Rainy River 2010...Surreal!

The year of 2010 on the Rainy River might go down as one of the most memorable spring walleye runs in history.  Maybe it won't be remembered as the year of catching 200 walleyes in a day, but its likely that all the anglers on that water will remember the size of the fish they caught on their trip north.  It certainly will for myself, and I'll bet my fishing partners will say the same.

Last week I got a bug up my rear to head north.  The reports were just too good to pass up, and I thought I would move my Sturgeon Fest trip up a week.  My boat partners that included dad Tim, my buddies Dusty and Tim, understood what I was talking about when I explained to them that the 10 pound walleyes are biting with regularity.  We changed our reservations and headed to Ballards Resort on Thursday night.  Little did we know what we were about to get ourselves into.

Friday morning I met up with one of my muskie fishing partners, Mike Tengwall.  He'd been on the water the evening before and confirmed our thoughts.  The big girls were biting!  It took a matter of minutes for our boat to believe the word on the street.  I was lucky enough to hook the first fish of the trip.  A beautiful 26 inch walleye.  I followed that up with a fat 27.5 incher.  Then, just when I thought I was the cool guy in the boat, Tim caught his first ever Rainy River walleye, and she stretched the board at a solid 30 inches.  Wow!  Now, we have all caught nice walleyes before, but this was just unheard of.   Next it was my dad's turn, and he caught a dandy 27.5 and a 28 incher too.  It was beyond spectacular.  We all repeated this process over and over throughout the morning.  I assure you that it never got old.  Plus, we even managed to hook a few smaller fish for the frying pan. 

With morning number one in the books, we pretty much had our trip already made.  For us, it couldn't have gone any better.  The only thing on our minds was a chance at a hard tugging sturgeon.  After all, Sturgeon Fest is an annual tradition of ours.  To commemorate it all, Dusty shaved himself a sweet mustache in remembrance of our 2009 Sturgeon Season, year of the mustache.  Our antics started in familiar places and familiar sturgeon waters.  Much the same as the morning started, I was the lucky one to start the action.  It took me about 3 seconds to remember why I drive 6 hours north to catch these fish every year.  A battle that probably pulled a dozen muscles in my back and gave me smiles for hours.  At that moment I can remember sitting down and thinking, "Yes Travis, this is as good as it gets."

Day #1 was simply incredible.  In fishing terms, it couldn't have gone better.  To be able to add my good buddies Tim and Dusty to the list was epic, and having my father along was the icing on the cake.  We enjoyed catching fish like each fish was our first one.  I can honestly say that when you see a walleye that big come from the murky waters, they all get you screaming for excitement.  Even after the 15th, 20th, or 30th one.  It never got old, and to add Sturgeon to the list for our afternoon activities was such a sweet bonus.

While day #1 was great, we made sure that it was no fluke.  Day #2 was a near repeat with many huge walleyes and a few sturgeon that were even bigger.  Sunday morning was our grand finale and we sealed it with a couple more walleyes near the 10 pound mark.  I took more pictures of big fish than I know what to do with, and will have more memories than I can even think to share.  All I know is that it will certainly be tough to beat this trip.  I just don't know how it could be possible.

You might be wondering why we don't do this every season, and how it all came to be.  Well, this year was a freak of nature in terms of river conditions.  In a typical year the river turns muddy and the current is out of control.  The walleyes get lock-jaw and most anglers get skunked.  This year was the exception.  The water levels remained extremely low.  The current speed was nearly zero, and the water temps indicated that the females would be in the river during the open fishing season.  Some years the walleye fishing might only last for a day or two.  This year, it was a solid month of picture perfect angling conditions.  When you couple that with the size of the fish that people were catching, then you will understand why the 2010 season on the Rainy River will likely go down in the history books as one of the best ever.  It was for me, and I can assure you it was for my buddies too!  To see more pictures from our trip, check out the Rainy River photo album.  Until next time, Keep on Livin' the Dream!

ADD Fishing Disease?

