Riverbend Report 3-6 and 3-7

[Wookiee]

A buddy and I fished out of the Riverbend houses about 20 miles out last Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we started the day with a 17 inch sauger. The fishing was pretty steady all day we ended up with 5 walleyes and 6 saugers for the pail along with 8 bonus Jumbos. The hot lures that day were an 1/8th oz. gold with glow stripe slender spoon with a fathead head and a 1/8 oz. super glo redfish eye dropper spoon on the deadstick with a whole fathead the bigger the minnow the bigger the fish. We totaled about 40 fish that day with all fish in the pail over 14.5 inches except the perch they were all in the 11 to 12 inch range. It was a little more on the jigging side about 60-40. Fatheads were definitely the bait of choice. The second day was definitely the day of the deadstick but we iced around 50 fish with a big flurry between 11 and 12. The hot lure was a 1/16th oz. perch/gold back frostee jigging spoon(Thanks Fiskyknut) on the deadstick about 3 inches off the bottom. We put 11 more walleyes(5) and saugers(6)in the pail and 5 more perch. Fatheads were again the bait of choice. We ate fish the first night and brought home our limits of 8 walleyes, 8 saugers and 13 perch between the two of us. The biggest walleye was 18.5 inches, Sauger was 17 inches and no slot fish were caught. No pout either. They definitely wanted the deadstick close to the bottom . It was a great time and we will be back again next March. The food was pretty good at Riverbend and the meal plan was definitely worth every penny. The owners and guides were friendly also. Just a side note we tried a lot of different lures and when the fish were there they seemed to all catch fish. Pink and white, all glows, golds, and perch patterns.

[bturck]

toomuch: thanks for posting your results. Sounds like you had

plenty of action to keep you occuppied. One week from tomorrow for me again, hope you left a few out there. Shhhh, don't say it too loud but what was the number of your house????? Bill

[eurolarva]

How was the bomber rides? I spoke to the owner before I left and he said it was too bad to have to use bombers but to stay on decent fish they had to use them. Those things must cost a small fortune to run. Glad to hear you had a great time. I cant wait till next year to go again.

[Wookiee]

Here's a hint walleyes and saugers.

[Wookiee]

Bomber rides were good except for on the way home the second day had a stall and wallked across the heave. Otherwise not bad at all.

[Fish Monger]

Was also out at the said reefs on Saturday and Sunday. The action was a bit slow on Saturday, but picked up some on Sunday. The four of us brought home our limits of sauger, and almost limits of walleye.

The sad part of the trip was the time change, so we lost an hour of prime fishing time. We were supposed to leave the resort a half-hour earlier than usual, but one of the bomber drivers forgot to turn the clock ahead. Then did we get to fish for an extra hour and a half? No, we did not. My partners and I think that stunk.

But I guess that is what happens when one is at the mercy of the resort and/or the bomber drivers. We could have easily fished until 6 pm as the sun did not go down until 7 pm. I think the resorts would do even better if they allowed one to fish from sunrise to near-sundown, or at least make that an option. When the web site advertises $70.00 for a "full day" of fishing, it should consist of a longer period than 7.75 hours.

[EJ]

I agree. As of today the sunrise is 7:26 and sunset 7:26. That seems pretty close to 12 hours.

[blueroof]

We fished 3/9 and 3/10 off from Garden Island (22 miles out) with Snobe's service - pretty much the same area as Riverbend was fishing. We had mixed results. Shack 10 did real well, shack 6 was pretty slow both days with a few short lived moments of hope - we caught many of the fish we marked, just didn't mark enough. The bomber rides were the smoothest and best I've ever encountered, lots of snow and no breakdown.

My dad and his buddy (shack 10) easily got a limit of nice eyes and sauger, first day all eyes, second day a good mix. I believe we got 4 jumbos between both shacks.

My biggest eye was a hair over 16.5". We got two other eyes over 15" and a handful of decent sauger (dinks compared to the croix!?.) The rest of the fish in shack #6 were all very very small.

Snobe's accomodations and service is top notch, I would certainly go again. We were off a bit too early, but I always feel that way...

LB

[bturck]

I fully agree on the time element. I understand that it is a bit of a ride out to the reefs and they certainly don't want to get hung up due to unforseen situation, but as mentioned it was still light last night at 715pm. Leaving out there at 500pm instead of 400pm would certainly make sense. I intend to mention it to Charlie next week. Not sure if I have any pull or not, we'll see. Good luck and hang on. Bill

[gotfish]

Fished out of Riverbend on Monday and Tuesday March 10 and 11. Both days we fished out 22 miles on the reefs. There were four of us fishing and caught close to 40 fish the first day with the morning bite definitely doing better than the afternoon. Charlie did change the pick up time to 4:30 due to more sunlight. The reason they pick up earlier is if they have breakdowns on the bombers, which they had both days we were there, but didn't affect our 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 hour rides to/from the fish house/cabin each day....ouch! Hot lures were gold jig 1/8 oz, swedish pimple and rattlin buckshot blue and silver.

The 2nd day of fishing was much better with the four of us catching 60 fish and probably missed another 40+ as I had 3 rookies along with me! Lots of keeper walleye and saugers and a dozen jumbo perch mixed in. Hot lures for us (and I tried MANY!) were the gold swedish pimple, rattlin buckshot and rattlin varmint gold with red back.

I definitely enjoy the Riverbend's service. The guides were good to chat with, Charlie was very accomodating and the price was a definite value. I'll be going back to that place next year for sure.

[muc33]

Thanks for the report, I head up tomorrow early morning.

[bturck]

gotfish: Thanks for the report. Glad that Charlie saw the light, no pun intended. They do an excellent job. I've been fishing with them for 9 years and looking forward to the trip back next week. Sounds like most of your action came on the jiggin rods, anything at all on the dead sticks? Fatheads the ticket, or should we also stock up on some shiners? Thanks again. Bill

[eurolarva]

My guess is the time for leaving and coming back has more to do with paying the guides and drivers as the primary reason and the breakdowns are secondary. I dont know how the guides get paid but if you work for more then 40 hours a week you get paid for overtime.

[gotfish]

We only used fatheads and they seemed to do the trick for us. Deadsticks caught us less than 1/3 of our fish total i would bet and we had about the same lures on them as the jigging sticks, but like I said, I tried everything on my deadsticks. We used full minnows on both and hooked through the back fin area. I did have to jig in quite a few of my fish and then they nailed the bait and jig. Lots of fun!

[bturck]

gotfish: thanks again for the update. Doesn't really surprise me that the jigs were hot. This time of year it seems as the fish start to turn on the feed bag and become more aggressive they like the jigs better than the sticks. Jan and Feb they need a little slower presentations some times. I picked up a couple of more types of jigs at Scheels yesterday. If they work I'll post it, otherwise I'll keep quite and not embarass myself. LOOL Bill

[bturck]

Euro: From my undestanding the guides are paid a per diem rate. They subsidize that amount with the tips that they get from us the happy anglers. Bill

[MrBaz]

Btruck, Monday is the big day, we will be fishing off of pine Monday and the second day we are gonna make the run to the reefs. Hopefully we can catch a good limit off pine so we dont have to take the 3 or so hour bomber ride. I am still planning on being at the lodge wensday night to have some drinks and update you on the fishing. hope to see ya there.

MrBaz

[bturck]

Mr Baz: At this time everything is a go for next Wed. We willl leave St Cloud around 500pm. Should be in the lodge, if I don get detained by flashing reds, lol around 930pm. There will be three of us. Hope you have some good luck. Bill