Menominee River Walleyes

Pete grunted "Fish on!!!"…I knew the little Paddletail had again seduced a nice Walleye to bite! After a good battle on his LE 63MXF and 6# mono, I slid the net under a nice 24 incher…We were drifting on the Menominee River near Marinette Wi. It was a brutally cold April 20, 6 AM with 24 degree air temps and a 15 mph breeze that would later top 25 mph…This is familiar water to me, living about 69 miles away. It doesn’t take much to get me to go on a fishing trip, so when my good friend Pete Yake called me to switch our focus from the Fox River to the Menominee, it was a no brainer.

A nice IDO report from Joe Ballweg a few days ago really helped plan our strategies.

We arrived at the boat launch about 6 AM to find it filling with trailers already. This a WI/MI boundary water with a special early season…fishing is allowed before the opener with a one Walleye per day limit within the river. Outside of the river mouth, Green Bay (Lake Mich) has a 2 fish limit, with a Wi license.

My sonar unit told me the water temp was 36.5 degrees in the river and I knew the Eyes would be in a pre-spawning mode. The winds forced me to be “on my toes” as I slipped down stream, trying hard to keep our lines vertical. After a drift w/o success, I guessed that the poor water clarity may favor a noisier reaction bait. I snapped a new Rapala Rippin Rap on my line and immediately was on to a heavy fish in 24 fow… Moments later, Pete netted this gorgeous 26" pre-spawn female. In spite of the cold…things were warming up! The next hour was steady hook ups…. With both Pete and I using the vertical jig technique…Pete was not scoring on the usual blades and pulled another newer lipless crank bait out of his box…a bright gold Clackin Rap. Almost on cue Pete was “fish on” again. My only guess is the additional noise from the rattles in these baits increased their productivity in the coffee colored water.

I couldn’t help noticing other boats drifting around us using very heavy jigs to deal with the 6,000 cfm current. The way to deal with current is boat control…not heavy weight. Using my Minn kota Terrova bow mount we were able to control our drift well enough to vertically work even 3/16 jigs and 3/8 blades effectively, giving us a lot more hook ups than the many boats around us. The walleyes were sure responding to the blade presentation! This scrapper sucked in an Gold Chrome Rippin Rap. My set up for the lipless crank baits was a 6’2” MXF Aurora custom rod with 6# 832 braid. Vertical jigging reaction lures requires (IMHO) an extra fast action… soft tip…quick transition to the backbone. Walleye usually suck them in on the fall and spit them out fast.

This bruiser wasn’t fast enough…

The wind changed direction and it warmed up a bit…the bite stopped and it was time to change gears and find what they wanted. I decided to try a scented Trigger X paddletail on a 1/4oz jig…guessing the fish may have dropped into deeper water with the bright Sun’s sudden appearance…Wham!

Something slammed my jig and I could not budge it…slowly…with furious headshakes…it started coming up from 26 fow. My 6’6” MF Limit Creek rod was bent to the max as the huge walleye became visible…Pete quickly tried to jump on the trolling motor as we were becoming dangerously close to a knot of boats drifting towards us…then…as suddenly as it started…it was gone…

My jig somehow came free and I ended up with an empty line and that feeling we all know too well… Ahhh such is fishing…

All in all it was a great day. We caught and released 24 walleye…keeping two to take home for the dinner table. Pete caught 13 to my 11…but 6 of mine were really fatties! Several other fish were camera quality…being 18-22” long.

The fish pictured are all 23-27 inches and 5.25 to 9.02 lbs…

Other productive baits…

Mini Moxie…honey motor oil/chart

Original Paddle tail… catalpa/chart tail

Sinking lipless crankbaits…worked just like a blade bait

Rapala Rippin Rap and Clacking Rap… #5 in Clown, Gold, Olive Shad

Live Target lipless sinking Gizzard Shad…1/2 oz …silver/gold