A Lil' Bit of Everything

Well lately it has been a lil bit of everything.  As you can see from this picture, we had an interesting double here, and that has pretty much been the norm.  The walleyes are still snatching up the jig and minnows, and so is everything else in the area.  While sheepshead aren't exactly the preferred fish to catch, it isn't such a bad deal, because they can really put up a good battle.  We've also been coming across some very large bucket mouths.  Bass season opened this past weekend, and for the first time in the last 9 years, I was unable to make my trek up north for the smallie action.  My fellow fishing buddies did however, and they got in on some great action on a couple of the lakes, especially considering the windy cold weather.  Nice job Bails and Whorl.  Wish I could have been there, but no fear, I'll be their next time.

This weekend is Musky opener, and I'm kinda thinking that I will be out on Waconia for the first time ever on opener.  I actually haven't made it on the water for the last 5 or 6 musky openers, Can you believe that?  What kind of musky fisherman doesn't fish his own season opener? Haha!  I have a hunch that if I do get out, I may be able to entice a couple toothy critters out there, but we'll see if everything falls into place.  I'm not sure what to do other than curse this windy and unpredictable weather that we have been having lately.  IS IT EVER GOING TO END????  The water temp has been holding steady around 64 to 65 degrees.  Just something to remember for years down the road.  Doesn't that Sunset look like a little piece of paradise?  I highly recommend enjoying them whenever you can.  Til next time, Keep on livin the dream!  Fish On!

Getting Dialed In....

Getting back into the swing of things again.  Got back out on the crank bite for a couple of hours yesterday evening, and it payed off yet again.  I think we missed the better part of the bite, because we didn't quite hit the water early enough.  The last time I tried this crankin technique, we had our 25 or so by 7:00 pm, and last night it was almost 7 when we hit the water.  Who knows, it may have been the crummy weather and cold temps that turned them down a little bit too, but we still caught a few nice ones.  We didn't have any intentions of keeping any, just wanted to feel that tug on the pole again.  Our largest was in the low 20 inch range, and our smallest was around 15 inches.  The depth and the colors were the same as last week, which made it easy to head out for a short time period and catch some dandies.  I feel like I am being spoiled more than most years, because the local walleye lakes are really producing well for me this year, and there has really been tremendous size to most of the fish.  The water temps are holding around 64 - 65 degrees, the wind has been blowing from every possible direction and the temps have no idea what they are doing from one minute to the next.  Goofy spring, but a good bite nonetheless.  Fish on Fellas!

More Early Season Walleyes!

Saturday evening I made the biggest mistake I can ever make while heading out on the water.  I forgot my darn camera.  Therefore, I don't have any pics of the large ones that we released, but I did take a shot of the dinner that Brandon decided to keep.  We dealt with one of the most insane cold fronts Saturday evening, when the temp went from 85 to 59 in a matter of just over 2 hours.  We didn't slam them by any means, but we did manage a nice meal, and threw back a few that were too large over the 20 inch mark.  This was my first serious attempt at the Waconia Walleyes this season, because the bite has been so great elsewhere, but I wasn't at all dissapointed in the size.  The first 3 that I boated went 20, 22, and 23 inches, which is a great average at any point, and we only had 2 that were below the 16 inch mark for the lake.  Since I don't like keeping them over 20 inches, all the larger ones went back, and we only had 2 between 16 and 20 inches.  A great problem to have on any walleye bite.  I cannot wait for more stable weather and many more fish in the 20+ range.  I know it will be happening soon.  Thanks Brandon!

Sunday evening Mike and Jeremy came with me out to Waconia again, and we had an interesting evening of catching fish in the wrong size (too big, too small) and managed to break a few lines in the process.  Nothing irritates me more in fishing then when that darn line snaps.  Well either way, we battled the wind and the waves yet again and had many more laughs.  Mike caught his largest walleye of the year thus far, and Jeremy landed his first walleye on his new favorite fishing pole.  Will this wind ever stop howling??? It has been 9 straight days of extremely windy weather with a huge roller coaster of temperature changes.  I think this year will top last season as soon as we stabilize the temps a little, but the eye's are still flying in the boat.  Let me know if you want in on the action.  I would say that it will definitely be worth your time.  Thanks again Mike and Jeremy.  Fish on Fellas!

The Bite is ON!!!

Yep, The Bite is On!  Most people know that I absolutely love pitching jigs for my Walleyes in the metro early in the season, but I really enjoy a good crankbait bite too.  I have a pattern figured out right now, and it is sensational.  My boat managed to land fish after fish after fish for quite a while last night.  In all we kept enough for a good meal for all and threw back a bunch more  that were smaller and larger.  The largest of the day was by Tim, in the mid 20 inch range, and sizes went all the way down the list.  The highlight of the evening was me bragging up the old school crank that I tied on the evening before.  I caught several fish with it, and after talking about how I have no idea what it is, or where to find another one, I did battle with a nice fish and my line broke.  For the next 1/2 hr I tried to come up with the perfect story to tell Dusty about how I lost his crank, when Tim set the hook on a nice fish and brought the lure back to me.  Man did we giggle at seeing 2 crankbaits in that 4lb northerns mouth.  Nevertheless, I replaced my new shiny crankbait with the dull rusty old one and began catching again.  Pretty weird story, but a true one.  We caught in the neighborhood of 25 Willies, and kept a few for dinner.  The spots from the previous evening were pretty dead, and a new pattern was needed to catch these guys.  The wind switched, and so did the fish, but that is to be expected.  Our speed of crankin' was between 2.3 and 2.8 mph.  Another fun evening, and a great bite.  If you aren't catching them right now, you may want to change some tactics.  Who wants to go fishin???

They Gotta Bite With Hair Like That!!

I'm not sure if it was the color of our lures, or Dusty's wild hair, but for whatever reason we ended up spankin a bunch of Willies.  Since I've been on such a crankbait kick this year, we started our day trolling, and being that this was Dusty's fishing opener, I was pretty pumped to see him land a Walleye within the first 30 seconds of trolling.  I kid you not, we were giggling like school girls when he casted out his crank and he started realling it in within seconds.  A good start to the day and to the season for Dusty.  We took turns hauling in a walleye after walleye, and enjoyed every second of it.  We used primarily two different cranks, one being the firetiger pattern, and the other being the shad color on a crankbait that Dusty's old man use to use.  Too bad that we have no idea where they sell this old school crank, because I know it worked and I'd love to find a couple more of them.  The depth that worked best for us was 9 - 11 feet.  Nothin but fun, Thanks Dusty Bottoms.  Fish On Fella's