Weekend Walleye Report

Friday (5/3):

Random guy who has had a few Ginger Ale’s: How you doing? (rather loudly)

Me: Ok

RGWHHAFGA: We got 8.

Me: That’s Good.

RGWHHAFGA: We’ve been out since 6 (2 1/2 hrs) We are killing them.

Me: Cool

RGWHHAFGA: How many you got?

Me: 4

RGWHHAFGA: Been out a long time?

Me: No, 20 minutes.

RGWHHAFAG:…………………………………………………..

His fishing Partner in the boat: Can you shut up now and get back to fishing instead of being so cocky?

 

That was the highlight of my Friday Night.  I got on the water about 7:45 and by 8:15 I had my 5 and was headed in.  The only drama was the aforementioned individual who everyone on the river could probably hear.  I figured they were doing well from all his yelling.  I didn’t hear him anymore after he talked to me.

The water was dirty from all the rain we got earlier in the week.  I ran some Smithwick Rattlin’ Rogue’s and for kicks and giggles a spoon.  All of them produced fish.  1st one of the night was a 26 inch male.  Biggest one of the year so far.  Still haven’t caught any of those other fish but I did see a few caught.  They have to be close to taking off.

 

Sunday (5/5):

7:30 to 8:30 – One walleye and 3 of those other fish.

8:30 to 8:40 – Hold My Pepsi…..

Originally I was supposed to be going out with my friend Richard but he cancelled earlier.  He was all packed and ready but he is still feeling the affects of a hunk of chain falling from his garage rafters and hitting him in the head.  I told him not to worry about the fish.  They weren’t going anywhere and I would get him out another night.  I didn’t know what the water was going to be like so I left my house a little after 7.  I was hoping it would still be dirty and it would be a quick night.  After I got to the ramp I could see that the water had cleared up a lot.  Still a bit of a stain to it but there was a couple of feet of visibility.  Add in the clear skies and I had a feeling I was going to waste an hour until sunset.  I set up in the same spot as Friday night and started my run.   It  Wasn’t long and I had my first fish on for the night.  Unfortunately it was one of those other fish, a big female.  I didn’t get to upset.  I had been out 10 minutes and it was the only one so far.  They weren’t in that thick, yet.  I ended up with 3 for the evening.  I won’t complain about that.  I did manage to pick up one walleye in the first hour.  Once the sun set it was game on and I finished up limit in about 10 minutes.

Once I was done I motored over to a fellow DWF club member to see how he was doing.  I see him out just about every night I am.  He had caught a few of those other fish.  I told him the where’s and what on’s and said my goodbye’s.  I had more fish to clean and I was hoping to be in bed by 10:00 pm.  It had been a long weekend and I needed some rest.  I won’t be going out tonight (5/6), rain all afternoon and into tonight.  Supposed to take out my cousin tomorrow.  Depending on the other fish it could be my last trip for awhile.

Friday Night

Sunday Night

 

Class Is In Session

Last Friday, when I came in from fishing I met a DWF club member, Steve Sheldon, as I was pulling in my boat.  Apparently he had been trying to track me down to ask me about handlining.  He had been going out but was only catching one or two fish here and there.  He figured he was doing something wrong and he was hoping I could help him out.  He asked if I could take him out some night and Friday (4/21) was going to be that night.

I had contacted Steve earlier in the week and told him to be at my house around 8.  I also told him to bring his stuff so I could check to make sure his shank/leader set up was correct.  I have found that when someone isn’t catching fish it is either that or his boat handling skills.  At least I would be able to eliminate one variable.  After a quick check of his stuff we were packed up and headed out.  The weather tonight was damn near perfect.  Once again a slight NW breeze, overcast skies and not to cold.  The water was still clear and my only concern wasn’t those other fish,  it was undersized fish.  I had been hearing reports that the river was now full of 13 inch walleye.

The reports were right.

