Late October Walleye

After what turned out to be the worst week of my life I decided I needed a little normalcy.  Since the Huron hasn’t been cooperating for Steel I decided to go back to my old reliable, Detroit River walleye.  I arrived at the ramp around 6:00 pm and to my dismay I saw that the river was a lovely shade of grey.  Normally dirty water doesn’t scare me but with overcast skies and a sunset coming soon my window of opportunity would be short.  I set up in my normal area and worked over my familiar haunts.  Visibility was about a foot and there were hardly any weeds.  Surface temp was about 52 degrees which is just a lot better then the 65 degrees it was last time out.  It didn’t take long and I had my first eater in the box.  He hit a #7 Perch Rapala (The discontinued style with the gold plate belly) on my kicker.  As it would turn out, every fish I caught would come on that lure, even the one I lost.  I only managed three for the night and they all came in the first 45 minutes.  Once it got dark out everything shut down.  I fished until 8 but it was to no avail.  Not surprising, experience has shown me that dirty water and nightfall do not necessarily equal success.  If anything it means I should have got out earlier.  At least I was able to get out for a few hours and escape my phone for a bit.  I didn’t winterize the engine, not just yet.  Temps are going to stay in the 50’s for awhile so I may take advantage of it for a bit.  It’s not over yet.

So I ended up with 3 eaters, all light, grey fish.  Not the typical yellow/black colors more common for the resident river fish.  All of them had emerald shiners in their stomachs.  I also noticed a lot of splashing in the Edison discharge so that means the gizzard shad are in.  Hopefully some more walleye are right behind them.

No pictures tonight.  I figure everyone has seen enough pictures of 17 inch fish.

On another more personal note, I am going to shut this down for a bit.  As I had said earlier this past week was the worst of my life and it really drained me emotionally.  I have a lot of things to sort out now and take care of and I really don’t have the energy, time or desire to make anymore entries.  Maybe after a break of a few moths I will start up again.  There is still plenty of time left to get some walleye so get out there, good luck, be safe and cherish the ones around you.

October Walleye 10/06/16

October is usually the start of some fantastic Fall fishing on the lower Detroit River.  Bigger walleye move back in, chasing the gizzard shad to fatten up for winter.  This year though, the timing is just a tad bit off because of the hot summer we had.  Everything is running a little later than normal.  I had debated waiting a few more weeks but when I heard that fellow handliners, Dave and Larry, were going to be out I decided to give it a shot.  Safety in numbers and we could cover more water to help us key in on the active fish.  Great theory, to bad it didn’t work.

I arrived at the ramp just after 7 p.m. and the few pleasure boaters that were out were on their way back in.  As I got my boat ready I noticed that the marina was full of weeds.  I did not want to see that.  I was hoping it was just the Marina but as I was heading south I could see mats of weeds everywhere. This was not going to be fun.  I set up in my usual area and sent a text to Dave and Larry.  They were farther south, down by Calf Island, so I just stayed up closer to the stacks.  If either of us started to catch fish we would let the other know.  About 5 minutes in I had my first walleye.  As I was flipping him in he came off the lure and slid down the edge of the boat until he hit my reel.  Once he did he fell right back into the river.

Oh well.

For the next hour it was mostly clear weeds off the lines.  Shortly after 8 I did manage to catch a 19 incher.  About 10 minutes later I caught a short.  I was starting to get a little optimistic but those feelings were quickly crushed when I hit a huge mat of weeds.  After spending the next minutes clearing them off my lines and off my prop I was back at it.  By now it was 8:30 and I told myself I would stick it out until 9.  At 8:55 I landed one more that was just over 15 niches.  A couple of minutes later and a quick text to Dave and Larry and I was headed home.  The weeds were just to much to handle.  If the fishing had been better I would have stuck it out but this was one of those nights when it just wasn’t worth the effort.  Living only 10 minutes away makes these judgement calls a whole lot easier.

The big one grabbed the size 7 and the little one grabbed the size 11. Go Figure.