The first week or two of April is kind of like the peek of our spring night fishing season. The walleyes are reaching the point where they can & will spawn at anytime, and by the end of the week, that’s exactly what they were doing.
Photo is of a 27″ walleye that was spawned out.
Night fish for the week of 4-6-09 through 4-9-09
I missed out on a great night of fishing last Monday evening when I stayed home to, hopefully, watch Michigan State knock off the top ranked team from the ACC in the championship game of the NCAA basketball tournament. That was a big mistake as Jeremy & Jack Williams hit the river and had a great night fishing. They caught quite a few decent walleyes and some of the the biggest muskies of the year showed up as well. I don’t remember the exact numbers but I do know that I was kicking myself after hearing about it from them. As always though, the biggest walleye got away just in the nick of time. Jeremy claims it may have gone 30″ but there is no way of knowing that now. Jack was the unlucky angler who had it on briefly only to lose it just a few feet from where he was standing in the water. Jack did land two other decent walleyes, one that went 23″ & another that went 25″ long.
Picture – Tom Meyer with a egg laden 25″ walleye
Jeremy on the other hand caught some great muskies. All of them were returned to the river unharmed and ready to do battle with another lucky angler later this year. The biggest went 47″ and broke his rapala in two pieces.
I hit the river by myself on Tuesday and did okay on average size walleyes. Tom Meyer joined me on Wednesday and he landed a very fat 25″ female walleye right off the bat but after that, the only other decent fish we had was a muskie that I caught. This fish was just to mean to get a measurement and instead of trying to force the issue, we decided it was best to just unhook the ornery critter and send her on her way before I got stuck with one of the hooks. Tom caught several other walleyes, one of which was around the 21″ but I didn’t catch anything else at all.
On Thursday, the only fish I caught was my best walleye of the spring. She was spawned out and stretched the tape at 27″ long. If I only caught one fish a night and I knew it would be a walleye over 25″ long, I would be more than happy to pull on my neoprene waders and head out for the river.
Photo – Jeremy Williams with a 47″ muskie that broke his rapala like a twig.
My best baits this week have pretty much stayed the same. Rapala’s like the F-11, #8 & #10 husky jerks & countdowns have been the mainstay or our night fishing excursions for years. We have been using them for as long as I can remember. We didn’t pull these lures out of our tackle boxes to target muskies, it’s more like the muskies decided to target us and what ever we threw at them. When I pull on my neoprene waders and head out the door each night, my primary target has always been and will always be walleyes. Preferably, big walleyes! I would also like to point out that we don’t keep any of the fish we catch. Tom Meyer & I have been releasing all the fish we catch at night for many, many years. Putting fillets in the freezer is “not” why we do this!
I have heard several theories as to why the muskies are hear in large numbers this spring. I’m not sure if anyone knows for sure why they showed up this year but it does appear to me as though they are targeting the walleyes as they’re primary food source. In my opinion, the most likely reason they showed up is because they didn’t have a good food source elsewhere and they just went where they found the best opportunities to feed readily.
Photo – Jack Williams with a 25″ walleye.
1st photo – one more shot of that 47″ muskie.
2nd photo – this one went 43″ long.
3rd photo – and this one was 41″ long.
4th photo – this fish was to mean to measure. Nasty fish!
Wow, now that had to be fun!
Your killing me
Awesome job
Looks like a blast Joel.
Are there a lot of anglers out at night with you guys? I bet those big muskies are a challenge to land while in your waders.
Good weather nights = lots of other anglers in boats & shore along with generally poor fishing.
Bad weather nights = very few other anglers or boats & pretty good fishing.
A few of the muskies have really bad attitudes. There very hard to do anything with at all. They are fun to catch but I would rather have a 30″ walleye doing this time of the year.
Are you fishing on the Columbia or Sauk County side of the river.
Another great report Joel
Never get tired of the musky pics ,that 47 was a beaut 
Both sides can be good.