We started around 8:30 pm and in the first 10 minutes I landed 5 fish and all of them undersized.  I eventually caught a couple of keepers but during this time Steve hadn’t caught anything.  I was just about ready to switch seats with  him so he could fish my set up when he got snagged, BAD.  After making a few donuts around the weight the shank busted and he lost the whole set up.  I rigged him back up with one of my shanks and a 40 foot and 6 foot leader.  After that it didn’t take long and Steve was flipping fish in the boat.  For the next 45 minutes it was game on.  We still caught a few undersized ones, and of course those other fish, but we were catching plenty of legal ones as well.  By 10:00 pm we were all done and putting gear away.  Steve was amazed how one small change, albeit an important one, could make all the difference in the world.  He went from spending hours and maybe catching two fish to catching a limit in just under 45 minutes.  Needless to say he was happy.  We put everything away and headed towards the dock.  Other than the snag, which turned out to be a good thing, it was a near perfect night.  When we got back to the house we chatted some more about strategies for different conditions and what to watch for concerning boat control.  I gave Steve one of my shanks and a weight for him to copy.  He probably spent part of today making new shanks and leaders.  Hopefully he will be able to get out again soon.

As I had mentioned earlier the water was still clear and no debris.  Most of our fish came on #11 blue and silver Rapala and a #11 Downriver Tackle Custom Rainbow Trout, which has a blue back, pink sides and a white belly.  We tossed back just as many as we kept and we only caught a handful of those other fish.  Most of them being big females.  Very few boats out for a Friday night which was surprising.  It’s go time and I really couldn’t understand why so few people were out.  Their loss.

The smaller fish is a great sign.  Successful hatches the last few years is starting to show and it looks like we will have plenty of walleye for years to come.  Based on what I have been catching it should be a good mix of fish from 15 to 24 inches for some time.  We’re going to need it because I’m afraid the hatch this year is going to be a bust.  Any eggs laid before those two big storm events we had probably covered all the eggs with silt which means they will have suffocated.  I certainly hope I’m wrong.

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.

Winter Steel

I belong to the Downriver Walleye Federation and last week the editor asked me if I would write an article about steelhead fishing for the monthly newsletter.  I thought they must be really hard up for content since out of almost 400 members I know I’m the only one who fly fishes for steelhead.  I told him I would since I know how difficult it is trying to get an article from anyone when I was the editor.  So without further ado here it is.

Winter Steel

 

 

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

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.

The Ultimate Fishing Show

In the words of Mr. Incredible…….”It’s Showtime”.

Winter is a tough time for a soft water walleye fisherman.  Not a whole lot to do except get things ready for the start of the next season.  One of the things I like to do to help pass the time (which seems like forever) is attend fishing shows.  The first one and probably the largest is The Ultimate fishing Show at the Suburban Showplace Center in Novi.  The Downriver Walleye Federation has a booth at this show every year and I volunteer to work the booth on Friday night (1/11/13) with my father every year.  It gives me a chance to catch up with fellow walleye fanatics and people I generally don’t see over the course of the year.  The other advantage to working the booth is that it gives me an opportunity to check out all the new gadgets that have come out.  You know, all those items I never knew existed but now that I have seen them I can’t live with out them.  The last few years I haven’t bought anything new but someone may just come up with the one lure that will work every time.

Yeah right !!

There are a couple of vendors that I do make a point of visiting.  The first one is the Lake St. Clair Walleye Association booth.  As part of their fund raising they sell Spike Spoons.  As I have stated earlier Spike is the only person around that makes and paints spoons suitable for handlining.  These spoons are becoming more and more difficult to find, especially in the style and color I want.  Because of that I make it a point to check out their booth, talk to some of the members and of course, buy some more spoons.  The second vendor I check out is D&B Fishing Products.  They are a local supplier of mostly spoons, blades, blades, more spoons and the occasional custom painted Rapala.  They also carry a few Spikes Spoons and usually in some hard to find patterns.  They also carry a lot of other products for the open water fishermen but for the river handliner all I am interested in is the spoons.

