Six weeks ago I had a chance encounter with a very good friend whom I hadn’t seen in a few years. Working with Mark for 20 years until the proverbial rug was ripped out from under our jobs made the chance meeting all the more special.Our chat quickly turned toward fishing of course and a penciled in date was made to get after a fall walleye bite.
Having a fairly late start we targeted higher flowing wingdams to begin with, concentrating on the ends but eventually working the entire stretch. A favorable south wind was working for us today making the waves stick out and making boat control a breeze. Blue skies along with the high pressure system not to mention the trees peaking out in full color made for a perfect day! Now, what to cast?
Having many different people in my boat through the years has taught me quite a bit on how to handle three people while eye chasin. Quickly getting everyone on the same page while working a rockpile can alleviate a ton of headaches while eliminating valuable time lost. What I mean is,if it’s cranks you want to start with then everyone throw cranks. Plastics? Everyone throw plastics. Don’t mix it up too much, it makes life go a little smoother out there.
Now… two people in the boat is an entirely different animal. This is where I prefer separate presentations until a pattern is found.
Having that one less line in the water can spread two guys out with more elbow room to try different baits at the same time.
Cranking was the name of the game today for some healthy walleyes. We were set up with spinning gear spooled with 15lb. powerpro,connected with a foot or so of 17lb.flouro. The short flouro leader IMHO is a must for working rock all day while giving your braid a fair chance at staying fray free. As much as I love casting braids there’s one category that they don’t score well in…..rocks! Keep the tough flouro and monos on for a short leader and the crankbait costs will drop.
As far as the style of cranks go, the JSR Rapalas in the purpledescent, crome-blue and natural shad all produced fish. There was another bait that I really took a shine to today and that was the Salmo hornet in blue-chrome. The bait took quite a beating but still ran true until the end.
Looks like it could be a great alternative on certain days and it casts very well!
The eyes were scattered today with only a few rockpiles producing more than one fish. Run and gun was the name of the game but with this perfect October day it was a pretty darn good trade off!
nice looking fish jeff! nothing better than spending time with old buddies and catching fish to boot. great job guys.
nice report!
Great looking fish too! Couldn’t ask for better weather right now!
Great job Jeff! Very nice looking eyes.
Tessman and I got out today for awhile. Heres one of the better ones. Water temps back up to 61. The fish were pretty tough to come by. All fish came on cranks again in 2-5ft.of water on the tops of the wingdams.
Jeff, Have you been pulling any fish off the fronts of the dams, or only on top? Maybe thats why I’ve been struggling lately, I haven’t been giving the tops enough of a work out.
Nice report and great looking fish!
With the wind really rolling Dave I like to pound the tops hard. Almost all of our fish the last 2 days have come shallow. 2-5 ft.
Another great read full of information Jeff, them are some great looking eye’s you have found
Some good looking walleyes you guys hooked up with there Jeff!
Nice report on fall wing dam fishing!
yeah, give me a call sometime you plan on chasing more!
Jeff & TJ:
While musky chasing up here, I have been keeping a rod for cranking some shallow ‘eyes. Between Rollie & Helen’s making minnow money and the store, I really haven’t had much time to get out lately. I think I have three nights in since Labor Day. Last night I got out and fished one of our big, deep clears, I spent quality time spinning around a rather large hump surrounded by 50-70’ of water. The top has both rocks and weeds. Water temps were 56-58. I fished a cowgirl over the weeds on the first pass and then on the second pass threw a Triple D to the deep. After that, upon seeing plenty of life below, I tried a minnow rap.
And while I saw no musky, I did manage a 25″ ‘eye that I released and a 17″ ‘eye that was too small to the size limit for the release to the grease.
Might get a chance to get Vermillion this weekend depending on one last detail. Looking forward to a chance to get down to upper 9 and chasing some quackers later in Nov. Talk soon!!!
Mark
Great report Jeff and sounds like a great time.
We’re doing a remake of Grumpy old Men 
tomorrow after work with Bret and Wats so maybe we’ll give that a try. 
Good luck Moe, try to keep Larry and Curley in line
Hey now…….I’m always in line
Come on 4 O’clock
Hee Hee Hee