Pool 3 Walleye and Flathead Fireworks!

Sheeze! What do you do? When the walleye are crushing cranks and jigs!? The cats are smokin’ live bait at night!? The decision is easy! DO BOTH! Friday morning found my buddy LeRoy Carl and I heading to our favorite bait catching creek that feeds into the Mississippi River. Our goal was to go after some walleye early and fish for cats later that night. Although the walleyes didn’t cooperate for us with the method we chose to fish them, the cats more than made up for it! We went to a spot that we frequent often and caught a nice 12 and 10 pounder before dark. But we started getting nervous that we were only catching males and that the females might not be on the chew there. So we packed up and moved to a spot that we have not been to for a few years and set up camp a little before midnight. (Still listening to the Twins Game!!) This spot has produced some very large prespawn females for us in years past. We had a strong run on this main channel spot in short order and I hooked the fish and began to battle it to the boat. Nice sized fish I thought to myself…and then BLOOP! Gone! Hook pulled out…

Undaunted, we hooked up another lively bullhead and pitch it to the same spot. It happened to be the location closest to the main channel current just above a wing dam. I am on the phone co-miserating with Bobby Miller (BurBob) about my misfortune as a train rolls by…and LeRoy yells "Do you want me to get it???? I couldn’t hear the clicker over the train!!! So I hung up on Bob, grabbed the rod and the battle was on again! I get her half way to the boat and I can feel that she again is a nice sized fish and was rolling up the line. I get her more than half way to the boat….and….Bloop! Gone again!!!! ARGH!!!!! *&&^%$!!! I scrape the hook across my thimb nail and it is sharp as heck! That was not the problem. Again I call Bob hoping for some sympathy…and I hear a clicker scream like never before! This girl hit in 4 feet or so of water and she immediately was on the surface going ballistic! It was unreal! She made it to the boat, and digitally weighed out at 33 pounds. We baited that rod up again and pitched it back into the same spot…and before I could get my congratulatory Backwoods Smoke lit…the clicker did an instant replay on the same rod! LeRoy and his cat like reflexes were on that rod like white on rice! He lunged at the rod and pulled it out of the holder as the fish took a strong run and Leroy almost found himself outside the boat fighting the fish! After a quick but hard battle at boatside, this nice fat girl hit the scale at 22 pounds! All of this took place in 10 minutes! The rest of the night proved to be slower, so we hit the trail about 1 AM so we could get up and fish walleye on the 4th.

So rise and shine! It’s now the 4th, and we had a mission! I was taking a slug of my boys out on Sunday and wanted to find a hot trolling bite that would keep 5 of us busy. So we trolled some old haunts that normally produce for us but found them as cold as January! So we decided to concentrate on some silted wing dams, and stretches of water with inside turns. It didn’t take us long to find the fish! And what they wanted was #7 Shad Raps trolled upriver at about 1.8 MPH. Dealing with the Tuna Schooners on the main channel was far from enjoyable. The lack of consideration by some people still utterly amazes me! I don’t believe they actually think they are doing anything wrong as they pass your idling boat within feet at half throttle creating HUGE wakes while they smile and wave…meanwhile you are grabbing for your drinks that are spilling and phones and cameras are flying off the dash!!!! But I digress…It’s there weekend too I think as I gather my stuff…

We were able to come up with a fun pattern for putting these fish in the boat..Until the storm clouds started brewing over our heads! It looked like it was going to get wet. Really wet. So we powered up the Warrior and headed for dry ground and the sanctuary of my garage. But I felt good about my chances of putting my boys on fish Sunday.

9 AM Sunday finds me texting my boys to wake them up! It seems that the 4th of July festivities the evening before took it’s toll on the young fellers! Soon we were on the road, and heading to the access. Once again, we troll some of my favorite big fish spots, and we were greeted by a nice 22" by my son Aaron who put the 10’6" Wild River rod into action with a less than stellar hook set! It took Dad to ask "Are you going to catch that fish, or just drag it behind the boat for a while?" He thought he may have been snagged…The spot soon dried up, and we were off to spot number two. We got on fish there early and often! We slammed into a nice school of slot fish destined for a surf and turf encounter later in the evening at my house. It’s not often that I can get 4 of my boys together at one time, not to mention in the BOAT at one time! The stories, the jokes, the "Remember this?" and the "Remeber thats?" were a ball! It’s funny listening to the things they remember from trips past. Hot lures for us again were #5 jointed Shad Raps in Craw, white and Firetiger. The straight #7’s in the same colors worked as well. We were able to long line 4 rods with ease, while I pulled lead line a short distance behind the boat, well inside their lines. EVERYONE caught fish! It was an absolute blast! We went home and had a fish fry, and deer sausage on the grill. What a spectacular day and night! I hope your 4th of July weekend was as much fun as mine was!!!

See ya on the water!