Waking up Sunday morning the first thing accomplished was a wind check. A morning walleye trip was scheduled with a long time friend and I wasn’t sure if I felt like getting the daylights kicked out of me as I did on Saturday.
Saturday was a day of frustration; raw, howling north winds made it tough. Working wingdams with the elecric has always been my favorite method but when you can’t hold, even on high power, it makes a guy start to question his game plan. Getting out of the wind and working a deep secondary chute produced a few smaller, vertical saugers but my heart just wasn’t in it. Knowing that tomorrow was another day made it easier to go back , load up the fireplace and channel surf college ball.
Rejuvenation time Sunday morning, flat calm! For all of you river guys who love to hammer the wingdams you’ll know where I’m coming from. When north winds gust it makes it hard to see rocks. When it is flat calm it can also make it tough locating the structure. There is a small remedy that I have used through time that can quickly turn things around on flat days.
Approaching one end of the winger from down river at roughly half throttle, turn your rig and run down stream side parallel with the dam. The wake made by your rig will roll over the dams creating that perfect turbulence. Stay at least 50ft. below the dams when throwing a wake and please, by all means know where you’re at at all times. The scour behind most dams is usually deep but being comfortable with a familiar location is a must. Never try this on an unfamiliar rockpile! Creating your own visual aid I believe can have more than one benefit. Going on pure speculation mind you, it seems that rolling turbulence can move and scatter bait making walleyes go on little feeding runs. Could a guy catch as many walleyes without making waves? Probably, but the sight of the structure is not present, making a guy rely entirely on his electronics and land marks. Do you think it scares feeding fish? Not from my experience. Simply, just a sneaky little trick that gives a guy another option on reading the river.
On with the bite! Hooking up with Rodney, an old walleye crony of mine, both of us were antsy to pitch the plastic and dance with the blades.
Lately the blade bite has been good but today ,with the water temps on a steady decline, the steel took a back seat to the subtle swim of the ringworms. Staying above the rock with the Terrova and moving along at a snails pace kept the 1|4 oz. draggin jigs in the eyes face all day. Rodney had a good day making long casts and sweeping the faces. Most fish caught were right at the base with only a few riding up on the stones. Not huge numbers caught but a dozen golden walleyes made it to the net by days end. Every fish today were in that 20-22 in.range. Nothing bigger-nothing smaller. Putting big walleyes in the boat this fall on pool 11 has just not happened yet. Staying away from the tail races this time of year , concentrating on size, not numbers has been good for me in the past….not this season. Good quality fish have shown from time to time but nothing in that 28-30 in. range. Times running out!
Along with ol marble eyes there were two different schools of smallies that we stumbled into yesterday. One wingdam had fish stacked from the far inside all the way out to the depths of the main channel. Voracious appetites!
Walleyes were at the top of the list today but believe me, it was hard to vacate these fish. Talk about powerful! Alot of bass coming in at the 18-19in. mark with the bulk in that legal 14-16in. range. What a hoot!
Having mentioned that, this leaves me with a question to all of IDO………..when finding tons of bait and an aggressive school of smallies, do you believe that the bass will drive the eyes off of the rocks? Remember, talking big time fall smallie schools here. Could almost picture them brown meanies hogging all of the shad to themselves. I guess the real question would be……..have you ever caught quality bass and quality walleyes off of the same autumn fished wing dam at the same time? Curious to hear everyones opinion when it comes to smallie-walleye cohabitation.
Good luck to all of IDO and best of luck to my fellow Wisconsinites in next weeks deer opener. I’ll be on stand of course but with the forcast of 40 degrees for Saturday I’ll no doubt be thinking of white tips instead of white tails!
Did I say 1\4oz. draggin jigs? BfishN Tackle has upgraded this season with heavier snag free weapons. The more I toss em to the stones the more I like em! To me, this is the best thing to come along all season! Check em out right here!
Seems like Pool 11 was the place to be. Nice fish!
Nice fish and great report. Spending some quality time with friends always makes for a great day on the water.
Cool report Jeff!
Loved those black & white photo’s. Reminded me a great deal of when I used to read my dad’s In-Fisherman or Fishing Facts magazine from the 1960’s.
Nice looking fish to boot.
Great job.
Thanx Boog, just tryin to mix it up a bit.
Please try to refrain from letting everyone know how old you really are
Not on a wingie come to think of it but there is a stretch of railroad bed rock up here on P9 where I have caught both smallies & white fins with a Bomber 6A rootbeer float pattern. I’ve also caught a mixed bag over in Swift Cut – which is very similar to Ackerman’s Cut down on P11 – same bait. Definition of quality is a 16+ inch smallie and 20+ walleye IMO.
nice fish and report! Cool pics- are you editing them on a mac?
Thanks Luke. Actually the software came with the Kodak easy share cam. All sorts of options.. black and white, sunset, portrait etc. The pics I posted are Sepia. A little different but kind of fun to mess with.
You can crop and zoom, create spotlight and coloring book images also. My photo skills need all the help they can get
Thanks for the report Jeff! Are you finding fish on most dams you stop at, or just a certain few?
Yesterday we hit 14 different rockpiles with only 3 producing eyes. That’s just the way it’s been down here. Earn your fish for sure
Great report and fish Jeff
Looks like you are having fun playing with the pictures
They look very cool sir
Great report Jeff and cool pics!
Jeff, lets see if this makes me an anti “lurker” and a bonified member! Oh by the way good article.
Welcome aboard Gomer, looking forward to your input. Coolest site going
I’ll have to agree. the photos are very cool! Also a great report!
Hope to see you soon!
Jeff, another great report.
That is a great tip for finding the “ripple” with a North wind. I’ve used if for years but never thought to share it here. Makes finding your spots so much easier!
Hey Jeff
I’ve seen some fairly large schools of walleyes and smallies cohabitating on rocky structure in clear water in the fall and the two species didn’t seem to bother each other at all. Although we did catch very few walleyes. At least during the day. The issue always seems to be that the smallies are just so much more aggressive and they literally beat the walleyes to the baits time and time again. Now came back to that location at sundown or after dark…. and it is all walleyes with the occasional smallie in the mix.
Your first reply just made you bonified
Welcome to IDO gomer2