Every spring I look for a fish or two that I can target to cure my ADD fishing disease.  What's ADD fishing disease?  Well, It's a fishing disease that I get every year around March 1, and it runs through the early part of May.  The time period when the ice is leaving the lake and the game fish seasons aren't open statewide.  I can't fish where I want, and I can't fish for what I want to catch, so I have to fill the void.  This leaves me running to every part of the state chasing anything that will tug hard on my line.  It's the most random time of the year, and I'm seldom in the same place twice.  Hence, I call it my "ADD fishing disease."

A couple of weeks back I was on the river chasing the big fat walleyes of spring.  I love this time of the year, but the floods never fail, and you can always count on a couple of weeks of down time.  In a few days I'll be on the Rainy River chasing Sturgeon, and when I get home I'll probably start my flathead catfish escapades.  These are all great things, but like any fisherman, I always want more.  If I had it my way, I'd have something new to catch 24/7, which is why I'm always mixing things up and trying something new.  If it tugs, I want to catch it.

To scratch my itch of not catching a fish for almost 2 weeks, Mike and I decided to grab some crawlers and drive the back country roads in search of flooded river rough fish.  This has been a staple for us to pass the down time each spring, and to be honest it can be far more challenging than one might think.  When there are thousands of acres of flooded land, you still have to find the fish, and then you have to get the fish to eat your stinky bait.  It's not rocket science, but some days you really have to place your bait in the perfect spot. 

Last Saturday was a good example.  It took several presentations and several locations, but Mike and I finally found some nice Carp along a flooded road.  They were working a very grassy and brushy area and required our worms to be placed at an almost exact depth in an almost exact spot.  You could say that it was tough fishing, but once we got the pattern figured out, it was FISH ON!  Right now you may be reading this thinking that we are nuts and it sounds boring, but I gaurantee you that if you had your drag screaming from a carp, you'd think differently.  Its a hoot!

Mike and I spend a few days each year doing this and we have our honey holes that seem to produce every year.  We never catch any monster carp, but they provide far more pull than any panfish that I've ever caught.  Plus, it allows a good chance to get others out fishing in a very simple atmosphere and its usually quite relaxing too.  A friend, named Mitch Petrie, brought his boys down to find out on their own, and I think we made a lasting impression.  His Facebook update after they left read...  Carp fishing = Fun.  His son Theo caught the largest carp Saturday, and afterwards, he was shaking!

Who would have thought that catching carp from shore would get me excited?  Well, at least it cured my ADD fishing disease for another couple of days.  It just goes to show you that there is always something to catch if you really want to be on the water 365 days a year!  Until the next fish strikes, keep on livin' the dream!

The End of the Beginning...

As fast as the open water season began, I am sad to say that it is once again over.  At least for me, and at least for a little while.  Saturday we snuck out one last time knowing that it was likely to be the last day of the early spring run on the area that I like to fish.  All the local news stations were reporting flood warnings for nearly every river in the state, and my thoughts were that I could get just one more trip in before it got too out of control.  If you fish the rivers a lot, then you probably know there are online resources that show you what is happening.  The changes I was watching online were incredible, but I figured one last hurrah was well within the cards.

We hopped in the boat and found exactly what we thought we would.  Dramatic changes from the day prior.  The water levels rose about 1 foot higher than the previous afternoon.  The water temps were a solid degree cooler, and nearly doubled in speed.  We knew that we were in for a tough bite, but we didn't care.  We were going to fish hard and see what our rewards would be. 

We tried a few locations and found no fish.  The cold water temps gave them lock-jaw.  After our 3rd move we finally got a bite.  A nice one at that.  In the conditions, it was a surprise to see that the fish actually ate the bait instead of accidentally getting snagged below the jaw.  An interesting scenario in the high water and heavy current is that you can actually be fishing where the fish are, but they won't bite.  The fast current speed moves your jig so fast that you snag fish just below the mouth.  They are facing upstream and you are moving downstream at a rate so fast that while jigging up and down along the bottom you can actually snag them.  If the jig is in the mouth, then they ate, if it's below, then you simply snagged them.  More people snag them in the high current than actually realize it, and I just don't care to do that.

Our first bite of the day was in the mouth, an eater, and I was pleasantly surprised.  This gave us hope to continue the rest of the afternoon in that location.  It wasn't gang busters by any means, and the area where the fish were was a very short stretch of river.  We could fish it for about 1 minute and then take 5 to go back upstream and start over.  A tough way to fish, but we eeked out a grand total of 6 nice walleyes.  Again, this wasn't awesome, but we toughed it out and made something out of very little.

