Recently, I had the opportunity to spend a couple of partial days in the boat with Nick Johnson, local river rat and a touring pro on the FLW Tour. Our goal was to pinpoint some of pool #3 & #4 walleyes that were in the jig pitching mood for an upcoming TV show that Nick would be doing. The sauger bite is well underway,but that wasn’t to be our focus today.
How did we do? Extreme changes were taking place in our pools 3&4 as of late,so what may have worked a few days ago could and very well might be totally un – fishable by film day. Covering a ton of water and checking past history of producing spots were checked out quickly,and many spots were not even fished as per Nicks visual inspection,”this isn’t right”,meaning too much or not enough flow to hold the fish we were looking for. Finally, we settled on some productive looking water and it wasn’t long before Nick hooked up with a respectable fish,with another coming to the boat only a few minutes later. So,how many more fish from that spot?I will never know,we were off and running to the next fish producing area that Nick had his suspicions of holding good walleyes, and driving right past the guys catching saugers!
Even though we were not fishing a tournament,it sure felt like we were. I quickly realized how hard and the amount of work guys like Nick,and many of our local guides put into there job of fishing. On a side note, Nick had a story for just about every spot we fished,who caught what and when at that location from many years past. Even a few stories about how a spot kicked him in the butt a few times. The moral of this story you ask?It is tough to replace time on the water and years of experience that they have invested in .I have been honored to have been in the boat with a hand full of these folks and they have one thing in common….time on and the ability to read water!
Slack water and current breaks on rocks were our pattern for success. Our fish were caught on big bulky plastics like k-grubs and bucktails and adjusting the jig weight for the current on each location. The fall bite is on for pitching shallow water eyes! If you have never gotten in on this bite before, I encourage you to do so……..your personal best fish could be the next cast!
I sure want to thank Nick for a few hours on the water and all the funny stories that made the day go by so quickly….especially the one about “Pete”…..and the time Nick got wet fishing .I am still laughing about that! You will too….IF……… you can get Nick to share it with you! Good fishing too all!
It sounds like a great time on the water
Dean,
thanks for nice read.
and Congrats on taking a day on the water..
See you soon.
Jack.
Nice looking fish guys!
Great report Dean
It’s good to see you taking a little time off Dean. Those are some nice looking fish and I bet they were fun to catch. We’ll be seeing you soon.
Rich
Dean it sounds great and we hope to see you again in a couple of days and get a sauger report going for you.
Hey Dean glad to see you got on the water nice eyes.
Looks like fun guys.
Nick hope your filming went well. Until I see you on the water.
Take care
Greg
WHAT!!!
Those no good…slow movin…icky tasting Sauger??? 
………………. 
I may sneak away with Deano for some PIGGY WALLEYES!!!
I quickly realized that you’re a damn good storyteller/narrator. Thanks for the report and well directed respects Dean.
Cool report Dean!
Latest FLW has an article on Nick’s ringworm box on page 76. 
dd
Great report Dean!
Jami
Cool, thanks for the update Dean. So I can not make it down for the Fall bite. So when are you inviting me down for the Pitching bite in the Spring??
Is it legal to have as much fun as you do on the water Dean?
With a partner like Nick in the boat a guy can’t help but have a blast catching eyes. Now if we all could just figure out how to spend the right time in the right place like these two guys do we would have it made. 
Time on the water is worth its weight in gold. 
Thanks for the report bud.
Thanks, Bill
Anytime….Just gonna have to get you to quit talking about it and get your tail down here!
What talking about it for 4 years is too long????