Keepin On Em...
Travis Frank
The last two evenings have been spent doing what else...Willie fishin! The temperatures early into this opening season has been less than favorable. It has been hard to establish a real strong pattern of any kind. One day the water is up to 56 degrees, and the next it is back down to 51. These fish just can't seem to figure it out, and it has left us searching for the next great bite. Not that I am complaining, cuz I love the challenge, but it just makes for a little more work to land our fish. As the first 2 days of season have been showing, we aren't catching numbers of fish, but a very good quality in the ones we are landing.
Monday night we hit Tonka as a little prep work for my trip out last night. We hit a few spots and found nothing, but kept searching. Our efforts were rewarded with 5 nice eaters, and one that we released at about 22 inches. The pattern we found was yet again shallow, but his time in different areas. The good old faithful, jig and a minnow produced our fish, and the water temps in the bays we fished were about 54 to 55 degrees.
Last night was a little different story. Yes, we were on Tonka again, and yes we were shallow again, but the bite wasn't quite as good. There was a cold front that moved through mid-day, and it made for not only a chilly evening on the water, but gave the fish a slight lock-jaw. I was joined by a gentlemen named Terry, and we gave it our all. The water temps had dropped again from the day before and we were seeing the results of it in the number of nibbles. Terry landed the first fish at about 18 inches, and shortly after I missed 2 nice fish. For me, that was all the walleye action I could muster. A few bass later and a few spots later Terry landed a very nice Tonka eye that pushed just over 25 inches. We fished hard into the night, but the fish didn't cooperate any further. A good attempt on our parts, but a bad attempt on the walleyes part. That's fishin, and that's why we keep coming back every day. Thanks for all the fun the last two nights everyone. Until next time, keep on Livin the dream!