Big Girls

[Dennis Steele]

A few big girls decided to play with WWG and I on the river this past week.

With the water temps hovering just under 50 degrees, I thought if might be time to investigate some of the holes, thinking that the fish might be movng into them.

WWG called and had had some success fishing with MR Special earlier in the week, so I gave up that idea of jiggin holes and opted for pitching jigs to the area that they had done well.

We arrived and anchored up in front of a key structure and I started pitching Scenic Pro Series jigs tipped with ringworms and Glow Series Lindy Muchies, while WWG was switching up from jigs with live bait or a lindy rig with live bait.

WWG was getting into a lot of little white bass and I was getting hit but couldn't connect with a lot of these little buggers.

Then about an hour before sunset I got a very sharp tap. I know it was an eye just by the "electricity" running down the line.

I pulled in a nice 18" eater eye.

We continued to fish, catching more (in my case missing most!) little white bass, with a few nice ones and a few more eater walleye.

Then the bite died, but we continued to fish.

The big girls moved in just before dark.

We picked up 5 very nice eyes. Two of them were 10lb + eyes with a 9, an 8 and a 6lber.

A very good night on the river!

I have to give Mr Special thanks for sharing the spot with both WWG and I, and WWG for talking me into checking it out that night! I might have gotten into some eyes and sauger verticle jigging the holes, but I doubt I would have seen that many trophy class fish!

[Andrew Erickson]

WOW!Those are some nice fish.Nice job

[prophet]

good looking catch,sounds like a great night out,congrats

[LEECH21]

Awesome night, felles! Congrats!

[Duffman]

Bait $5, Gas for the Riverpro $??-lets just say it's cheaper than it was a month ago, fishing the river in November wearing jeans and a sweatshirt while landing some piggy 'eyes - priceless.

[Fish'n guy]

WOW guys nice fish indeed!! You just can't beat a good fall walleye bite on the river, especially walleyes like those.

GOOD FISHIN!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mr Special]

Now problem bud. I knew that spot had tons of potential it just need some experienced anglers like you two. I glad you boys got into some big gals. Now I just need to figure out when I can get out there.

Later

[Ryan Becklund]

what would you call this key structure? rock, drop offs? We are all freinds here right?

[Dennis Steele]

Yes, we are all friends!

What made this spot good was that there was water that was a little warmer and clearer than the river itself. This attracted LOTS of bait fish and also produced a defined mudline with a current break.

Couple that with a sharp breaking rock bar.

On the back side this created an eddy and a hole for the fish to rest in. We were pitching our jigs into the hole and working them back up the rock bar in the mudline/current break. Walleye would follow the current break to the head of the hole and were picking off minnows (and our baits) as they were washed off the top of the rock bar.

You couldn't ask for more key features in one spot.

Oh... and to top it off, I recently read a telemetry study on walleye migrating up the MN from the Miss and the majority of these fish were found to winter in that exact river mile!

[DARK30]

I've been playing with a few little girls lately. Last night however a got to play with a nice 26" 7#. she was laying in about 3 feet on a sand bottom off the end of some rip rap. Its been slow around my favorite hip boot spots. I'm finding water temps in the low to mid 60's. I hear that's all going to change by mid next week when the air is going to chill down significantly.

[MNRiverRat]

Hey there.... there aren't any big girls in the river... well, except for the couple of, um.... that we saw on the bank once... but come now, that was a totaly different scenario... good entertainment, but a little different none the less, lol!

I haven't been out too much but have "snagged" one of those big girls that Dennis had mentioned above... man I now remember what the fall is about, lol.... Anyway... I believe the bite is on.... so good fishing to all!

[Jim W]

Definitely envious and chomping at the bit! Nice to see you guys getting on some fish this Fall. Well....some of you that is...lol

Jim

[DARK30]

Man! I can't believe I got the monkeye tonight. Standing knee deep watching the minnows frolic in the eddy while slowly retrieving a tried and true favorite lure up the current seam. Something was even feeding on the little fins too. Water at 60 degrees.

[Dennis Steele]

You either need a new temp gauge, or tell me where your finding 60!

Last time out, I found 46.5 in the main river and most of the creeks were a tad cooler.

[DARK30]

Your right, I just took it for a dip in the hot tub...110 degrees. Actual temp is 101.

[Ryan Becklund]

How do creek mouths do this time of year? I have a few areas that I know of that are good in the spring wonder if they would be good in the fall?

[Kevin Turner]

Way Cool FIsh...

[Dennis Steele]

Creek mouths are great spots to try in the fall, especially in years where the water levels are high enough that river backs up into them. The mouth itself or where the river meets the clear water up in the creek can be good.

I look for baitfish breaking on the surface to give away the location of shallow fish. I also pitch jigs to the current breaks, mudline, and drop offs of the creeks delta. Once I connect with a fish, I'll keep casting to that one spot, occasionally checking other likely fish holding spots. Typically, more fish will move to that one spot to feed. Its common for every fish to be caught from one area no larger than a 5 gallon pail.

Low water years, the creeks don't produce as well for me, than higher water years, so I typically target structure just downstream or upstream of the mouths, pitching jigs to shore line current breaks or little eddies.

I find its good to have a temp gauge and check the water temps as well. When the creek is running a bit warmer than the river itself, it attracks more baitfish and more fish.

The evening after sunny warm days when the creeks warm faster than the river can be very good.

Evenings always seem to produce better than dawn.

Once the river temps hit the lower 40's, I find most the fish move to the holes. You can still get on a bite in the creek mouths, but its not as good as earlier in the fall.

[moby1]

Hay, I recognize the spot in the pic As a matter of fact I will be hitting the same spot in a couple of hours. Good to see you're getting some fish. Wonder where special found out about that spot :+)Now the secret is out. I have to get down there b4 its fished out. Just kidding. It's time for me to turn to the river for fish since the launches near home are frozen over. Hopefully I will get some fish worthy of pics. A couple of years ago I pulled a 22.5" sauger out of that very spot. I guess that is a fair sized sauger. I had no idea. ITs still there somewhere.

[Dennis Steele]

Good to see you on the forum again moby.

Who's ever spot it was its a good one.

Good luck today.

I was out yesterday afternoon for a few hours and fished the holes between Chaska and Jordan.

Lots of fish in the holes right now. Even though all the holes I checked had fish, only a couple produced. The holes with fewer fish and tightly schooled fish were the best. Picked up a dozen or so sauger with a few eyes mixed in.

Water temps were at 35.5 and best depth was 24ft. Tried a lot of plastics and ringed grubs were the best.

[moby1]

We didnt fare so good that day dennis. We caught a few SMALL stripers and that was it. We didnt get there until later on like 10 am or so. Usually I have had good luck b4 10 and then it shuts down. Ive heard that it was good last week just prior to sundown (good as in multiple 9lbers coming out. I took a half day off yesterday when it was sunny and 50 out). I figured Id try for the skies one more time but there was too much ice on eagle to get the boat out. If I would have decided in advance that I was going to take a half day off I would have just brought the boat to work and hit the river.

[Mr_Lunker]

What part of the mn river is this....? If ya'll don't mind me asking..

[Dennis Steele]

I can't really give up the location of this particular spot as it was shown to me by a couple very generous anglers.

I can say that through out the entire stretch of the MN river, there is a good population of very nice sized walleye.

In the spring and early fall, you can key in on just about any creek for some trophy eyes.

Come late fall the eyes drop into the deeper holes and the fishing can be very good.

One thing to note, most of the larger fish are typicaly fairly shallow no matter what season your fishing. Or... if your catching smaller fish, try fishing a little shallower for the big girls.