After a longer than normal lull in our pre-spawn bite, it has finally turned around, and in a BIG way! The river is on the rise with water temps right behind. Put that together and you get spawning activity starting and fish in the trees! It’s my favorite time of year.
I had the pleasure to spend Saturday with fellow campers at Evert’s Resort, Randy and Brian. Our game plan for the day was to pitch plastics, minnows, and blades, to shallow sand flats. The flats that we fished were in 6 to 12 feet of water. They also happened to be on the inside of the main current seam. Which is a huge thing to pay attention to right now with the higher flow. Be sure to either be casting on the inside of the seam or cast just into the seam and let it drift down right on the seam. This will be a big factor in your catch rate.
Saturday brought us some very un-welcomed cold rain and wind. The only good thing about it is that the fish didnt seem to mind! We had a mixed bag of sauger and walleyes with most being saugers. Brian and Randy spent their day pitching plastics and jig and minnow and you guessed it I was pitching blades. Jig weights ranged from 3/16 to 5/16 depending on the location and wind. Sour apple was the best color for the jig heads. As for the plastics I would have to say firecracker chartuseuse tail paddle tail, milky white k-grubs, and chartuseuse pepper ringworms worked the best overall for us. As for the blades, my best colors were the tiger series, chartuseuse firetiger, green firetiger, and red firetiger. All in the 1/4 oz. size.
Sunday I spent the day alone in my NEW rig!!!! (more to come on that later). After learning from our outing from yesterday I decided to hit the shallow shore lines that had a current seam and a sand bottom. I was on a mission to find that elusive female walleye. I did find one that is in the first picture. What a great way to break in the new boat! I spent my whole day pitching blades in the same colors and sizes as yesterday.
The big female walleyes are just starting to show up now, so as long as the water keeps warming they should continue to move up. The water clarity this weekend was much better than the weekend before, with about 4" to 8" depending where you are. The rain that we got and that is forcasted should not do a whole lot to the temp or clarity of the water, which is good. I would look for the bite to remain steady and start to excel as the water continues to warm!
Until Next Time……
Nice fish Eric
. Sure looking forward to getting some free time and making it back out on the river 
.
You and free time dont go well together now days
I wont make it down this week but I will see you next weekend if you dont have a kid by then 
And if you do good luck and hope everything goes well. 
Nice fish Eric..
Awesome report Eric very nice piggy in that first pic
I will not have a chance to get up there untill the Mon after Easter, hope to see you on the water sometime soon.
Oh and congrats on the new ride I heard you stole it from James
Stole it is right…lol
I dropped it off at the resort right after picking it up from the dealership and he hasn’t let me near it since.
Enjoy the new ride buddy. I’m not sure there is a better feeling than buying your first new boat and sticking a pig walleye as your first fish!
One you get it all rigged up you’ll have to post some pics.
Nice report and pics sir!
I’m afraid those water temps have decided to stay cold until next week when I can get back down there.
dd
Great report Eric, looks like you are on top of some nice ones down there..
I wish my pocket book said I stole it
I will post some pics as soon as it gets finished rigging. Got some goodies on it now but not everything. A huge thank you goes out to Mark Strickland over at Marine Specialties for going way out of his way to rig this boat, and to do it on my time.
Great Fish Eric, but I’m more interested in the new rig your now driving, Please elaborate……..Thanks, Hairjig
very nice catches.
Hey Eric, thanks for the great report. Congrats on the new rig it is always exciting to have a new ride! You and the rest of the reports have gotten me fired up. I spent some time on the river during the lull period and it was agonizing. But things are looking up as I get to fish Thursday – Saturday this week. A very rare 3 day event for me… I can’t wait. Good luck with the new rig!
Well I guess I can let the cat out of the bag on this.
It is an ’07 G3 V185F, 18 1/2 feet. It has a full windshield, yamaha 150 four stroke, t-8 kicker, 2 garmin 178’s w/ gps, marine band radio, the new 80lb terrova w/ universel sonar, and plently of other little goodies. I am sure there is more that im forgeting though. I will get some pics as soon as it gets fully rigged. I am waiting on a couple of things that had to get ordered right now. After I get them I will post some pics of it.
Congrats on that boat Eric!
Did they put that new Reliance prop on there? That prop was made for that motor! It is supposed to really make it sing!
I ran that boat last year, and really loved it!
Nice looking fatties and congrats on the boat..
Wow that sounds like a sweet boat man! Almost exactly what I wouldn’t mind having for my next one. Looking forward to the pics and seeing it on the water.
Eric, what color is it?
Congrats on the new rig. I’m sure that many more pig walleyes will find their way to it!
It’s purple
No actually it is red. I should have some pics up by next monday or tuesday.
Congrats on the boat Eric! Sounds like an awesome ride! I’ll be down the last two weekends of April fishing tournaments. Hope to see ya then! ps….there are a bunch of those baits left if you’re still looking! Let me know, or give me a call. Dean’s got my number. Cya
I will be down during them weekends, and probally will be fishing the tournies, not sure yet.
You have a pm about the baits.
By the way are you bringing ziggy down with you them weekends?? It’s not that i dont want to see ya
but it would be nice to see him too 
see you in a couple of weeks.
Sounds like a sweet rig Eric, can’t wait to see the pics…Good hooksets……Hairjig