After a very very long fall and winter I finally got the chance to head back to the mighty river. Being the first time back this year I didn’t have my hopes set to high, but what I was greeted with was a very nice treat!! Being that I didn’t have a handle on what the river was currently like I relied on my past experiences to help guide me in the right direction. Looking at factors such as stage, flow and water temp gave me some indications of where some fish may be at. Keeping good records from the past paid off big time in this case.
Being in the very early stages of pre-spawn I focused most of my efforts on areas that I would consider staging or resting areas. These locations tend to be out of the major current areas and can be sand flats, rock shorelines, or the inside bend of the river channel just to name a few. While targeting these areas covering water can be key due to there not be large numbers of fish around yet. My go to tactic for cover water this past weekend, and most anytime for that mater, was a blade bait. If I located a school of fish I would also follow it up by pitching some type of plastic.
With cloud cover and “clean” water the majority of my trip I focused on natural or dark colors. My best blade bait color for the weekend would have had to be black. A very slow retrieve and very short “hops” of the blade seem to be key, more than likely due to the water temperature being under 32 degrees. Due to the cold water temperature I focused my plastic efforts on baits that could be fished SLOW but yet have a lot of action. That led me to the new Moxie’s. Anything in the natural color pattern seemed to be the best choice.
I got to spend quite a bit of time over the 3 days I was fishing using the Minn-Kota I-pilot, about 16 hours worth. It turned out to be the biggest back saver of the trip. While fishing a large sand flat or long stretch of shoreline I was able to position, re-position, and anchor all at the touch of a button. I wanted to cover all depths of a given area but didn’t want to deal with dropping and pulling the anchor numerous times in the day. With the I-pilot I was able to anchor, fish a spot for a while than reposition to the next spot with just the touch of a few buttons. It was truly a back saver and time saver for me this weekend.
I am looking forward to what is to come on the mighty river this year, and hope to see many old friends and meet some new ones along the way.
Until than, good fishing!!!!!!!!!
Wow if that doesn’t get a guy ready for some open water Nice fish and great report Eric
The smiles says it all!
Nice report. 
holy walleyes, those are some really nice fish.
Nice job Eric!!
Very nice!
nice fish men!
Eric, very nice pigs!
Wow
Great job guys
Nice Pigs Eric!
Question.
When you’re pitching the blades and plastics in these resting areas, how deep is the water where your casting? Then about how deep would you say the water is where the fish..er excuse me, PIG is slamming the baits?
On of these days I’m actually going to land a walleye on a blade.
Doc looks right at home holding that big fish in my boat!
Beautiful walleyes and another awesome report Eric!
Keep-em coming.
I was going to ask….
Eric !!
What rig are you running with the 300 Yammi on the back ?
Great job on dialing in these trophy fish !!
That would be a new Skeeter 2100, with the new 300 off-shore motor. I was very impressed once again come tourny day when speed, and hole shot are key!!!! We topped out at 60.3mph with full tanks of fuel, 2 guys and a tournament load!!!
Thanks for the great day Eric! BIG FISH TIME HAS ARRIVED!!!!
Thanks for the use of your boat Dean—what can I say, the rig plain rocks and is an absolute rocket with 300 horses on the back. That new SHO technology is staggering. We did not even bat an eye taking Lenny’s route down the back channel across the sandbar!!!!
Depth in these locations can very greatly depend on the spot. More times than not it is shallower than 12′ and likey 8′ or less. A key part to that is to keep the boat on the deeper or outside of the fish so you can reach them with a cast but are not to close to spook them with the boat.
Great read and pics Eric
I might be able to get that way this week. After the read my efforts to make the trip are going to be a lot harder.
So do you let the blade sit or how do you retrieve it? I have no clue on how to use them. Awesome fish by the way!
Very nice fish!!
Nice fish boys, to bad they didn’t turn up for ya tourney day, can’t win ’em all I guess but sure is fun trying
My typical action would be to cast out, watch my line til I see the blade hits the bottom, real up my slack, pull the blade up off the bottom (usually around 12″) let fall back to bottom and repeat. Usually all in a slow steady motion, the blade doesnt sit still much at all.
Thanks Eric for all the tips and nice fish.
Great report Eric. Very nice fish!
Great fish, but I always thought water less than 32 degrees was called “ice”.
I suppose with that 300hp it takes about 45 seconds to get up to the dam, huh? I want one!
Wow great fish guys…. those are toads thanks for sharing!
Layne Monroe
I have about given up on that BK…
BTW Folks….if you really want to stick some of these 12-13-14 lb Piggies, learn how to dance those tiny blades!
Great fish & report
Hey Eric, Great SUMO, how heavy of a blade are you pitching??
Depending on the location I have been using both 1/4oz and 1/8oz, and sometimes both in the same location. Let the fish tell you which one they prefer on a given day. At this point with the cold water I would fish as light as you can get away with!!
Nice to see the first big fish report of the year.
Great report Eric!
Awesome pics
Great catch for a cold weather, Nice fishing report.
Awesome fish and report.
Thanks for sharing.
This is a very rookie Blade question for I have not used them often and want to make sure I am using them correctly. I see there are three holes to use, which one do you use most of the time or does it depend on the flow of the river? Thanks.
I almost always use the middle hole. Very very rarely will I use the front or back one!!