There are a lot of other things to see at this show besides the couple of vendors I talked about.  Fishing tackle, seminars, trips, boats and just about every new little gizmo known to man.  I check it all out when I’m not at the DWF booth talking fishing.  Some years I spend more time there then I do wandering around.  Depends on the crowds and how many volunteers we have.  I think one year it was just my friend and DWF booth Organizer Jerry and myself.  Usually we have more than enough help which gives me more time to wander aimlessly down the aisles.  It helps to fend off the winter blah’s and make plans for the coming season.  It’s not the same as being on the river but it sure helps.

Golden Minnow Bucket Tournament 2012

It’s no big secret about my total disdain for Silver Bass and after my trip to Erieau that disdain has grown even worse. It’s bad enough catching them 3 at a time when I am pulling wire but pulling one in on 10 colors of lead core is ten times worse. Fortunately I only had to do it a couple of times. The crew I was fishing with went through that drill several times over the day before. I have to admit I wasn’t very optimistic about the fishing on Saturday. The group I was fishing with only caught 5 walleye and 3 steelhead the day before. That wasn’t so bad, the part I didn’t like is that they caught close to 50 silver bass. Every 10 minutes they had to pull lines just to clear them off the lures. If a walleye or Steelhead didn’t grab the lure on the way down a silver bass would. I tried to remain positive because things always seem to change the next day, hopefully for the better.

 
I woke up early Saturday morning to hazy skies and a slight breeze, so far so good. We got our lunches packed along with lots of water and ice for the cooler. Once that was done we launched the boat and headed out. We were fishing the 4th annual DWF/LSCWA Golden Minnow Bucket Steelhead and Walleye tournament this morning. This was a friendly little tournament between two of the premiere walleye clubs in Michigan. Something a little different than our usual Detroit River tournaments. Fishing time for the tournament didn’t start to 7:30 am and I was wondering why we were leaving at 6:30 am. Turns out we had to travel through Rondeau Bay at first and then out into Lake Erie for 18 miles. This will be the furthest I have ever fished out into the lake. Any other time I fished Lake Erie I could always see shore. With the haze on the horizon I couldn’t this morning. Once we got to our starting point we set lines, 2 on down riggers, 3 on Dipsey’s and on one 10 colors of lead core on an inline planer board. It didn’t take long and we caught our first walleye. We followed it up with a couple more and then our fist steelhead in about an hour. Not fast and furious but enough to keep us in the area. We fished for another hour and all we caught were silver bass, Sheepshead and a few small white perch. Jerry decided to pull lines and head to deeper water.

 
After a few more miles of travel we arrived at our next destination. A quick check of the graph showed the thermocline to be down around 55 feet so we set lines accordingly. Once we got the lines set Jerry made a slow turn into the waves and we started to pick up some better fish again. By now it was time for lunch so Jerry took a break and Tom took over the driving. For the next 2 hours we had a little bit of a flurry going. We were picking up steelhead and walleye on a regular basis. We were having a hard time keeping all the lines in the water because one would always have a fish on. We were still getting the garbage fish but not as many as what we were after. At 2:00 pm we pulled lines and headed back in. As we were doing this we hooked into our last steelhead of the day on one of the downriggers set 62 feet down. Tom suggested that for the last 15 minutes we should lower the downriggers farther to see what would happen. We ended up catching 2 steelhead in that time frame. Unfortunately the last one came off right at the boat. Oh well……it happens.

 
We ended up with 8 walleye and 8 steelhead which isn’t bad considering the conditions. Fish have been scattered and boats have been having a hard time locating fish. As for the tournament our 5 fish weighed in at 26.99 pounds, good enough for 5th place out 19 boats. The tournament only paid out to 4th place which we missed by just a few ounces. The DWF did take 1st, 3rd and 4th for the tournament and the Golden Minnow Bucket Trophy stays in DWF hands for another year. A team from the Lake St. Clair Walleye Association took 2nd place along with the biggest walleye at 7.24 pounds. Biggest steelhead was just under 12 pounds and it was caught by the 1st place team.

