The water temps are holding in the lower to upper 80’s, the weather has been hot and humid on my last few trips but those darn walleye’s just don’t seem to care. If you find clam beds or rip rap with a bit of current on them the fish have been more than willing to cooperate with my boat. I have hit the river 4 times since my last report with 2 to 3 man limits a common occurrence on 3 of those 4 trips, just dragging jigs and crawlers in various depths depending on the area I am working. Best depths seem to be in the 5’ to 12’ of water in most areas I am targeting. Jig color? Well, I have had fish come to the boat on several jig colors in the last couple of weeks, if I had to pick one I would have to give orange or straight black the thumbs up.
I spent last Tuesday fishing with Barry Davis from North Carolina, Barry is an avid bass fisherman and got wind of the In-Depth Angling web site, this got his interest up enough to drive 1,200 miles to try an catch his first walleye, and that he did! Barry and I had a very good day with the numbers of 15.5” to 22” walleye being plentiful. It was nice meeting and fishing with you Barry. I hope to see you again when you decide to make the long drive to walleye country. Good luck to you and I hope the rest of your stay at Everts Resort was a good one!
On Wednesday of last week I spent the day with a couple of good fellows from Xcel Energy Company chasing numbers of walleye. By trips end we had close to a 3 man limit of fish to show for our efforts. I am pictured here with a nice fish that just happen to take my split shot and leech rig on this day. Thanks for making the trip guys!
On Sunday the 24th I spent a day with Bob Jones from Rockford IA. My boat had its first sign of what’s to come during a typical Sept on the mighty river, you pound um one day, and the next you think to yourself, where’d they go!? Bob and I fished our heads off to get the keepers we did put in the boat. The bite was really tough for my boat on Sunday, the numbers just weren’t there for us. The better fish we did get ended up coming on jigs/crawlers in about 8’ of water, we did have a few other short fish trolling cranks but no big takers. Bob, thanks for making the trip and I look forward to fishing with you again in the future!
Wednesday the 27th I shared my Boat with Mike Witham from Lake City. Mike and I have been trying to hook up for a day of fishing for quite sometime and finally our schedules allowed us to get together and hit the river. Mike’s main goal was to get a bit better at pitching jigs to the rip rap shorelines that James and I talk about in our video “Mastering Plastics For River Walleyes”. With the low flow of current we have in the river right now, pitching jigs to the current breaks was a bit tough since there isn’t really any current to break, but we made the best of it in the early am hours finding a rock point with a bit of current on it that held a few nice 18” to 20” eyes. Casting 1/16oz jigs tipped with ½ a crawler was the trick. Once this bite slowed for us we changed our presentation to dragging those same jigs in 7’ to 12’ of water on one of the main river clam beds, it took us a few passes trying to figure out the spot they were hanging on but once we found um they were more then willing to bite. At about 11:00 we had a nice limit of eaters and then some, so we went off on a hog hunt looking for that one BIG BITE! As you can see in the first picture above, Mike found the one big bite we went looking for. This walleye hit the tape at 29”. Nice fish Mike! We spent some more time in the same area and found another “big bite”, this one wasn’t quite as big as the 29 incher but a good fish in anyone’s book! Both of these fish came trolling #5 and #7 jointed shad raps on the main river rip rap at 2.5mph. Perch and the red craw seemed to do the trick. Thanks for spending a day in my boat Mike, it was a lot of fun!
The fish I am pictured here with is the only decent fish I have taken on leeches in the last 4 outings but what a nice one to get, crawlers have been kickin’ but for my boat over the leeches. ½ a crawler has been the best, be sure and pay close attention to what end of the crawlers you are getting more fish on cause it does make a difference on some days, at least it has in my boat.
The river is still really low and the flow is pretty much non-existent, looking for areas that do have a bit more current on them will increase you chances of putting fish in the boat right now. Kind of weird huh ? I know cause when the river is at normal levels a guy goes in search of current breaks, right now I have been doing just the opposite and looking for that darn current that hardly exists right now on the big river.
Come on rain! I’ll see you on the river!
Good job Dustin. The fish in that photo should be enough to get Barry to make plans for another trip north. Way to go Barry
I hope so Herb. We had a good day on the water and a nice evening of sharing stories and cold ones
Barry turned out to be one heck of a nice guy and an absolutely determined angler to make that drive to get in on some walleye action! We had one guy come to Everts last year from Malaysia (not kidding) after finding out about Everts Resort on the websites but in 2003, Barry takes the long distance award as far as I know.