Finally, I have a few minutes to write a questionable report on the fishing last weekend on Lake Tetonka.
I fished with Hawger last Saturday, in rather cooler conditions. The skies never did quite clear up, but at least we weren’t forced to play with the 10-15 mph winds that were forecast. And I don’t think that the air temps ever quite reached the water temp.
We did a lot of searching. Starting shallow, we tried the river opening for awhile, starting with casts in 3-4 feet of water using 1/8 oz. jigs, spinners and even a crank bait. No bites at all. It was strange, considering that this area has been productive for Dave in the past few weeks.
I turned around and sank a jig tipped with a nice big white grub thingie (please note the very technical description here) into 15 feet of water with the same result. No bite.
We tired of this and went searching for the ever elusive bite, first heading to the point in front of best point, where we spotted some fish deep.
Anchored on the slope, heading down to 30 feet of water, we dropped jigs tipped with worms and Dave hauled in his first through fifth channel catfish ever on that lake. A surprise each time, definitely. They weren’t large, most being under 12 inches, but the thought that the cats were there made for some fun.
I, of course, caught sheephead. I’m considering changing my deodorant. Oh, and a shower before fishing may help. The secret to catching catfish on Tetonka is to find them. Then anchor. Then drop a 1/8 jig laden with worms all the way to the bottom, prop the rod up about 6 inches from the bottom and keep it still. Double anchor in order to keep the boat from shifting. Wait. The rod tip jiggles, set the hook and you pull up a nice catfish.
Use the same technique for catching sheephead. I caught a limit. Is there a limit in Minnesota? My limit is…. “Okay, I’m done. Let’s move on.”
We did manage to find a couple of small walleyes mixed in with the other fish, but nothing else. No panfish, perch or others. We did try a lot of lures, techniques and colors, all to no avail.
We moved down to the far end of the lake, where a channel drops down to 20 feet or so. We drifted this at a fairly decent speed, crossing it slowly and moving around the edges. Dave fished a light jig and caught a couple more small walleyes. I fish a heavier three-way, tipped again with a worm, and caught a nice…..sheephead. Oh, and a small walleye. Nothing much in those waters either, so we finally moved down to the end of the lake into the weeds, figuring that perhaps the real fish were shallow, hidden in the weeds.
Our casting produced nothing at all again. No fish were even marked in that area. Light jigs proved ineffective for drawing the fish out of the weeds, perhaps because they were in deeper. It’s tough to guess. The conditions are changing fast and the fish eventually have to start chasing bait around, but we did get to hit just about every likely spot during the day.
Funny thing, though. No panfish or perch and I know that they’re in there. I do continue to improve my sheepish skills, though, and one day plan on opening a store dedicated to sheephead memorobilia. We’ll take donations at the door.
Mike Little
(E)FN Sheephead Guide