Boats, boats, and more boats!!

[MarkB]

Wow! If you like company, you had to love Saturday's opener! Personally, I've never seen as many boats EVERYWHERE! as I did on the Saturday opener. My wife  and I basically took a boat ride from our home around the north side of Pine Island, then around the south end of Ely Island by Cherry and Jackrabbit then back home around the outside of Moose. There were spots( S curve, NE tip of Pine Island between Pine Island and the mainland, and between Birch Point and Moose Island ) where complete stops were required to get through! The NE tip of Pine Island, between Pine Island and the mainland, a person could have walked from the main land to the island and never got their feet wet! On the positive side, at that spot, as we were passing through, we observed 3 boats in the process of netting fish. Nice fish. So for the people whose nervous system is wired for that type of recreation, I'm sure at least some people had good fishing

The weather was absolutely horrible! 40 degrees and a steady NW wind made our lives miserable. So we went in. Around 4 o'clock, we went back out and fished for ~2 hours and never lost sight of our docks. We caught 17 walleyes. We caught a few dinks(8"-12") but we also caught several 14.5"-18" fish and we kept a few of the 14" fish for dinner. All of the fish we caught were caught on sucker minnows in depths ranging from 8'-27' adjacent to rocks. The fish were spread out from the bottom of the "hole" up the sides of the reef. I'm sure slip bobbers would have been lethal We trolled at ~.4mph. Snags were few and far between.

At around 7:30, I wandered down to the dock and tried the slip bobbers. I couldn't get a bite on leeches, but from around 8 o'clock to 9:30, I caught 13 walleyes! they started off smallish but got bigger as it got later. I ended up with an 18", 17.5", 17", 2-16", and so on.. It was a ball! I returned everything but, if I need a fish dinner, I'll know where and when to go. We stayed in Sunday but I managed a couple hours on the dock in the evening. I wasn't as good at hooking them last evening and I missed 8-10, lost 3 that felt like really nice fish, and landed 5. No high end eaters last night but all were 14"-15".

So far, we have caught one "slot" fish(18"). We have, however, caught several really nice eaters. Spring can give you false hope for what to expect the rest of the season but, so far, I am optimistic about average size. I hope it continues. Based on what I have seen so far, my wife and I will be changing tactics on our next outing and switching to slip bobbers. I'm hoping the bigger fish are camped in the shallow rocks filling up.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Thanks for the report Mark, it sure was busy.. but fun! And nice and quiet this AM.. probably more so tomorrow.... snow?? I have made similar observations but have yet to take a guest near a snag or wet a bobber. I broke off a tanker yesterday was definitely a mid to upper 20 fish so they are around and at least one was willing to bite.  Waiting on some cover modifications from the canvas shop so I don't have to keep taking off my heavy Ulterra, then I'm headed back out. Excited to fish the tourney Saturday!
 

[MarkB]

I would never wish you bad luck Casey, but, it is kind of refreshing hearing that even the pros break off the big ones occasionally Listening to your enthusiasm about "getting back out there" reminds me of my own lack thereof. Fishing in cold, nasty, windy conditions definitely lacks the appeal that it once held. Must be getting old, huh?These days I'll take cloudy skies, light breezes, and warm temperatures OR I'll just stay home and wait until sundown and saunter on down to the dock for the evening buffet

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Casey Sunsdahl]

No better way to feel alive then going out in the snotty stuff!! I guess after last year I am overly excited to get my days in.. The fish didn't know I was out there today.. pretty slow! Shut down big time..

[MarkB]

I went out for awhile this afternoon. Intermittent rain, sleet, sun, and wind. The water temp dropped from 53 Saturday to 49.9 today. I went back to where we caught them on opener but only one hit and very few marks. I was alone and decided to try a shallow reef my wife and I fish in the spring with slip bobbers. The boat ride to the spot was the polar opposite of this weekend. I saw only 2 other boats fishing and very few traveling. After I got anchored up( I put out 2 anchors) I baited with a smallish rainbow. Actually, I thought the rainbow was too small but I was getting low on rainbows and stuck with it. Less than 10 minutes later, I noticed my bobber go down to the yellow plastic stick that the line goes through. It popped back up. When it did it a second time, I set the hook and felt a really nice fish start taking drag. 4 short runs and 6 or 7 laps around the boat later, I saw the fish for the first time. I had already prepared my bigger net in the interim. The fish was pretty well done fighting and I slipped the net under it's front half and hoisted the rest of her in after dropping the pole. I wanted a picture and a measurement. She cooperated nicely with the measurement. I used my hog trough which is ~31" and was able to estimate 1.5 hog trough lengths or ~46". The tricky part came next. I always have my wife with me and either her or I take the pictures. I have no idea how to use a self timer. The musky was back in my net hanging over the side of the boat. I decided that holding a fish in a landing net wasn't "immediate release" so I reluctantly let her go without my picture. My wife said" why didn't you take her picture when you measured her?". The thought didn't even cross my mind I was too tuned in to the hero shot and forgot the common sense shot. Oh well, it was exciting and I added it to my memory bank. This fish had a wound running from the back of it's huge head down it's back about 12". If it was a battle scar, there is a really big musky somewhere in that area.

