Fishing Articles

3 PATTERNS TO TRY FOR OPENER WALLEYES

Posted in Dock Talk

Opener is upon us, and finally the chance to connect with friends and family, all while catching fish at the same time. Each year the water and air temps may dictate the willingness of walleyes to eat, but there’s usually an effective pattern going on somewhere. That’s true in early ice-out years as well as the late ones; you just might need a handful of tricks up your sleeve to keep throwing at them.

 

With fish holding generally shallower, it’s a good chance to drop the bow-mount and fish them a bit like bass, at least to a point. Main lake shorelines, especially with twists, turns, and larger features like points can be great places to start the hunt. As are some nice flats with quality weed growth that’s just starting to peek from the gradually warming lake-bottom. While it’s true that the sun-exposed northern shorelines tend to warm fastest, they’re not the only places that hold walleyes. Think about where you were catching them during the ice season, and follow a natural path shore-ward to get a hint as to where they may butt up closer to land.

 

Depending on timing, your location, and what aggressive presentations are allowed given water temperature, here’s a few patterns to work come opening day (or night):

 

Jigs – You’re not surprised are you? Could there be a better bait delivery method? You can pitch and cast, hop, skip, drag, troll, and finesse your way to shallow walleye bites. If you’re looking for a short-shank jig to thread on a simple fathead, the Northland Fireball has caught more walleyes than any other. There’s a convenient second tie-eye for you to clasp a stinger hook onto as well, making it a great option for short striking fish.

 

Northland’s new Deep Vee and Deep Vee Bucktail will be winners with the southern-most walleye folks, as they’ll likely be into water temps conducive to huck plastic-tipped jigs. Both the standard Deep Vee and Bucktail versions have a keel to keep those plastics tracking straight, even if rigged improperly, all while having a great wire keeper to keep baits snug against the jig itself. Power fish the Bucktail version for reaction strikes, while doing the same or free-swimming the standard series. There’s no wrong way to fish this bait provided you keep it low and in the walleye’s zone.

 

For the classic northern shiner bite, consider the Northland Long-Shank Fireball. This jig gives anglers an option to thread a full shiner or other large minnow while still having a hook back towards the end. The result is more hooksets and less half-eaten, expensive bait. Of course, in turbid water, the Whistler and Thumper jigs offer some great flash and vibration when fish need some help finding your bait. Whether tannic stain or muddy river bottoms, these jigs are welcome additions when water clarity is off.

Crankbaits – The new Northland Rumble Series has two baits in the lineup that will be perfect for opener, and really serve dual threat as casting and trolling baits alike. The first is the Rumble Shiner, which mimics adult shiners known to be in the shallows spawning during this time of the year. For covering large flats and open shallow areas, cast and make long pulls with pauses mixed in. The slowly rising balsa action makes this a tough bait to resist as walleyes roam these flats in search of large minnows.

 

The Rumble Shad will be another great opener bait, casting or trolling. An increasing number of anglers are fishing the evening opener, starting at midnight, to take advantage of actively feeding shallower fish. That’s where thrown or pulled, this shad-style bait will excel. During the daytime, use it to fish the first break in more southerly locales, where walleyes have long finished spawning and are hanging just off of the first appreciable drop-off. A good wind can kick off a casting bite on this bait as well, so allow it to be the versatile crankbait it is while using it in multiple locations and scenarios.

Rippin’ Minnow – This bait is a great opening-day wild-card. Think the glide and action of the puppet minnow, with the tactile feel and finesse of a soft plastic. Just like the Rumble Series Crankbaits, the Northland Rippin’ Minnow will be a search and destroy type of lure to find fish fast along long breaks and other massive structure. It’s difficult to find baits that both cover water, yet still trigger inactive to neutral fish into striking, which is why the Rippin’ Minnow will be a great ‘tweener bait to pitch around while in “hunt-mode.” Find the active fish, hone in with more finesse tactics, and repeat until you’ve had a great day on the water.

 

So there you have it, three patterns to get you bit in early May no matter the conditions or water temperatures. As a general rule, if it’s ridiculously cold to dip your hands in a minnow bucket, you should likely be using them. At the same time, don’t be afraid to get aggressive and let the fish tell you if they’re not buying it. You can always scale back and slow down, but without trying the faster approaches, you may never know what you missed.

