5/10/13 TC Walleye Report

(Sing to the tune, Silver Bells)

Silver Bass,

Silver Bass,

It’s Silver time on the river.

Hear Mark Scream,

REALLY SCREAM!!!!

Soon he will lose his Freakin’ mind……..

 

Yeah it’s that time again.  The annual invasion.  I generally don’t go out that much when the horde is in but I had a really crappy week and I needed a break.  I figured I would wait until just before dark and hope that the fresh water piranha would shut down.  I ended up hitting the river around 8 and instead of going to my usual starting point I headed north for a bit.  I though I would jig for awhile and just play around for a bit.  After about a dozen or so Silvers I figured it was late enough to start pulling wire.  Ehhhhhh…..Bad Idea.

I headed down stream and set up just south of the Catamaran.  I was going to run a pair of Nite Stalkers on my 40 and 20 leads.  It was 8:30 and getting dark fast so I thought I was ok.  Once the weight hit the bottom I found out just how wrong I was.  Not only were they in thick but the NW wind made boat control darn near impossible.  After 20 minutes of fighting the wind and fish I was seriously debating calling it quits.  I didn’t want to go home empty handed so I decided to stick it out.  About 45 minutes and roughly 2 million Silver Bass later I finally caught a walleye, it was quickly followed up by another and things were looking up.  The Silvers had slowed way down and the fish I was looking for were hungry.  I ended up catching 2 more before 10:30 pm rolled around giving me 4.  I was hoping I would get 1 more but the Silver Bass other ideas.  They decided it was time to eat again.  Fifteen minutes of non stop Silver action was more than I could take and I headed home.

Just like the other night, 4 was good enough for me.

Now for the specifics.  Water was clear and the surface temp was 59 degrees.  NW wind never laid down so boat control was very difficult.  The wind kept pushing me downstream.  I need to get more weight in the front of my boat and maybe a drift sock to help keep the bow in place.

Either that or I stay home on nights with 20 mph NW winds.

I’m really starting to like these Nite Stalkers.

 

Shameless Plug Walleye Report

After 35 years my old MERCURY 20 HP outboard had finally seen it’s last day.  After thousands of hours on the river and great lakes it was time for a new engine.  After talking to fellow DWF member Tom at ANGLERS MARINE in Taylor Michigan I purchased a new 25 HP EVINRUDE E-Tech.  The crew at ANGLERS MARINE hooked it all up and bolted it down to my old CRESTLINER last Friday so I decided to take it out and run it the next day.  Since the White bass had moved in I decided to wait until the evening.  Besides I needed to time get used to a new engine and all the little bells and whistles that came with it.  That and I needed to mount my SCHALLER AUTOMATIC TROLLING REEL, my EAGLE depth finder and LOWRANCE GPS back onto my boat.

I did get out a little bit before dark.  I wanted some time to run around on the river and get acquainted with my new toy.  I have never owned an electric start engine before so just pushing a button was a pleasant change.  I have to admit I really like my E-TECH.  I have nothing against my MERCURY but I really wore that engine out.  I just need to get used to the sound, or lack there of, of the E-TECH.  I have trolled for so many years with the MERC that I could tell by the sound of the engine when the RPM’s were just right for the speed I wanted.  Need to spend a few hours now and learn that sound again.  Nice thing about the E-TECH is that it has a toggle switch that will increase or decrease the RPM’s by 100 with just a push.  That’s a nice little feature to have.  I can give the lures a little push every once and awhile to see if I can trigger a strike.  OK, enough love for the E-TECH, time for the fishing results.

I set lines around 7:30 pm.  There were a few other Handliners out but it was still early.  The Tr-Hull nave was in full force along the Gibraltar/Trenton side of the river.  Not a good omen.  I put on a #11 COPPER CRAZY TIGER and a #9 SPRING VALLEY SPECIAL II from WWW.DOWNRIVERTACKLE.COM.  I also put on a SPIKE SPOON (He will be missed) in a RILEY SPECIAL pattern.  I figured I was going to get a few White/Silver Bass but I was expecting to pick up an occasional walleye until it got dark.  Turns out I was pretty right in my prediction.  I just wasn’t expecting how it would happen.  Most of the bass came on Jim’s Holographic lures.  Pretty much 95% of the bass I caught came on those lures.  I expected the spoon to catch most of them but I only caught 2.  My first walleye came on the spoon and the walleye that was 14 15/16 inches came on the #11 CCT.  Even after it got dark I was still catching the bass on the RAPALA’S.  Eventually I got fed up (not hard to do when it comes to those rotten little things) and I swapped out the RAPALA’S and replaced them with some NIGHT STALKER Pencil Plugs.  I have a lot of wooden pp’s but the eyelet is set to far back and the crank bait snaps that I use can’t get through the eyelet.  The NIGHT STALKERS are plastic and the eyelet is far enough forward so I could attach them with the crank bait snap.  3 walleye came on the 40 foot lead and a chartreuse  with black dots NIGHT STALKER.  I also hooked in to something big but I never got it in.  Once I got my hand on the leader I could hear it rolling and splashing way behind the boat.  I knew this wasn’t going to last long and I tried to throttle down some to relieve the pressure but it was to late.  I fished until about 10:30 pm but the wind was picking up and it was getting cold so I headed in.  I had 4 in the cooler and sometimes 1 short of a limit is no big deal.  The best thing was that I never caught a single white bass on a pencil plug.  Don’t know if that will hold true during the peak of the run but I will find out.