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[PSU]

Love your reports Mark, you need to be writing for a paper somewhere!

[JerkinLips]

Thanks for the reports, Mark.  You are the life of the lake.

[Rick]

If you like his reports be sure to click on the "Like This" button in his posts.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I was one of those boats out there.. goofy!? I brought the Mr. Heater out with a 20# tank.. very nice. Fishing really got hot for me about 5:30.. it was one right after another! Lots of smaller fish but I kept my first meal of the year of some really nice ones. Fish fry!

[Rick]

Don't forget folks, you can follow this thread to get notifications on answers and you can follow the ones giving good info by clicking on their name and be notified of their info as they give it.

[BrianF]

I was probably one of the three boats on the lake Tuesday.  Well worth the misery!  While we weren't fishing walleyes, we caught a fair number of them incidentally over the long weekend. All of them were over 20", up to maybe 24"? We didn't measure.  Generally, the walleyes we caught were in mid-day in five feet or less. Hope this helps someone. Brian

[Casey Sunsdahl]

I have been using it all, I guess my favorite is still a jig and no live bait if I can trick them into licking it. I have been using a fair amount of leeches already as well.

[MarkB]

I also caught my first walleyes of the year on leeches today. Been pounding the shallow(10'-20') mud. Not as many dinks to fool around with. If I get deeper than 25' it seems it's dink city for us. We don't catch as many in the shallow mud but, what we do catch, are nice high end eaters with a slot mixed in here and there. I talked to some fishermen at the casino this afternoon and they all were complaining about 8"-10" dinks fishing 35' of water.

It's good to see that you're out and about again Casey I'd bet even the walleyes are glad to have you back!

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[MarkB]

My wife and I snuck out early this morning and it's a good thing we did for 2 reasons: first, the walleyes bit well early(for us); second, this post was titled Boats, boats, and more boats and truer words were never spoken!

Let's start with the boats statement. In the areas that we were fishing, it literally became unsafe by 11:00. There were lots of site seers, pleasure boaters, wave runners, skiers, and fishermen. When boats began coming at us from 3 different directions at once, it was time to abandon ship! I'm not going to even get into the etiquette part but suffice it to say, my wife and I will not be fishing on a holiday weekend anytime soon.

Now for the fishing part. We went straight to a spot we fished opening week. Our first outing there produced so-so results. Today was way better. Sucker minnows did the trick and they bit well right up until about 10:30. After 10:30, I marked hordes of fish and couldn't get them to bite! For a couple hours, every time I trolled by this huge shoreline rock, my wife caught a fish. We managed a 22", 21" 18.5" and several other low end eaters with a 15" and 16" mixed in. But, when they quit, they quit!!! The water temp was 59.9 degrees when we started and 64.3 degrees when we quit. Little to no breeze and sunny skies. A beautiful day to be on the water as evidenced by the boat traffic later in the morning.

We've been finding lots of fish cruising deep water, marking fish, dropping down bait and if they don't bite fairly quickly, move on to the next marks. We've had luck in 30'-43' of water. These fish are on mud eating mayfly larvae and, if this warm weather holds on, I would imagine we will have mayflies by mid-June. Our bait choice kind of volleys between leeches and suckers/chubs/rainbows. We usually start with both, then switch exclusively to whatever is working. We've been moving on to other spots when we stop and start catching dinks. We've found the eaters and slot fish pretty much on the same spots. That's the way they were this morning. Our luck this morning came on a 20' contour along a mainland shoreline. I went to that spot because it produces this time of the year. Freelancing takes place AFTER the proven spot(s) cool off.

I took pictures of what I call "blanket" marks this morning. Also, I took a picture of fish we marked traveling 30mph while cruising and looking. Unfortunately, I left my card in the computer the last time I downloaded pictures. I found it when I tried to download my pics from this morning. Sure glad a 30"er didn't get caught with no camera. Not true!!!! I'll take a 30"er anytime!!

Good Fishing,

MarkB

[Rick]

Nice report Mark!!

[james_walleye]

My luck this weekend consisted of 95% 10" eyes. Didn't seem to matter where I went. I found fish everywhere.....20-42' . No shortage of fish .....Just shortage on size. I did take some time and messed around in some shallow areas with a crappie jig and ironically got a 16" eye there.....as well as some smallies Including a 21" tank. Never seen a smallie that big....and built like that as well. 

[tjwierz2]

Seems like fish are deeper right now...  Are folks still having luck bobber fishing shallow in the evenings? 

[james_walleye]

Saturday evening we had 4 keepers bobber fishing in 12'. Sunday evening it was all little guys.