Walleye Crush Fest
October 14, 2018
October 13th 2018
Darren, Mark & Dave joined me again today for their annual fall fishing trip. We were going for walleye and would hopefully have better success than I had recently. If the weather would hold, I was sure we would hammer them good!
The water level was much lower as the dam upstream had been shut down to be able to remove boats from marinas. I also had very little current and didn’t know how the fish would react as they dropped their lines in. My drifts were quick ones over the flat as we were moving across the area instead of along the entire length. This made for much shorter drifts until the wind started to pick up!
We had made a few unsuccessful passes, despite marking all kinds of fish and I was happy to see the wind finally start to blow. For a change it was from the direction I wanted and as if on cue, the fish realized it too. Everyone started locking up and walleye were being landed often. We had singles, doubles and several triple headers in the next few hours and the net got quite a workout. Most of the fish were in the slot and several were placed in the livewell as they all wanted to take some home. Although not many were overs, there were a few unders that were returned for future fishing. Amongst all the Walters, several smallies and a few northerns were also landed, making this a great combination spot. They even caught several big perch in the mix as well before the winds grew even bigger, making it tougher to fish.
We all knew that sometime in the afternoon, the lake was going to roll and took advantage of the fishing before it arrived. I had gone from a perfect drift to a very fast one with the increase in wind and fewer biters were present. I was still marking lots of fish however and stuck it out when I saw this. The last couple of hours were more difficult to fish and less & less bites were had with each pass. Talk of an early departure was even tossed around! I think everyone was feeling the cold as they were bundled up with more clothes than usual for this time of the year too! Only thing left to do was call it and head in!
It had been an interesting day to say the least with zero flow in the morning followed by three footers when the winds picked up. I had gone back to an area I tried this past week in a big east wind and knew the fishing would be better. As soon as we had movement, the fish turned on! Plenty of good ones were landed by everyone and they even managed to bring several keeper eyes back with them. Tomorrow we will be back out again for another shot at success but this time targeting the smallies instead. Hopefully they too will cooperate, giving them another successful day of fall fishing!!
