Walleyes have been blown off wingdams around DeSoto with the rapidly rising river from Minnesota runoff, easing into places like DeSoto Bay and Minnesota slough where they will still eat an in-your-face crawler presentation
The River came up 1.6 ft. overnite. Hammered nickel spinners were out, orange was the only way to go on Friday morning. Went to #4 blades and s-l-o-w presentation and ORANGE to scrape out just three 15-18 inch eyes for two clients. One nice pike, one channel cat and a handful of sheepies–that was it
“Best” spot proved to be in slack water right at mouth of DeSoto Bay. Thankfully, my crew was willing to load the boat and go chase some little trout on Kickapoo R. @Avelanch.
Prediction: when the River drops to about 8 ft. at Lansing and the emerald shiners and shad start to move hang on to the net!
When the river is roily
And won’t throw you a crumb
Give thanks for the critters
We sometimes call drum.
They’re always ready
And primed for the takin’
When fishin’ is tough–
The Sheep save your bacon!
Gotta love the poem!
Ted:
Love the poem, but also a question.
Being this is my first season in pools 9-14, what techniques are used when these emerald shiners start to do their thing? Trolling cranks (leadcore/longline)? Jig’n minnow (bucktail-rockaroo style tipped with minnow)? 3-way spinners tipped with bait? dragged Dubuque rigs?
The Lansing area is one of my favorite places to fish. I have a secret rock pile between the power plant and Capoli slough that was very good to me this past July.
Regards,
Joe Jiacinto
Joe–when the water temperature drops down below 60–which won’t be long now–and the bait starts moving upstream I start fishing a run-and-gun approach with a bait like the #13 floating Rapala using TWO Raps on a six foot dropper, with a 3/4-1 oz Lindy No Snagg sinker on an 18 inch dropper coming off the other tie on a three way (you can use a pair of barrel swivels, too. I break the plastic lip off of the leading Rap and remove the back treble, rigging this bait about two feet behind the swivel. The second Rapala is four feet behind the first one…sort of a Great Lakes flasher/dodger concept.
Then I troll the leading face of wingdams at a pretty good clip until finding one with active fish–which I figure is 2-3 legal size in as many passes.
When the bite slows I like to anchor up on that point of the wingdam where most of the action came and pitch either hair or ringworms. Been playing with the new Lindy Thumpin’s Worm which will be on the shelves real soon and pretty excited about it.
Wingdams aren’t the only barriers where ‘eyes like to herd bait. You found that good rock pile . there are more spots like this out there…don’t overlook barriers like sandbars back in the running sloughs and closing dams!
Resist the temptation to run up below the big dam and play bumper boats once the water cools there are plenty of fish and fewer boats downstream…and stay flexible! The lure/presentation you really whack ’em on one day is merely a starting point for tomorrow!
Ted:
Thanks for your detailed reply! I have heard about this tandem rapala troll from some of the others as well. I will have to give it a try here in the next few weeks. It sounds a little bit like the hand-lining rig Koonce introduced us to this past spring, with less weight pullin’ her down and perhaps a bit more speed.
I suspect an assortment of basic colors is a good starting point: black/sliver, blue/silver, firetiger, orange, chart. etc. I am partial to the Rapalas, but I would figure Thundersticks might also have their place in this setup.
Thanks again!
If it wasn’t for posts like yours and those of the many other fine folk that post on here, I’d be way behind the curve. Those little details, like taking off the lip in the lead bait and removing the back treble are worth their weight in gold. 
Your advice on staying flexible is key. I started about 4 weeks back limiting myself to 20-30 minutes in any given location, then maybe no more than an hour with a specific technique. If the spot is not producing or the method, I change. This has resulted in a lot more fish being caught. But you got have that toolbox of techniques to try and have practice at employing them properly for them to payoff.
Regards,
Joe Jiacinto
Joe,
don’t go breaking those lips off quite yet…I have several floating rapalas with broken lips on them that i can make you a good deal on…other wise i’m just turning them in for new ones anyways
Hey Ted, know what you mean about sheepies. Been getting my share of them. Did get a nice 24 1/2″ eye couple days ago. Next day had the mate to it. But that one got off before I could get it in my net. Other wise I’ve been getting lots of small eyes and sauger. I did bring in a couple of the sheepies to fillet out the loins. Been getting mine on leaches with jigs. It’s getting tough going out there now with the high water. Eyes are still in their same area’s as before but tighter to shore or where the water is slacker.