Not much to report but the bite for me was very slow this weekend how ever 2 of the most gorgeous days I have spent in the boat this year. Saturday was cool and cloudy which kept the masses down and Sunday was just down rite sunburn weather. The fog both Saturday and Sunday morning was so thick you could cut it with a blade bait.
I started my trolling weekend friday after work and headed straight to my typical walleye dog days of summer haunt and picked of a 12″ walleye rite away so I thought if I adjusted my technique and got the colors just rite I would have some eaters in the boat shortly but to my surprise things just went south. The next few fish were spindly saugers pushing the 12-13 inch marks. I ended friday with a total of 7 fish most being small sauger.
Saturday I was joined by sit down comedian Onestout for a day of SLOW, SLOW fishing but some serious laughs as I am still new to the lead core and trolling, I think I’ve only been pulling lead since the middle of last season so there were a couple of tangled lines. Onestout will blame the driver but I blame the debris that fouled out the lures…..there was quite a bit of weeds floating down stream this weekend that made for plenty of fouled out lures. I am not sure what we totalled for the day out as far as fish. I didnt bother keeping count because the size just wasnt there. Walleye and Sauger were all we caught saturday.
Sunday was the best day for me for quality and quanity. I started the day out working 20 to 30 FOW with steep breaks on them with the same luck I’ve had all weekend, small saugers and eyes so I changed things up a bit and put the lead line away, headed to work 12-18 FOW with long lines and sped things up from 2mph to 2.5 to 3mph with instant results. I spent most of day trolling from just south of the Kinni all the way up to the Marina on the south side of Stillwater picking up a lite estimate of a dozen fish. Most being walleye and sauger with some white bass thrown in and a silly sheepshead. Best colors of the weekend were hot steel 5 & 7 Rapala’s and black and gold Flicker Shad.
There was a ton of “top water” action going on the river this weekend. I think a lure or ringworm cast into these pods of jumping minnows would result in some serious white bass action
Turk, how was the live bait bite ?
Thanks for the report Jesse. Glad to hear you and Onestout got out for a while as well.
Jeff we’ll have to get out fishing some time
Yes we will.
nice report, we may have trolled past each other just below the kinni I was pulling lead on the deep drops also, a few here and there but no real pattern developed for me. I’ve gone to extremely long mono leaders on my lead right now, I believe the long line makes my cranks flutter as my speed changes giving them a different apperance or action while trolling. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it’s become a confidence thing and certainly doesn’t hurt my catch any. Pk
You didn’t mention the training on tuning crank baits, I think there should be a class or instructions or something with those things. I never did make it out on Sunday, too much to get done and I’m off to Chicago for a couple days now. It was a good time though, thanks. I want to try some fall fishing out there some time now just as long as it doesn’t get much colder than it was saturday morning.
What kind of boat were you fishing out of and which day ?
I didn’t have much luck either… especially last weekend when the H20 temps pushed 80…this last weekend, the temp dropped to about 75, and the action picked up, but with smallmouth, sheepshead, and whitebass… still trying to locacte the walleyes.
. I will be out on the river this weekend
Welcome to IDO biofish.
Good luck fishing 
Great report Jesse
To bad the fish didn’t cooperate
Oh well there’s always next time
Great read Jesse
I’m hoping with these cooler nights the bite picks up some.
Sunday morning, launched at the Bluffs, black 1825 proGuide 90 yammy….worked mostly the Wi. side of the river, the deep rocks turning to pea gravel on some underwater points. Pulling shallow reef runners on lead, only boated 4… 3 were small, 1 nice 18″ off the water by 10:30