Did you end up trying the tyger wire Joel? Nice looking fish!!! That had to be a blast. Dan
No, I have not used the tiger wire.
I did switch to 10# Fireline Crystal though and have only lost one lure to a fish since doing so.
Fantastic colors in all those fish!!!!!
NICE!!!
Great Report and read,
super fish.
Congrats,
Jack
Thanks guys!
I’m pretty sure our night fishing excursions are over for this spring. It was a memorable one for sure though.
Wow, thats unreal!!!
It’s not all that uncommon for walleyes and muskies to be caught in the same area. It is also not that uncommon for walleyes and muskies to be feeding on the same forage base, hence why they are in the same areas. I will always laugh every time I hear that the muskies are targeting the walleyes for food.
On a side note: We caught small walleyes that were not much longer than the stick baits we were using. I suppose muskies don’t eat those, even though they look amazingly a lot like the stick baits we were using.
Have a nice laugh!
WOW!!!You got a good thing going.
How in the world are you going to be able to top fishin’ like that, awesome job Joel
One thing about rivers’, fish of all species tend to pile up in certain areas. It is pretty common to have all species in the same areas. Also, there are many studies out on the diet of a muskie. If you take the time to read one, you might learn something. Do you think those big walleyes are feeding on those smaller walleyes the size of your crankbait?
Quote:
I have heard several theories as to why the muskies are hear in large numbers this spring. I’m not sure if anyone knows for sure why they showed up this year but it does appear to me as though they are targeting the walleyes as they’re primary food source. In my opinion, the most likely reason they showed up is because they didn’t have a good food source elsewhere and they just went where they found the best opportunities to feed readily.
I guess you got me! I’ll know better than to ever again write that it appears as though muskies are targeting walleyes.
Another words, I didn’t present it as a fact and I never, ever pretended to be a big time muskie fisherman.
Geez, I sure am glad all muskie fishermen aren’t like you. Makes me think the real problem here has more to do with jealousy than what the fish are eating.
I might get attacked by a baby mallard!
Classy!
You have this bite dialed in and I for one love the report and the photo’s. I will be very honest, I am jealous and would love to be out chasing big toothies right now.
Hey BM, you got any photo’s you would like to share with us. I saw you had a 5 fish day and some big one’s in the mix.
Talk about a handful of fish!
I’m going to guess there’s going to be some photos on the desk soon!
Nice report Joel and scary fish!
I have always focused my spring fishing on the Rainy River for the spring spawn run. Well after seeing a few different reports here, I now know that I have to keep an eye on what the water temp is doing at certain locations to determine a Fantastic bite or just an average day of fishing. It also appears that I need to purchase a Wisconsin fishing license. Awesome fishing report! Great looking fish also appear to be very healthy with all those ski’s in the water…..Well done!
Thanks guys!
Getting back into the night fishing bite sure was a lot of fun this spring. I never thought it would be as good as it was.
Water levels on the river have dropped down to mid-summer lows for the past week. I’m glad we got out while the gettin was good cause it sure looks like its over now.
Sure would be nice if we could dublicate this bite again in the future. Only time will tell!
Come on Joel, we both know a muskie would never stoop to eating walleyes. Heck, Bob proved to us all last summer a walleye colored bait doesn’t work.
Dunwright Walleye Baits
Apparently, they only eats “Baits” that look like walleyes.
They don’t actually eat walleyes though. At least that’s what one “self proclaimed” muskie expert has been biting my head off about.
Awesome fish great read
I hope for my benefit you keep on reporting your findings Joel
I believe you are on a proven fact myself. Muskies don’t target Walleyes sounds just like the DNR telling us Pelicans and Cormorants just eat the rough fish
…….Like I believe that one too 
Musky are an opportunist, when the walleyes are schooled up in a river system Musky are going to forage on them until they bust! Big fish eat smaller fish……it’s called survival of the fittest!