Menominee River Adventures

Al grunted and yelled “Johnny!!!”…I knew the little blade had again seduced a nice Walleye to bite! “Johnny” is a funny “Yooper” exclamation that means, “Fish On!

It doesn’t take much to get me to go on a fishing trip, so when fellow IDO staffer Joe Ballweg contacted me for information on the early season Walleye fishery on the Menominee River, I said heck, Al Erickson, Frank Pearson and I will meet you there personally and lead you out.
We arrived at the boat launch about 7 AM to find it filled with trailers already. This a WI/MI boundary water with a special twist…fishing is allowed before the opener with a one Walleye per day limit. My Lowrance 332C told me the water temp was 44.5 degrees in the river and I knew the Eyes would be spawning. I guessed Blades might be the ticket and fastened my favorite Red Tiger B-3 by BFishing Tackle on to start. I immediately scored a small male in 24 fow… Moments later, Al’s AV63MXF and homade Wingdammer 1/4oz gold blade brought the first big fish to the net…a long, thin 26″ postspawn female.

We had stopped at a local bait shop and he recommended vertically fishing 1 oz jigs tipped with a minnow, due to the dam gates being wide open.
Using my Minkota bow mount we were able to control our drift well enough to vertically work even 3/16 jigs and 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 a gold/black barred WD 1/4 blade. My most successful set up for the drift was a LE 63MXF with 8# PP line. I used my new Pfleuger Supreme 30MG (thanks for the recommendation Dean!), and it was flawless! Vertical jigging blades requires (IMHO) and extra fast action…they suck them in and spit them out immediately (metal does not feel like a fathead).

The action continued fast and furious until almost noon when my cell phone rang to tell me Joe had made it to the launch. The three of us had boated over 50 walleye so far…putting just one 25″er in the live well that had been hooked in the gills and would not survive. The rest were mostly smaller scrappy males… almost always hooked in or around the chin. Al picked up this fiesty eye just before leaving the rivermouth area to met Joe Ballweg.
The River below the Hattie St. Dam is very tricky to navigate. There are big mudflats, shallow rockbars and many other boat hazards. Upstream from the US-41/141 bridge too dangerous for a boat but has many opportunities for a wading/shore angler. Species here are all freshwater gamefish including Browns, Steelhead, and Salmon, during the certain times.

We met Joe and his friend Dick and after a brief strategy session, led them safely toward the two long protective breakwalls. As if on cue, this nice walleye smacked my little gold blade on the first drop as we started drifting alongside Joe’s boat!
It was a blast drifting together down the river, exchanging humorous barbs as one angler or the other would hook a “big one” only to be dissapointed by a smaller walleye at the surface, or one of the numerous White Suckers that attacked the small blades with abandon…some of them 3-4 lbs.

All in all it was a great day. We probably caught and released over 100 walleye…keeping three to take home for the dinner table.
A word of advice…when getting into large schools of immature males, it minimizes damage to the fish by flattening the back of the barbs on your Blade with a pliers. This will leave a bump to hold the fish but it will be much easier and safer to remove w/o tearing up the fish.

It was great to meet and fish alongside you Joe and Dick! If you need more info on this unique fishery don’t hesitate to send me a PM or email. See you on the water!