 
It wasn’t a bad day of fishing, certainly a lot better than the previous two days that my fishing partners experienced. It would have been nice if the waves were a little smaller. Driving a boat out 18 miles into 3 foot waves makes for a bumpy ride. If I had any kidney stones lying on my kidneys they are loose now. Another problem I discovered is that my tendonitis in my left arm is worse than I thought. I had a hard time holding on to the trolling rods while reeling in the fish, especially the one with lead core on it. Guess I’ll be going back to the doctor sometime soon.

Quick Trip Walleye

Weekends are meant for sleeping in, one of these days I will do just that. I woke up this morning at 4:30 am and lay in bed hoping to fall back asleep. Around 5:30 I gave up and decided to hook up the boat and head out for a few hours. Originally I didn’t plan on going fishing this weekend. The Gold Cup races were going on upstream and the FLW was in town. That meant a lot of boat traffic, a lot of floating weeds and a lot of Smallmouth Bass. I figured I would be out early enough to avoid the boat traffic but the weeds and Bass were debatable.

 
I arrived at Laker Erie Metro Park around 6:30 am and quickly got the boat launched. The shallow areas were thick with weeds but the channel was clear. I slowly made my way out and then north up the river to the Catamaran. As expected the water is still very clear but the skies were overcast, I hoped it would last. It didn’t take long after setting my lines and I had my first fish on, another channel cat. I have never caught channel cats down here before and now I have two in the last few weeks. I released him and as I was getting my lures back down I picked up what was to be the first of many Smallmouth Bass. With the FLW holding their tournament at Elizabeth Park most of the Bass caught and released after weigh in hang out in the channel before heading back out into Lake Erie. He was a chunky 16.5 inch fish and was soon followed up by another chunky 16 inch fish. Eventually I hooked into a walleye but I lost him at the side of the boat. He was barely hooked and I knew he was going to come off before I even got him close. A few minutes later I had another walleye on, this one I got in but he was a sub legal fish so back into the river he went. About 10 minutes passed before I hooked into another walleye. This one turned out to be a 22 inch 3 pound male. Shortly after I put him in the cooler the clouds started to break and out came the sun. So much for my overcast skies. Once the sun broke through the fishing slowed down drastically. I would pick up a few undersized Smallmouths here and there but nothing to get excited about.

 
Around 8:30 a fellow club member pulled out from the discharge area and came over to see how I was doing. As he pulled up I hooked into another fish, another Smallmouth and my biggest one for the day. I told Larry the area was full of them and that I hadn’t caught a walleye in the last hour. He pointed his boat north and headed up to Wyandotte. A mutual friend had told him he was doing pretty well up there and decided to give it a shot. After Larry left and I released the fish I headed downstream to try some deeper water for a bit. All I caught were more Smallmouth Bass so I decided to pack it in. I had things to do and it was starting to get hot. Besides, the bigger pleasure boats would be pulling out and starting upstream to watch the race. I had fish for dinner tonight and that was all I really wanted. There will be other days, I’ll just wait until the evenings.

End of June Walleye

I knew it was going to catch up to me sooner or later. Fishing had been going so well that eventually everything was going to blow up in my face. Well Friday night it did and carried over into Saturday morning.

 
I had promised to take out a club member Friday night to see if I could help get him pointed in the right direction for handlining. Steve had just started this method of fishing and he was having some success but was looking for a few pointers. He showed up at my house just in time to help me fix my garage door. The bracket holding the track up on the left side snapped and the whole door was listing to one side. We finally got it into place but it was only a temporary fix. That should have been a warning but as usual I ignored it. We made our way to the ramp, launched the boat and soon we were on our way to my starting point. I pointed the boat upstream, set it to its trolling speed and then the engine died. I got it started again but once I tried to increase the speed it stalled again. I repeated this process for a few more times but it kept stalling out. I checked to see if I was getting fuel and if the prop was fouled but everything was fine. I was really getting frustrated now because I promised to take Steve fishing and it wasn’t looking good. I finally got it going to and took off.  I decided to run the snot out of the engine for a while to see if it would clear out anything in the lines. After about 20 minutes I slowed down again and this time the engine was running fine. Go Figure.