This story does prove that you can catch fish in high water, however it doesn't mean that you should try.  I've received many emails over the course of the last few days, and my response has been the same for all.  If you are questioning whether or not you should be on the water right now, then the answer is that you should not.  Wait for the levels to go down, wait for it to be safer, and wait for it to be worth your time.  I checked the status of the river again today and I will just say that it makes Saturday look like a slow moving babbling brook.  This is just the beginning of what mother nature has to offer.  It will get far worse before it gets any better.  I'm sorry if you missed out on the action this year, but it is now going to be a while before it gets better.  The flood is here.  From the raging waters of the mighty Mississippi, keep on livin' the dream!

Spring Break Walleyes...

Spring break for most people means sunny and warm.  Not for Eric.  I found out 3 days ago that he was going to be spending his first college spring break at home. No warm sun, no beach, and certainly no babes in bikinis.  I also found out that he has never been walleye fishing on a river.  Since I couldn't bring him warm sun, beaches and babes, I figured I could at least try to show him a good time on the river.

This afternoon I met him at the access along with Mike and Tim.  With the rising waters I honestly figured the bite to be tough.  I warned Eric that the walleyes may not be jumping into the boat like they had been the previous days.  He didn't care and was just happy to be floating.  Two minutes into the first spot and it was game on.  Eric set the hook into what he thought to be a big one.  Seconds into the battle we snickered as he revealed what was the perfect catch for a first time river angler.  A log that was approximately 4 feet long with a 15 inch girth.  Not too shabby.  To make it even better, Tim also set the hook into his own piece of timber.  It was a double that put us all in the right mood for the rest of our afternoon.

The conditions weren't favorable for a ton of action, but Eric pulled us through.  He caught the first fish, a nice walleye, and he kept our morale up.  Soon after he caught another, then another.  It was at that point that we were starting to wonder what was happening.  He had 3 walleyes to his name, and the rest of us had zero combined.  To say that I was happy for him was an understatement.  As I have said many times, seeing that kind of excitement in a fellow angler is what makes every day on the water such a blessing for me. 

Eric's laughter and excitement, not to mention smart alick comments, inspired us all to fish harder and more importantly, knock him off of his pedestal.  That is just what we did.  Tim started the catching spree, and soon after I found my touch too.  It was then that we all got lost in the action and stopped keeping score.  Even in the cold water temps and rising water levels, we had found an active school.  I didn't see it coming, but nobody was complaining.  Every one of us took turns netting and catching.  It was a hoot.  To top it all off, Eric decided to catch the biggest fish of the day.  A fish that he informed us was his biggest walleye ever.  She was a dandy, and to be a part of it all was something I may never forget.  We ended the night on that fish and called it an unexpected perfect day. 

Eric, here's to the rest of your spring break being as good as the start.  Who knows,  maybe with your luck you'll end up finding the sun, the beach, and babes in bikinis?  Until then, I'll just keep livin' in my dream!

Ron Schara Shines!

It's not every day I get to spend an afternoon in the boat with a Hall of Fame angler.  Today I was lucky enough to do just that.  It's an honor and quite the humbling experience to be in a position to do such a thing.  Sure I work for the company that Ron Schara started many moons ago, and we work along side each other day in and day out, but to get away from the hustle and bustle of the office life and spend time in "our element," was pretty special.  No cameras, no motive; just good clean fishing for the simple fun of it all.

During our drift, we shared stories and laughs about fishy topics.  I had a couple, but mostly I just listened to the man that's been there and done that.  We bounced ideas and thoughts off each other, and I think you could say that each one of us learned a thing or two while we floated across the water.  I learned that my favorite all-time fishing pole does have a life span, and it ended on March 10, 2010.  I now know a few "secret spots" that produced jumbo walleyes many years ago.  I learned a lot of things from Ron on our short trip on the water, but one thing will definitely stand out from them all.  It is important to catch the first fish and the biggest fish.  I did neither, and now I will have to live with it for a very long time...

Thank you for the memorable trip Ron.  Congrats on the first fish and the biggest fish, but please note, I won't let it happen again!