ICE OUT CRAPPIES

By: Joel Nelson

 

It’s been an odd spring, and for that matter, and even more peculiar winter. Open water in the southern part of the state has been around for a few weeks, while in the north, there’s still ice, albeit a poor version of it, clinging to memories of a winter that wasn’t. Early season panfish bites are a rite of spring, typically happening in mid-late April for most lakes in the state as a precursor to the May opener. This year due to the unseasonably warm weather, I’m happy to say, we’ll probably have some bonus time, with crappies already snapping in the shallows of Southern MN. Here’s a few things to keep in mind when tracking down a good spring crappie bite.

 

Water temperature is a key contributing factor to everything crappies in the spring. Cold nights below freezing, cool-water runoff from melting snow, and heavy cloud cover can all contribute to the death of a seemingly un-killable bite. As black-bottom bays and rock-laden shorelines store what solar energy they can, crappies flood to the shallows as water temps hit 45 degrees and above. In most of the lakes I fish, this seems to be as close to a “magic number” as I can find in helping to predict not only locations, but mood of the crappies I’m after. Anything south of that value, and shallow water crappies become much more rare and hard to find. Even after locating them, you just don’t see the large congregations of fish that are willing to eat like you do in the 45-50 degree range and above. That said, spring is a rollercoaster of conditions, full of false-starts, short intense feeding periods during warm weather, and then eventually spawn and post-spawn behavior. Your best bet is multiple trips that allow you to track changes in water temperatures, such that you don’t hit before the front end, or after the spawn.

Regarding location, when warm water is scarcer in the early season, those shorelines that are even a few degrees warmer can be full of fish. This is true even when they lack good cover, provided you’re fishing the warmest water in the lake and it’s still early. Black bays on the north side of a lake are a good start, and don’t hesitate to fish shallower than 5 feet, especially in systems with poor clarity. Even as water temps rise into the 50’s, fish remain shallow, feeding on baitfish drawn to the warm water and emerging life that’s brought upon by warm afternoons and an even more aggressive sun angle.

 

Cover is king for pre-spawn crappies, and while any wood or timber is good for finding them, brush is better. An isolated log or stump may hold a few fish, but large concentrations of fish will be found where they can bury themselves within and along brush piles. Unfortunately, most anglers miss the bonanza by fishing only around the edges, rather than within the heavy cover. Occasional fish are to be had this way, but to do well in these situations, you’ll need to be prepared to fearlessly fish inside of the heavy stuff, not just around the edges. In northern natural lakes with broad and shallow shorelines, timber can be hard to find, so crappies focus on bulrush and pencil-reeds for cover. Whether wood or vegetation, getting in the middle of it seems to pay dividends.

What to use is an important factor during this time of year, with water temps again dictating presentation and lure selection. Especially early, the temptation is to fish fast and cover water to find larger schools. Just coming out of winter, locations can be a mystery, and bobber-fishing shallows is simply too slow for most anglers. That said, especially during the early season, crappies will rarely chase to eat moving baits presented on the edges. Fish with floats, and use meat. Crappies can savagely strike a minnow offered on a jig with hair, tinsel, marabou, or flashabou. This larger profile requires some aggression, and hookups seem much more sure as crappies are required to fully inhale such a presentation. Keep in mind however, that bluegills which can be found in the same areas this time of year, are less likely to be able to eat such baits. I have been pleasantly surprised by large perch, especially when fishing backwaters bites, that will be more than happy to eat a 1/32oz jig with a minnow.

     Plastics bites are still to come, but typically require warmer conditions yet. It’s unfortunate that minnows are best fished when your freezing fingers would otherwise want you to use artificials-only, but it seems like warm weather and glove-less hands are about the best predictor on when to start looking to retrieved plastic presentations. For this reason, bring bait until moving presentations readily out-perform more stationary live-bait options.

 

It’s a great time of year to be on the water. Wait till a warm afternoon, and pick apart the shallows until you find some fish. Keep it simple, have fun with it, and save the ultra-serious stuff for later.

Posted in Dock Talk

SPRING PANFISH MUST HAVES

Spring has nearly sprung, and while everyone’s getting excited for warmer weather and open-water, not all have their ducks in a row when it comes to tackle.  Especially panfish tackle.  Spring crappie and bluegill angling can be a simple affair in the shallows, but even still, it’s those tackle-box staples that seem easiest to overlook.  Lures themselves are certainly a part of the conversation, but I focus on rigging rods, reels, and line first.