 
We finally started fishing after an hour delay. It was slow at first but eventually we started to pick up a few fish. At one point I had a double on but it turned out to be a Sheepshead and a walleye. I had the walleye in my hand when Steve yelled out that he was hung up. Without even thinking I threw the walleye back and proceeded to help him get his line free. This isn’t the first time I have done something like this. A couple minutes later we were back to fishing and then I got hung up. I wasn’t so lucky, I lost 2 lures in the process. I replaced my leaders and was back at it about 5 minutes later. Shortly after that I got hung up and I lost my weight. I didn’t have a replacement shank so I had to improvise. While I was doing this Steve managed to land his first fish of the night on a #9 Vampire. We had 4 in the cooler when I was bringing in what I thought would be #5 for the night. Of course he came off right at the boat. That was the 3rd fish I had lost tonight. By now it was past 10:00 pm and I would normally head in around now. It was a beautiful night with hardly any floating weeds so we decided to stay out a little longer. I was hoping I could get Steve into a few more fish but fate stepped in and changed that. There was a boat anchored near shore and he was shining his spotlight at us. I figured he was just looking around for something but Steve said he could hear him yelling. Our lines we already in so we headed over to see what was up. Sure enough he couldn’t get his engine started and needed help. He threw me a rope and we towed him back to the ramp. On the way in I told Steve we were done for the night and he agreed. So after a late start, engine problems, 2 lost lures, a lost weight and broken shank, 3 lost fish and a tow in we ended up taking home 4. Could have been 5 but I had a brain cramp. I was hoping the good karma from helping out a fellow boater in need would carry over to the morning. No such luck.

 
The next morning I was taking Mike Barkley out. He doesn’t have a boat so the only way he is going fishing is if someone takes him along. Mike makes custom fishing rods so this handlining thing was kind of out of his comfort zone. I took him out a few years ago and there has been know stopping him since. This morning we awoke to cloudy skies and the possibility of rain. It did sprinkle a little but nothing much. After a whole month of high temps and almost no rain a little more would have been appreciated. At least it was cloudy, too bad it wouldn’t last. It didn’t take long and we had 1 walleye in the box. A few minutes later Mike had a fish on, unfortunately it was a Sheepshead. Around 7:30 am the wind shifted and started to pick up straight out of the south. It wasn’t long and we had whitecaps on the river. This surprised both of us but we were still getting the occasional fish so we stuck it out. By 8 we had 3 walleye and about a dozen Smallmouths that we released, a couple of them over 16 inches long. The wind had also started to die down and our cloud cover disappeared. My friend Jerry had called me and told me his neighbor had just pulled a quick limit in front of Humbug Marina. We pulled lines and made a mad dash downstream to try it out. After 2 passes and only 1 Sheepshead for our trouble we headed back to the stacks. We trolled around there for a little while longer but with the sun getting higher it wasn’t promising. While we were up there I got hung up once again and lost a whole rig. This was starting to get expensive. We tried for a little while longer but we weren’t getting anything so we packed it in.

 
So for the last week of June everything kind of fell apart. After two trips I lost four weights, 3 shanks, several leaders and about a dozen spoons. All of this for 7 walleye, 1 throwback, 3 lost at the boat, several Spotless Freshwater Redfish and a bunch of Smallmouth Bass. Quite a turnaround from the rest of the month.

 
Hope July starts off better than the way June ended.  The water is still stupid clear.  What I wouldn’t do for a good storm and some dirty water.

The only picture I took. I really need to have my guests bring a camera.