Well I will start off by apoligizing about no pics.My dash mount gps was on the blink on Sunday tourny day and I had to take batteries out of camera to run my hand held unit.And when I was going to take some pics at end of the day it was raining. I really wanted to share a photo of my 5.95 lb walleye that was good for 5th place.
The walleye fishing is right down tuff as I only boated a couple of legal fish all week of pre-fishing.I tried all of the ussual methods and trolling cranks shallow worked the best with perch being the best color.Shallow shad raps and jointed minnows working the best. The majority of the fish were short 13 in fish but lots of them.Now that I have painted this gloomy picture I will give some good news there have been some good walleyes coming in the low light hours in rushes and other shallow area,s pitching jigs and plastics. I see quite a few guys out in the waders and they have been having some succes early and late.
I am really concerned about the walleyes going into the winter as they are really skinny.Many of the 14 to 15 in fish were not even close to a pound.And the 27 in fish I caught did not even make 6 lbs.I do not know whats going on if the food source is low or the fish got sressed from summer heat but I hope they come out of it.
It would not be a complete report if I did not mention the beloved yellows.They are going on just about any method you choose.I caught many trolling cranks shallow and pitching jigs caught fish as well I would just keep moving until you found fish and as ussual finding a gathering of boats means they are on a school keep a respectible distance and join the fun.I apoligize for a lack of lake reports this year this has been a heck of a year dealing with lifes challenges. Hopefully we are going to get a couple more trips in before ice time with a working camera.
Thanks for the report Joe. A good bunch of 13” fish showing up this year will mean some nice fishing for the next couple years as they get bigger.
Thanks, Bill
I feel your pain. We fished both Saturady and Sunday with very little luck. We only had a couple of small walleyes, but the yellows kept on going. Hopefully the walleyes will turn on here in the next few weeks.
We were there also and finished 7th with one fish at 3.65 pounds. It was tough and we felt very fortunate to brinig that fish to the scale. We had a big one on about 15 minutes before we landed the 3.65 that would have been in the 8 – 10 pound class. It came unbuttoned about 15 feet from boat. Still we were very happy with another top ten finish.
Joe, we’ll have to meet sometime on the lake or at a rules meeting.
The yellows really are on a tear. We pulled a slow death rig around in prefishing and caught about 20 yellows per walley. The walleye were hitting that rig pretty well but man the yellows. If you like catching a fish about every minute or so, try pulling a slow death rig around at Clear Lake right now. Be sure to have several dozen crawlers.
I might also add that firetiger shadraps were working well also and I know of at least one limit taken on them prior to the tourney.
We do really well at Clear Lake with purple. We used either a Scheels Sportsmans model crank in purple or a purple Husky Jerk. Make sure they are tuned well. We were running 2.2 MPH but I know some were going up to 2.6mph.
Good Luck!
Joel
thank’s for tip
The bite was tough for the whole week prefishing. I was in first place going into the event for the rookie of the year award with some close compitition who just kept knockin on the door. I decided to “shoot the moon” so to speak and was lindy rigging 6″chubs in all the deep water pockets that I would see good hooks in on the lowrance. Ten minutes into it I pulled a 27″ that was really healthy unlike alot of other skiny fish we caught. I thought I really had it nailed down but the fish were so random I was about to pull my hair out. Finally at2pm on tourny day I hit a 25″ to take 6th place narrowly winning the rookie title. Like you mentioned the yellows always make their pressence know. Its a great lake, In my opinion one of the most consistent walleye lakes in iowa.