 

If you haven’t invested in a panfish-specific rod yet, you’re missing out.  Anglers are willing to drop hundreds of dollars or more on technique-driven rods for bass, walleyes, and beyond, without giving second thought.  Yet, when it comes to light-biting fish like panfish species, an application where a well-balanced sensitive stick could literally mean dozens more fish per outing, so often anglers will pass.  Make that mistake no-longer, and select a 6’6” to 7’ (no that’s not too long) Light Power, Fast or Extra-Fast Action high quality carbon fiber fishing rod.  Longer rods throw small jigs further, help with precision placement in cover, and simply perform better in a variety of panfish settings.

 

Pair that with your favorite lightweight 1000-series spinning reel.  Ice reels work in a pinch, but small spool arbors rob casting distance, increase line memory, and often don’t have the drag you might need if fighting bass or pike along the way.  Make sure the reel balances well with the rod you select, such that when spooled up, you’re not too forward or rear-heavy.  2500-series reels are often overkill for panfish applications and make the process more challenging, and expensive.  Think mid-price here, not ultra-low, or ultra-high, as there’s a multitude of great options right in the middle.

For line, if you have multiple rod options, consider a nano-braid style for around heavy cover if you fish that.  Pencil reeds, brush, rocks, and Lilypad roots are hell on standard mono, so it’s nice to have a brush-beater setup.  For most other applications, a good 4-6 lb. co-polymer will do.  In extreme clear water, consider a high-end fluorocarbon to fool finicky fish in high-pressure lakes.  I find it unnecessary for the most part, but if you have a favorite fluoro that’s supple enough to get the job done, it’s never a bad thing to fish with mostly translucent line.

 

Now focus on terminal tackle.  The boring stuff that nobody needs till they really need it.  Sinkers in multiple sizes, a variety of slip bobbers AND spring clip-on bobbers, along with bobber stops, swivels, and small octopus hooks.  That should cover most of your live-bait scenarios for all panfish species.  Bobbers and sinkers seem to be the number one and two most-needed items, respectively, in my boat come springtime no matter how well I think I’m stocked up.

 

Of course, the fun stuff is always the lures and top baits to be throwing this time of year.  I’ll break those down into a couple of my favorites per species.

Crappie Baits

• Gypsi Jig – Perhaps the most iconic spring crappie bait, the Gypsi is also a bluegill bait in the 1/64oz. size, but I prefer the 1/32oz and 1/16oz. sizes for crappies. Put it below a float of any kind and fish near reed-beds, emerging cabbage, and lily-pads for spring crappies.  Especially early in the season, rig with a minnow and expect to get bit.
• Impulse Rigged Mini Smelt and UV Mimic Minnow – As water warms and crappies start to roam a bit more, both of these baits are proven winners. I prefer the smaller mini-smelt offering in clearer water and the thump of the mimic minnow tail in dark or stained systems, but think of both of them as baits to make short, precision pitches near cover with.  The Mimic Minnow works well into summer and is the perfect chuck-and-wind crappie bait as water temps warm up, but both jigs can be fished in spring while making short casts to shallow crappies.

 

Bluegill Baits

• Firefly Jig – Just as the Gypsi Jig is the quintessential crappie jig, the Firefly could be the best bluegill jig of all-time. I fish a variety of sizes depending on depth, mostly still below a float of some sort, opting for the smallest size that still fishes well.  Slow fall rates and a bit of bait can really accentuate the Firefly and make it a great inside weedline, super-shallow bluegill catching machine.  I love all the colors too, with pink/white, parakeet, sunrise, and bumblebee being just a few of my favorites.
• Impulse Rigged Bloodworm and Impulse Rigged Mayfly – As water warms and we get nearer to the spawn, bluegills can readily be caught without bait, provided you’re offering them some shapes and colors they recognize. Mayfly larvae and bloodworms both are staples in a bluegill’s diet, so they’re both hard to beat as a bait below floats or casted.

If you don’t have all the gear above to create the perfect panfish rig, start small by putting together what you do have, and picking up a few of the staple baits listed above.  The best part is that these are classics that have stood the test of time, and you won’t be longing for the next hot bait that comes around next year.  Keep it simple, keep it fun, and enjoy some spring panfishing.

Project protects pike spawning habitat on Lake of the Woods

by OutdoorsNews Staff

BAUDETTE — A small stretch of ditch could make a big difference for Lake of the Woods boat access via Bostic Bay and for northern pike spawning habitat in connected waters. Known as a world-class walleye, northern pike and sturgeon fishery, the lake on the U.S.-Canada border supports nearly 60 Minnesota resorts.

