5/18/13 Walleyes on the Wolf River continues

I finally had an entire day to spend with my youngest daughter Olivia and couldn’t think of a better way to spend it than hitting the river. On a quest to add a few whitebass to our inventory for a neighborhood fish fry, we hit the river early and pounded it hard. I’ve avoided the weekends on the Wolf because of its popularity and excessive boat traffic. But not having the luxury of weekdays for Olivia, we managed to pick apart all the over-looked areas.

Our game plan was to run/gun a few whitebass spawning areas to have fish located then make a few drifts for walleyes. That idea was great in theory, but I didn’t anticipate the amount of competition for a spot. The first five or six spots we hit all produced a few whities, but not a fast/furious pace. Using search baits like the ¼ oz White Rooster tail spinners, Gizzard Shad Cranks, Rainbow Smelt, & BFT Great White Pulse-Rs (2.45) we had a accumulated about 20 or so and knew we had a pattern dialed in. Selecting current swept shorelines with a more abrupt drop-off going from 8’ to 3’ and containing some timber, cattails, or sporadic eel grass all held fish.

We switched over to fish walleyes, and consequently, also found ourselves playing bumper boats. For those that have never fished the Wolf in the height of the white bass run, be prepared with a LOT of patience. The Wolf River has a tremendously long history of people coming from hundreds of miles around to try and hit the mother-load of white bass. With no quantity bag limits, some have filled not coolers, but literally the bed of truck. This long standing draw of fishermen brings with it a unique set of challenges at the launch as well as on the water.

Feeling a bit frustrated with boats anchoring in my drift line, I felt it was time to seek a little space. A decision that was worth its weight in gold. We made a couple mile run down river and found ourselves much less crowded and virgin water that wasn’t being fished. The first pass over a clam bed with the electronics ignited a renewed sense of excitement. As the run tailed out into a 5’ clam bed flat, the H/Bird side scan shown a lot of white marks. We motored back up and started with our standard assortment of offerings. Half crawler on a 1/8oz jig, Moxies, & Pulse-Rs.

It only took a minute for Olivia to hook up with a crawler & put her first eye of the morning in the livewell. Twice in a row, I was eluded an opportunity with eyes on Pulse-Rs as I lifted them out of the water to make another pitch. Both times had walleyes slashing at the surface at the pulse-r that I just pulled out. Olivia unfortunately went on a missing streak and had a few more fish un-button as she had them near the boat.

It was Olivia’s next move that was the game-changer on the day. We motored up to make our 4th drift and Olivia started tossing a Koppers Live Target Rainbow Smelt that she was getting white bass on. Thinking she was just looking for W/B action, we both were surprised with the results. A nice 18” eye slammed her crank. It didn’t take long to see that it wasn’t a fluke. Olivia proceeded to put the smack-down on the eyes. Not wanting to be left out of the action, I starting tossing the Gizzard Shad crank (smallest 2” size) and had instant success. For today, it was all about location. We found the eyes were sitting on any shallow clump, frequently less than 4 fow. The next couple drifts filled our limits and sent us back on our way to hammer a few more whitebass.

We made our milk run back up through all the spots we had located fish on earlier. There wasn’t a hope or prayer that would enable us to make a drift through any of those spots. We were stuck dead center in a SNAFU maze just to maneuver the boat back upstream. As I motored up river, I did see a few fish in the main channel. It wasn’t masses of them, but a little more than a few here and there. So we opted to make a few drifts between the maze of boats. Running 8 to 14 fow, we drifted a variety of things to see what would turn them on. Best results came on a Pink/White or a June-bug colored ¼ oz blade. Both colors produced bonus eyes along with a number of whities.

Late afternoon as some of the traffic subsided, we relocated back to a couple spawning areas where we found fish in the morning. Though difficult to have much space, we combed the areas with our shallow cranks. It wasn’t the crazy pace of the prior week, but we managed to fill out our desired quantity for table fare, and a few for just CPR. It’s days like this that remind me that I’m so spoiled to have a daughter like Olivia.

Thanks Munchkin for such an awesome day!

Equipment and most productive baits:

• Quantum EXO 7’ medium rods / EXO 25 reels

• Quantum Smoke rods in 7’ & 6’3” medium / Catalyst 10 reels

• BFT Plastics – Pulse-R’s (Great White & Oystershell)

• BFT H2O and Draggin jigs

• Blades –Pink, June-Bug

• Kopper’s Live Target Gizzard Shad Crank Pearl/silver (GZC51M-600)

• Kopper’s Live Target Rainbow Smelt RS-70S-201

• Rapala – Rattlin’ Rapala RNR04HBSD Holographic Blue Shad