10/28/18 Walleye

This past Sunday morning (10/28/18) I decided to try and get a few more walleye.  It was supposed to start raining around 11:00 am so I had a few hours.  I could have started before sunrise but NE winds the last few days had me thinking the water would be dirty.  I was right, the water was dishwater grey and less than 6 inches of visibility.  I headed down to my usual starting point and got set up.  I was running a custom painted Pink Lemonade Rattlin’ Rogue on my long lead and a #9 Perch Rapala on my kicker.  I don’t really remember what I had on my medium lead, I never had a hit on it and I changed it several times during the morning.  While I was trolling along I took a surface temp reading and it was around 48 degrees.  Everything seemed just about perfect.  Overcast skies, dirty water, 48 degree temps, light west winds.  Now all I needed was some fish.  Around 8:30 I had my first one but I never got him off the bottom.  He was a bigger fish and he grabbed my kicker.  I could feel the hooks tearing from his mouth as I tried to pull him up.  I swung back around through the spot and hooked into another fish that I promptly lost as well.  This was getting frustrating and I was afraid this was an omen of how the day was going to go.  About 10 minutes later though, I finally put one on the cooler.  I was able to land a couple more before 9:15 am when the sun broke through the clouds.  Not what I wanted to see but I knew it wasn’t going to last long.  Dark clouds were in the west and coming my way.

Fishing was slow while the sun was out so I explored some more.  Eventually the clouds rolled back in I pulled lines and headed back to the area I first started.  It didn’t take long and numbers 4 and 5 were in the cooler.  Once that was done I pulled lines and headed for home.  Good thing too, just as I pulled into my driveway the rain started.  Once I got the boat put away I didn’t care, I was indoors and warm.  I’m finally getting some larger fish and the largest, a 23 incher, was a female.  Looks like the Fall run is on.  I only hope it doesn’t get to cold to fast.  If it drops another 10 degrees fishing could end before it really got started.  I’ll try again this weekend.  Still need to get some more fish to last me through the winter.

 

10/20/18 Walleye

Oops, forgot I went fishing again.

Went out last Saturday morning to try and stock the freezer some more before winter sets in.  Since the temps bottomed out last week and we saw our first snow flakes, winter could come sooner than expected.  Surface water temps were around 52 degrees and there were no surface weeds to deal with.  There were plenty below the surface though and I had to check lines on a regular basis.  I started fishing around 7:00 am and packed it in around 10:00 am.  Not much to report other than it was cold out.  One other boat was out trolling along the Edison Discharge and I saw him catch a couple of fish.  No signs of any gizzard shad yet.  I’ll try again this weekend.

 

10/13/18 Walleye

It had been well over a month since the last time I went walleye fishing so I was due.  Wind was out of the SW but it was in single digits so I figured it wouldn’t be much of an issue.  I was more concerned about water clarity with all the rain we received in  the last week.  Turns out it wasn’t that bad, around 2 to 3 feet of visibility.  Surface temps were around 59 degrees, still to high but at least it was heading down instead of up.  Weeds weren’t much of an issue, just the single strands that I am accustomed to this time of year.

I dropped lines sometime around 5:30 pm and by 6 I had my first fish, a nice 22 inch male, biggest walleye I’ve landed in months.  Over the next hour I was able to land a couple more along with a few smallmouth bass.  It was a pretty slow and uneventful night.  There was one other boat out trolling and I saw them catch a couple of fish.  I kept my sonar going for awhile and most of the fish I marked were 2 to 4 feet off the bottom.  I know a few of them were walleye but I’m betting some of the other marks were smallies and a few trash fish.  Around 8 it was getting colder so I headed in.  The Fall bite is just starting and I have a few months left to fill the freezer for winter.  Weather permitting.  If the weather goes to hell I’ll just start chasing Steelhead earlier than I was expecting.