“It’s known as one of the big walleye lakes in Minnesota,” said Phil Talmage, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Baudette-based area fisheries manager.

With annual angling hours at about 3 million in recent years, Lake of the Woods is one of the state’s top fishing destinations.

“The other thing that makes Lake of the Woods unique is that we have long-lived fish that grow to be big. So we have probably one of the best chances of an angler catching up with a trophy-sized walleye throughout the entire state,” Talmage said.

Lake of the Woods Soil & Water Conservation District’s $350,000 channel stabilization on 2.75 miles of Judicial Ditch 28, which finished late this summer, was designed to curb bank erosion, improve water quality and protect fish passage to shallow, grassy spawning sites.

The sedimentation and cattail growth, which accelerated after a ditch clean-out 40 years ago, have, over time, constricted passage on once-open Bostic Bay to a 20-foot-wide navigation channel.

https://youtu.be/ymTS7WobiV4

“Our bay was wide open when we bought the resort, and now it’s pretty much just the harbor area and the channel that goes out (to the lake),” said Ken-Mar-Ke owner Bob Ericksen, who estimates he’s spent $40,000 to $50,000 on dredging since he bought the resort 27 years ago.

“It hasn’t even made a dent in it, other than trying to keep our harbor open,” Ericksen said.

Exceptionally low water levels this year forced Ericksen to pull his 27-foot charter boat by late August. The propellers were damaged. Risking $9,000 in additional damage wasn’t worth it. At the same time that sediment was accumulating, anglers began to expect larger rental boats. The resort’s fleet of 18-foot rentals requires deeper water than the 16-footers they replaced.

If Bostic Bay were open like it was in the 1960s, Baudette-based Realtor Pat LaValla said property there likely could fetch $1,100 per foot of waterfront, as it does on the Rainy River. On average, he said Bostic Bay properties sell for about $500 per foot of waterfront.

“We used to water-ski out there where it’s all cattails now,” LaValla said, recalling how he spent some of his free time in the early 1970s when, as a teenager, he worked at one of the resorts. LaValla went on to run Cyrus Resort for nearly 20 years starting in 1977. His family owns property on Bostic Bay, which they use as an RV campsite. While installing docks, LaValla said he’s encountered up to 4 feet of sediment before reaching sand.

“It has great harborage, but it’s full of weeds,” LaValla said of the bay.

The sedimentation and cattails changed how retired county maintenance supervisor and former fishing guide Matt Mickelson, 69, accesses Lake of the Woods from his property on Bostic Creek, where he’s lived since 1977.

He used to run a 16-foot fishing boat from his house to the lake. For more than a decade, he has trailered his boat to a ramp on Bostic Bay instead.

“You could still run a boat on it,” Mickelson said of the creek. “You’d have to probably tilt your motor up so it wasn’t all the way in the water. And then you’d probably have to stop several times before you got to the lake and clean the weeds off your prop.”

Lake of the Woods Public Works Department and the SWCD received a $378,000 Clean Water Fund grant from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources for Judicial Ditch 28 work affecting Bostic Creek.

Matching funds came from Lake of the Woods County, the SWCD and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. NRCS staff has designed side-water inlets and studied groundwater movement through Graceton Bog, which encompasses the project area. More than half of the county’s share of the matching funds likely will be from ditch assessments to landowners who benefit from the maintenance.

The final design excluded some ancillary components but bolstered the primary objective — stabilizing ditch banks and reducing sediment transport — by extending the existing two-stage ditch. The project came in under budget, despite the additional excavation required for the extension.

Final project details, including an education component, will wrap up in the spring.

The two-stage ditch will provide more spawning habitat for northern pike within the channel and within connected waters. Talmage said slowing the water and reducing in-channel erosion would allow fish to more easily reach spawning habitat.

“The other part of it is the sedimentation,” Talmage said. “When we get sedimentation, we also usually get a lot of deposition. And when that happens, we end up with quality habitat being buried.”

Previous Minnesota Pollution Control Agency monitoring, DNR surveys, and an NRCS watershed assessment allowed the SWCD to target its work. DNR river ecology, watershed, fisheries and wildlife staff lent their expertise to project development and design.

