Pre-Spawn Willies!

Downtown Twin Cities???

Walleyes???

Yeah Baby!!!

Tim and I got the warm clothes on and muscled up the courage to sit on open water for a couple of hours yesterday evening.  After all, the temp was 40 degrees, and the forecast for the rest of the week calls for snow, snow and more snow.  So to cure the itch until the warmer weather arrives, we decided to jerk a few lips.  The two of us went back and forth with our hot streaks, and joked at each others misses for nearly 2 1/2 hours of awesome spring walleyes on the Mississippi.  It was crazy to see the water temps in the mid 30's and have the walleyes hitting the jig so hard, but neither of us were complaining. 

 The presentation and pattern was simple.  Jig and minnow (until we ran out) and plastics.  When dealing with river fish, it is all about the current, and when you find the fish in this dirty water, you have to literally be within inches of their face before they see the bait and hit it.  All of our fish came from an area that covered about two boat lengths.  They were stuck in a little underwater break in 15- 17 ft of dirty water.  We had this area all to ourselves, and just hung their until we ran out of daylight.  I started the day by boating the first 8 walleyes, laughing continuously at Dingy, only to see him throw the next 6 in the boat and hearing him chirp back at me.  The rest of the evening we went back and forth netting fish for each other anywhere from 1lb up to about 4-5 lbs.  It was crazy, the males were fertilizing everything in the boat, and the females we caught looked like they had just swallowed some footballs.  These fish were active and eating exactly what we were offering before they do their yearly ritual.  The only snag in our day was the camera battery that died very early in the fish catching parade.  A great trip on the water, with some interesting and different scenery for a change. 

Love it!  Fish On!

Did Somebody Say Open Water???

Check out this sweet view of a foggy morning on the Mighty Mississippi.  I was not along on this particular trip, but I just had to post this.  The boys that made the journey to Red Wing found themselves as usual, with hundreds of other eager fisherman.  The only problem was that they didn't find quite as eager fish!  The recent report was that there had been a few biters in the previous days, but everything can change in seconds when you fish the rivers in spring.  On this particular day, the dam in Red Wing was let wide open to allow water to flow through, which had its normal effects and turned the fish off completely.  It's a good excuse for my buddies to bring home as to why they didn't catch em'  on their first attempt of the year (heeeheee).  Don't worry Mike and Sean, I won't tell everybody it was you two who were down there!

One of my favorite parts about fishing the river is that you never know what you are going to catch or snag, and while they didn't catch the walleyes, they did manage to haul in a rare Sturgeon to take a few photos.  It wasn't enormous, but always fun to fight.

In all honesty, the river can absolutely awesome this time of the year.  It is a good chance to get out on the open water before the lakes loose all of the ice.  The numbers and size of the walleye and sauger can be spectacular, with many of our trips last season netting 50 - 80 fish per day.  I will be getting my lines wet in the next few days, and posting my stories when I can.  If you or anybody you know would like to be part of the stories, get in contact with me soon to set up a day that will work best.  The action will be heating up very soon, and it doesn't last long. Until next time,  FishOn!