This long holiday weekend I found sometime to relax with friends and family, enjoy great food, cold beverages and time to hit the river for some fishing.
I started the weekend on the lower end of P3 trolling #5 jointed and regular shad raps in 6-12 feet of water. The skies were bright, birds were singing and the water temp was right around 66.5. I was trolling a shoreline with one long rod, and one of the new shortty rods I picked up from Dean at Everts. The long rod was midship, and the shortty was in running on the inside of the long rod at the back of the boat.
The first fish of the day was a nice 19” sauger that hit a jointed #5 on the shortty that was running in about 8 feet of water. About 50 yard further on the same pass this 22” walleye also came on the short rod. After those fish were CPR’d I circled around and made the next pass with the long rod running in 8 feet and the shortty in 10-12 feet. The next 2 fish came on the long rods a 16 walleye and a short sauger. The remaining passes found me in some sheep head, a small mouth bass and a belly snagged carp on the short rod. That was a blast!
The big boats started showing up around 9 am and it was getting pretty difficult trying to troll on such a shallow shelf with the tuna waves trying to toss you into the shoreline. So I ran north to try my luck on set of wing damns that I was having success live bait rigging earlier in the week.
Once I got to the damn and got the live bait rigs out and got the t8 fired up, I quickly realized this was not a good idea. I was trying to slowly troll along the face of the damn with one dead stick and one in my hand and was having a hard time trying to keep the baits in the zone. The boat traffic was picking up and the waves were tossing me up onto the top of the damn. I would unsnag the rods to continue on the pass and another set up waves would toss me on to of the damn again. Time to abandon that plan and head in for the day.
The following morning was overcast and the wind had picked up, I didn’t get out as early as I would have liked to, the boat traffic was picking up so I decided to try my luck pulling lead, and I’m glad I did!
I targeted the wing damns that I tried to pull live bait on the day before. I was running 10 – 15 feet of water and running around 120 feet of core and found a pod of saugers that were on the chew. Running up stream around 2.5 mph and down stream between 3.5 – 4 mph were putting fish in the boat. I wasn’t catching large fish, but the numbers were fun. Hot color of the day was a tie between jointed #5 craw and the new Bleeding hot olive….
Saturday afternoon found me on Lake Pepin with Erick Anderson trolling core. I met Erick at Hok Si La and we went south in search of some fish. We started trolling an 18’ break line and Erick immediately gets on the board with a short sauger on a Bleeding Pearl #5 rap. Second, third, well all the fish that evening came on Erick’s Bleeding Pearl, including this huge sauger. The wind picked up and we ran back to the MN side to get out of the wind. I tried numerous lures throughout the evening and couldn’t put a bite together, Erick’s boat, and Erick’s fish! That’s the way it goes sometimes. Thanks for the invite Big E!
Monday morning I went back to trolling core on the same bouy line that I pulled on Saturday morning with the same results! Ohh what a good way to spend the day off.
All in all it was a great holiday weekend. Next weekend and the following week will find me up on Mille Lacs fishing the MTT and the Wave Wacker, then home for a week and back up to Mille for the FLW event.
If anyone is pondering purchasing shortty trolling rods, I highly recommend them! I used these rods both long lining and pulling core, they have very sensitive tips and yet enough back bone to pull in the bigger fish. And they are just a blast to catch fish on! Stop down and see Dean at Everts to try one for yourself, you’ll be happy to add these to your arsenal.
Jami
Nice report!!!! Sounds like you have a busy couple weeks ahead of you!!! Good luck in the upcoming events!
Nice report Jami. Them shorty rods are something else arent they? We will have to get out sometime in the near future so I have a net man
(inside joke)
Good looking fish and great report.
Eric, anytime you need a “net man” you let me know!
You are correct, those shortty rods are awesome, they almost fit a guy my size!
Thanks Cal, if a guy could, I’d like to use the majority of my yearly luck next Wed/Thurs, say 4 19 3/4’s and a 28 1/8 each day….
Jami,
Are you runnig those five footers directly out the back of the boat or out to the side? What length are you running for your longer rods?
Thanks
Sean
Glad you are putting those rods to some use.Nice catch for a heavy boat traffic weekend!
Jami, what reels are you matching the trolling rods with?
I had a fish on one rod and got hit by a tuna boat wave that dumped my second trolling rod permanently into Pool 3 on Monday
. It was a Shimano Corsair levelwind on a Med-Heavy Bass-Pro Shops 7′ rod in case anyone finds it.
I will be in the market for a new trolling outfit.
I believe he is running the larger Cabelas depthmaster or tournament series but do know a Diawa Acudepth or sealine in the 47 series will work sweet too and should hold 9 to 10 colors for ya
Sean, the front rods are 8’6 for lead core and 9’6 for the braid, and I’m running the shortty 5 footer out of the side of the boat, pointing to shore, not out the back. Had many hours of trolling with this setup last weekend and only tangled when the boat control wasn’t up to snuff.
Jami
Martin, oh yes, I’ve too donated a rod/reel to the river, thats not fun. For lead core reels I have a set of Cabelas Depthmaster and a set of Diawa Accudepth line counters, both in the 47 model, for braid I’m running the Diawa Sealine in the 17 model Diawa Sealine
I know Dean at Everts Carries the Diawa Sealine and Accudepth models.
Jami
Oh now were blaming it on my boat control huh
In the wacker you can bring 7 fish to the scales each day, so I think you better hope for a few more 19.75!
Oh yes, thanks for the clariffication, 6 19 3/4’s and a 28 1/8 both days.
Thanks Cal!
I hope my Wacker partner can bring those big fish over 28″ to the scale!
We have the MTT this weekend, so he can get a “Feel” for the Big Lake!
Great report Jami! Let’s see if we can do a report from the winners circle next week!
Great report
Thanks for info…
Jim
><(((>
Nice report