyes out of the rocks. They wanted very little action on the gizzard shad. Often it was best to just hold it steady about 10” off the bottom and let the current swirl it around the rocks. As we slid back and forth along a ledge, you felt the tick of a rock and then the typical slam of a Fox River walleye hammering it.
Jeff and his son-n-law had to make an earlier departure and I returned them to the launch around 1. I continued to fish until dark looking for that one monster pig that De Pere is known for. Around 3pm, it got cloudy and the sun was back in hiding as we are all accustom to. That was a trigger point for activity and the males were again hitting with a vengeance. They seemed to move across the rocky humps in waves. I was hitting 3 to 6 fish rapidly and then nothing for another ½ hour.

All the females caught could almost be sorted into two categories. 24” and larger were pouring eggs or nearly spawned out. Females under 24” were plump and looked like a balloon that was ready to explode…with no signs of dropping eggs yet.
Highlight of the day was hand-lining in a 27” piggy. I caught a gob of mono on my crank that someone busted off and was untangling the mess when I felt a tug. As I pulled the line up from the depths, a tick’d off female began to show me her attitude.
Jeff – I really enjoyed the morning out with you and Jeremy. It’s easy to get frustrated when conditions are tough and the bite is off from expectations. But the sense of humor and all the laughter with old stories filled in the gaps perfectly.
BTW – The evening shore bite was VERY busy with guys landing fish after fish in what appeared to be VERY skinny water. I did notice that a number of them were fouled hooked, which is going to happen when there is that large of a concentration of fish.
Equipment:
• Quantum 6’3” & 7’ EXO and Smoke rods
• Quantum EXO & Catalyst 10 reels
• BFT – Moxies, Pulse-R (2.45 did the best)
• Koppers Live Target lipless Gizzard Shad – Pearl/Silver 2-1/2” (GZV62SK600)
• Rapala Rattlin’ Rapala RNR05 Firetiger