So I ended up with 4 in the box, 1 throwback and lost probably a Muskie.  Surface temps are at 53.5 degrees and the water is very clear, over 2 feet of visibility.  NE wind with a partly cloudy sky.  Back to a night fishery again, especially with the you know what’s in town.

One more plug….

May The 4th Be With You.

May the 4th Be With You walleye

Vacation Walleye Day 2

Results for today were a lot different.  About the only difference in the conditions was that the wind was out of the south and the surface temp was up to 49 degrees.   Picked up the first one right away but it took longer for the second one.  I had a guest today and he caught it so that was a good thing.

I had my first casualty to day, busted the lip on a #7 Clown.  I scraped a walleye with that lure as well.  When I realized I busted the lip I brought it in and found scales on both hooks.  Kind of re-affirms my belief those quick hit and gone fish are ones that are being snagged by the lure and never hooked up.

We didn’t fish too long.  My fishing partner for the morning got hung up and the main line got tangled in the prop.  It pretty much peeled the nylon coating off of about 30 feet of line.  The reel is ok but I will have to replace the line. Something else to do tomorrow.  Think I’m going to take the day off from fishing.  Got some things to do here around the house.

Vacation Walleye Day 1

This Monday marks the first week long vacation I have taken in almost 5 years.  Normally I take a lot of 4 day weekend vacations but this time around I decided to take a whole week.  The original plan was to fish for a few days then act as chaperone for my Daughters Senior trip.  Her trip was cancelled so I decided to take the whole week anyways.  After the way the tournament went I began to question my decision.  I was hoping to catch a bunch of walleye but after last weekend I wondered if I was going to catch any.

Well I know for sure I won’t get anything sitting at home so I got up bright and early this morning and hit the river.  I thought if I got out there before sunrise I might get a few walleye before the Silver Bass wake up.  Well turns out I was sort of right.  Problem was the walleye didn’t wake up either.  I started at 6:30 but I didn’t get my first fish until 8:00 am.  I should have known, the water was still dirty and with no sunlight nothing was going to happen anytime soon.  Still I kept at it and by the time 10:30 am rolled around I had 5 in the boat.  It was a long morning but I got to see a few things I normally don’t see down their to keep me occupied.  Just after sunrise I watched a mink run up and down the bank on Grosse Isle.  He was probably looking for an easy meal.  Normally I see them on the Trenton side but never running over someone’s park bench on the island.  Later on I spotted an Osprey circling overhead.  I had seen one last year but he didn’t stick around for long.  I’m curious to see how long this one stays.  Sure do wish he liked cormorants.

Not for the vital statistics.  Like I said earlier the water is still dirty and the surface temp was 47.5 degrees.  Not much of an increase from Saturday.  Winds were non existent today which was a nice change of pace.  I started off running #11 GFR, #9 Bleeding Olive and a #7 Clown.  My first 3 fish came on the clown so I eventually swapped out the #9 for a #7 GFR.  My last two came on the #7 GFR.  Normally I like to run the big baits but I do what the fish want.  I did catch one 14 1/2 incher on a Smithwick Rattlin’ Rouge but all the keepers came on the smaller baits.  I only caught 3 of the fish that shall not be named.  I was worried that I would get more since the early remnants of the tri-hull navy had started to show up in the Edison discharge.  They were pulling those things in left and right.  Won’t be too much longer and they will infest the whole river system.

Hopefully day 2 will go as well.  At least I will sleep in a little later.

Pre, During but no Post tournament fishing

Once again it was time for the yearly DWF Handlining tournament.  Last year the weather was warmer, the water was clearer and the White Bass numbered in the millions.  This year none of that applied.  It was cold, the water was dirty and the White Bass were in the hundreds.  I think the walleye were in fewer numbers than the bass.  For most it was a tough night.

