River 'Eyes

[Team Otter]

With nearly a month passing by since my last outing in the area, I finally made a trip to the MN River. It always seems like every year when I think I'm really going to fish the fall bite around here hard, either work gets in the way or I end up making multiple trips to the Rainy River or Mille Lacs. I guess a person can't have it all, but at any rate, back to business. It sure was nice to get back out on the water around here and the weather more than cooperated. And the fish did too.

Upon my arrival at the landing in St. Peter, I knew it was going to be a day of patience and pitching. The river (and flow) was up, water clarity was down, and the skies above were very overcast. Should be a dynamite day of pitching to current seams and shallow, slack water holding baitfish, right? Well, sort of. I fished from ~9:30 am until 5:00 pm and managed to catch 6 fish. The best parts about these 6 fish was that nobody saw me catch any of them and the smallest fish was 22.5" and the biggest was just shy of 28". The worst part was that it took 7.5 hours to get those fish. By no means, were these fish "jumping" in the boat. In fact, each fish I caught was very hesitant to bite. With the water temperature being in the high 30's, these fish aren't exactly tearing up and down the river. I caught each fish pitching a 1/16 oz. Northland FireBall jig in orange and charteuse tipped with a fat head minnow. The presentation included anchoring my boat outside of a current seam on a shoreline that included rip-rap and shale that was adjacent to a shallow 8' mud flat. I was pitching right to the bank and then bringing it back to the boat as slow as I could possibly stand. This was a mind-numbing day of trying to catch fish but I guess, ultimately, my patience paid off. It also turned out to be the wrong day to forget my camera. Sorry, no pics of the piggies. Each one of the 6 fish were fat and very healthy. That 28" fish was easily 8.5 pounds.

Not sure how long this "bite" may last but it is definitely worth another shot. I may be targeting the 'eyes on Madison a few more times before ice-up but that is all weather-dependent.

Good luck out there and keep your tip up!

[danj]

T.O., did you go North or South from the landing?

Dan

[Team Otter]

North.

[walleyes-r-us]

I did the same thing a week ago (north of the landing), but the fish just weren't doing anything - that's why I headed over to Madison for the crappies - it was worth the trip!

[pikerliker]

Hey danj it was nice meeting you Tuesday! Did you have any luck upriver?

~piker

[Team Otter]

A fish an hour last weekend wasn't much either but the quality of fish kept me pitching. If I would have been catching 15" fish, I would not have stuck around for more than an hour. I'm glad I have more patience than most!

Also glad to hear that there are more FM'ers meeting each other. Hope you guys got on some fish.

[danj]

Pikeliker, sorry it took so long to respond. It was nice to meet you.

I caught one walleye that day, but it was a tad over 28"!! I caught it about 30ft N of where you were before you left.

danj

[Team Otter]

Nice fish Dan!

[pikerliker]

Very nice fish Dan! I wonder if it was the same one that wacked my minnow off on that earlier cast! Good job!

~piker

[danj]

Pikerliker, why aren't you bragging about your fish? Wasn't it about 30"??

DanJ

[pikerliker]

Thanks danJ! Yes and then some I think. Too bad it was a carp! It was a great fight, especially since I hooked him in the dorsal fin! Oh well, it got my blood pumping for sure.

later ~piker

[Team Otter]

Nothing wrong with a fiesty carp. Been there many times with all of the shallow water that I fish during the open water season.