We saw another good weekend on the river again. Except this week I saw a change in presentation to catch some nice quality fish.
My trip this weekend was with Jeff Wagner and Jeff Burns both Mayo Foundation Employees. Jeff Wagner from Mayo support center and Jeff Burns from St.Mary’s hospital. Our trip on saturday started out like any other this fall. Getting out early to find a good pitching bite. For some reason the early pitching bite was not there. We did manage to pick up two walleyes early but one was short and the other only 18". This confused so the only thing I could think of that the day bite would be better. I was right. Except, we found all the walleyes and quality sauger sort of away from the crowd. If you remember Saturday was pretty overcast for most of the morning. My thought was to keep fishing shallow hoping to find some aggresive walleyes. I started working a sand flat in about 9-12 feet of water.This first picture if of myself with a couple nice eyes week took of that 9-12 foot break. Working the breakline back and forth with 1/8 oz ringworms seemed to be the best presentation. The average fish was near 20 inches. One almost being 22 inches. Best color for the day was Electric blue and Pro Blue. This became our presentation for the entire day. The average pass seen 3-4 fish come to the boat. We ended the day with just under 30 fish in the 16 inches-22 inch range. The best bite came around 10:30 and ended about 12:30. Yep, smack dab in the middle of the day. Once the sun came out around 1 pm that shallow bite died. We then moved out to 15-17 of water and kept yanking fish. I never did go vertical all day. Here is Jeff Burns with a couple sauger that we took of that same break. These sauger were in 9′ of water. It surprised me too when these came to the surface. I expected at least walleyes. The last picture is Jeff Wagner and Jeff Burns with their limit of fish they took home.
One other thing I caught this day was a boat! I came across one of the scariest things I have seen on the river to the day. We decided to take a break around 12:30 and head south to Red Wing. As I was passing Evert’s Resort I saw an object in the water that looked unfamiliar. As I approached slowly I noticed an overturn boat. For those that fished this day you saw this little 14′ boat up at the dam. Right away my thoughts are where is the person. We flipped the boat over to find the anchor still attached to the boat and holding the boat in the current. Inside the boat was the gas tank, rods and reels, and a few personal items. I pulled the boat to the dock and started looking for someone who could call 911 or too see if the person is on shore. Luckily, someone docking there boat heard the man screaming and came out to rescue him. The man was sitting in there vehicle defrosting from the elements. All I heard that a Wave came of the bow of his boat and he flipped. The only thing I can think of is he took a bad wave from another boat. Please take precautions when you see other boats out even if they are in a small boat please slow down. If anyone hears of what happened please let us know. Curious minds want to know. To the guys that helped him…Nice Job!
It sounds like this week is going to be pretty cold once again. I can’t wait to we get some warm temps that will stay for a while.
Click on pictures for better viewing
Jarrad-
Sounds like you had a great day! I heard of some other people out that didn’t fare as well on Saturday. You mention your presentation was not vertical. If you don’t mind me asking, were you dragging in these 9-12′ depths, or were you casting?
We did a little of both. Mostly came from casting. I managed to even pick up a 20″ walleye in 6′ of water. That one too came in the middle of the day.
Jarrad,
All I know is, that is the same boat that ran over #2 Wingdam. I dont know if that had anything to do with it or not. He hit the wingdam pretty hard and barely got his boat off it. He still fished for a while so i dont know if that had anything to do with it or not. Im kind of curious myself.
Hey Jeff I see you had a good day on pool 4, have you made it up to Red for slabs yet? Don’t be a stranger post some reports, good to see the diehards out in the cold. Tight lines #5
Jarrad, thanks again for the great day on the river, Jeff and I had a blast. I never want to haul a boat to Evert’s again, that was enough for me, that was one lucky guy!
It just goes to show you it does happen so lets be carefull out there. See ya on the river.