My Dad came down a day early so we could fish some before the tournament.  We headed out Thursday night and hit the water around 6:30 pm.  My Dad hooked into his first fish of the night in the first 5 minutes and followed that up shortly afterwards with another one.  While I was helping him get that one netted I forgot about my lines and they got tangled up in the prop.  About 20 minutes later all was good and we were back to fishing.  We fished for about another hour and picked up a few more walleye.  Unfortunately we also caught a few White Bass.  This made no sense to me.  The water is around 46 degrees and yet they are here.  They have arrived earlier than last year and it was also warmer last year.  I just don’t get it. I’m still praying that the DNR will increase the creel limit on these things.

Once the sun set the temperature dropped as well.  The NW wind that was supposed to die down increased and my Dad was getting cold so we packed it in and headed home.  We had 5 walleye that ranged from 22 to 24 inches long so he was happy.  Besides, we had the following night and we figured we would catch a bunch more.  Little did I know that I couldn’t be any more wrong.

Friday night we started at 7:00 pm.  This time the wind was out of the south east, the temps were warmer but the water was still dirty.  I figured we would still catch some fish but I didn’t think it would take an hour.  This was going to be a long night.  We ended up with 3 walleye and they all came within a 20 minute period.  We stayed out until 10:00 pm but after awhile we both agreed that it was pointless and headed home.  I talked to a few other people on the water and most had only a couple of fish.  My friend Dave and his father and son had 7 and that was about the best I had heard anyone do.  Until the next day when we had the weigh-in and the winning team had caught 22 walleye, weighed 5 that was over 30 pound and one that was a 9 1/2 spawned out female.  At least someone had found the fish.

Oh well…..there’s always next year.

Only picture, didn’t think a pic from the following day was worth the effort.

4/22/13 Quick Trip

This will be a short report.

Weather was holding up so I decided to give it another shot tonight.  On the water by 6:30 pm and by 7:00 pm I had nothing in the box and lost 4.  This was going to be one of those nights.  Fortunately it didn’t last, by 7:45 I had 4 in the box and was working on #5.  It was starting to get dark and there were a lot of boats out tonight.  Jiggers, a few hardcore handliners and a lot of wanna be’s.  I figured it would be best to get off the water before everyone else so I decided 4 was good enough.

Now for the specific’s.  Water is still stained with a surface temp of 45 degrees.  SE wind made things a little choppy.  #11 GFR and a #7 DT Goby caught the fish.  Started off with a #11 Clown and a #9 Bleeding Olive but I switched them out after about 30 minutes.

Tonight 4 was good enough for me.

 

4/21/13 Fishing Report

This one will be short, sweet and to the point.  Went out this morning with Dan and we caught 10.

The End.

 

 

Just kidding…..The morning started out a lot better than the last 3.  It was cold but there weren’t any bone chilling horizontal winds.  Dan was still at work so I decided to get out early and ahead of the crowd.  I would have about an hour before he showed up so I hoped I could locate some active fish before he called.  The water was dirty but I’ve seen worse.  I threw out the same 3 lures I used a couple of days ago and started my search.  I figured nothing was really going to happen until after sunrise.  Fishing success in low light conditions with dirty water is hard to come by.  I was hoping the clear morning would enhance the situation.  Turns out I was right.  Twice in one week…..I’m on a roll.

I picked one up just south of the stacks around 7:30 just before Dan called.  I pulled all my lines and headed back to the ramp to pick him up.  About 30 minutes later we were back to fishing, or in this case catching.  It didn’t take long and Dan was flipping them in.  I managed to get another keeper and a throw back but Dan was relentless.  I was using brighter colored Rapala’s and he chose the original Black and Silver in a size 9.   Turns out it was a wise decision.  I sometimes forget to try the natural colors in dirty water.  After his 4th fish I was trying to find some originals myself.  We were keeping a close eye on a fellow handliner that was bringing in fish on a regular basis.  We noticed he was using smaller lures so I swapped out my #11 and #13′s for some #9′s.  By now we had 8 in the cooler and we were trying to pick up the last 2.  It was just after 10:00 am and the catching had started to slow down.  We weren’t seeing any fish caught and I was debating heading in.  Dan had been up for the last 12 hours and he had to be tired.  Luckily number 9 had just grabbed my #9 SVS II.  A minute later he was in the cooler and the lines were back in the water.  Five minutes later number 10 grabbed a #9 Bleeding Olive and we were pulling lines.  Not a bad morning, just over 2 hours of fishing and we had a 2 man limit, 1 dink and a few lost fish.  We didn’t see any jiggers catch anything and that made us chuckle.

All that was left was the picture taking and some fish cleaning.

He’s lucky he gives me venison otherwise that reel would not be allowed on the boat.