“We are directly targeting the area where the sediment is coming from. You can visibly see. You go upstream, and the water is clear. You go to a certain point in the middle of our project, and it’s mud,” Corryn Trask, Lake of the Woods SWCD resource conservationist, said during a tour of the Bostic Creek watershed.

Judicial Ditch 28 drains about 41,125 acres — roughly 10,000 acres of it cultivated — and benefits about 830 landowners. More than 75% of the drainage area is privately owned.

“Everything that we do on the land, eventually that water gets to Lake of the Woods,” said Josh Stromlund, Lake of the Woods SWCD and Land & Water Planning department director.

“It’s such a huge body of water, and so much of it is out of our control locally, and there’s no one single solution that’s going to make a huge impact. It’s going to have to be many small fixes,” Trask said.

The work that finished this summer widened the channel to 8 feet and more gradually re-sloped the banks to create a half-mile-long, two-stage ditch. The newly constructed two-stage ditch is an extension of a 1-mile stretch that was installed in 2008 and has proven to be a successful innovation. This year’s work took a proactive approach to stabilizing the channel, which was showing evidence of down-cutting. This summer’s work also rebuilt three rock riffles, installed 10 more and constructed two side-water inlets.

A two-stage ditch includes a flat “bench” within its banks that serves as a floodplain when water tops the main channel that carries low flows. Rock riffles are positioned to cut velocity and provide access to fish habitat. The riffles are situated to help prevent down-cutting. Side-inlet structures connect the ditch to the field through a culvert in order to prevent the formation of gullies when runoff flows over the bank into the ditch.  Higher flows and larger, more intense rains had, over time, destabilized the ditch banks.

“Looking at the stability of that stretch and how it was degrading, I think that was where the decision was made to go a little bit above and beyond,” Trask said.

A more permanent fix lies in flow reduction — a potential solution that’s been debated for 35 years or more. The SWCD is using watershed-based implementation funding to identify flow-reduction options within the watershed.

Reducing the flow is complicated by the fact that the 100-year-old ditch runs through Graceton Bog. Because it doubles as a road ditch, abandoning Judicial Ditch 28 would eliminate a long stretch of County Road 4, one of the county’s main thoroughfares.

The SWCD and county saw the channel stabilization as a necessary first step. While flow reduction might not happen for 10 years or longer, the fixes made now will prevent costlier repairs later — and keep the ditch from falling into disrepair.

Trask described pre-2008 conditions:

“The banks were just a vertical straight drop 20 feet to the bottom. There were big chunks of the ditch sitting in the middle, so the water would swirl around (them). … This section was just on the cusp of heading in that direction.”

Monitoring will show what effect the stabilization has on sediment reduction.

Evelyn Ashiamah, Detroit Lakes-based MPCA monitoring coordinator, has been involved with the Bostic Creek watershed since monitoring started in 2017. She’ll continue to work with the SWCD.

From two stations on Bostic Creek, Ashiamah collects flow and water-level data monthly during the open-water season, and during peak flows. Together with data from continuous stage monitoring equipment, the information helps to fine-tune channel modeling. It’s also used to calculate the concentration of total suspended solids and pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

“They’re going to use it to calculate loads,” Ashiamah said. “It gives an idea how much of the pollutants are passing through with that water.”

— Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources

The great angling bite of fall

by Tim Lesmeister

The leaves have transitioned into their fall colors providing landscapes that epitomize the definition of raw beauty. The crimson, amber, and blaze orange terrain also signals the beginning of fall fishing patterns and that means changing tactics, expectations, and the potential for some incredible catches.

The water temperatures in the shallower regions of the lakes and reservoirs we fish will drop along with the night temperatures, and this will create conditions that move fish from their deep water haunts to lesser depths where the forage is present in higher numbers and easier to ambush.

October is prime time for muskie anglers. In a conversation I had with muskie addict Kolt Ringer he once said, “Muskies hang out in the deep cold water all summer, and they move up into the shallow vegetation in short bursts to feed at times. But in the fall, when the water temperatures drop, they stay in the shallows and feed a lot longer. This is the time to be after muskies.”

Ringer’s favorite fall muskie tactic is jerking shallow-diving baits over the top of big beds of cabbage, milfoil, and coontail. “Anywhere there are big stands of cover, there will be muskies roaming, looking for something to eat,” Ringer said. “You get a lot more bites then follows this time of year.”

Walleyes anglers will appreciate the night bite, according to Mr. Walleye, Gary Roach. “It’s a fall tactic that has been used to catch huge walleyes forever,” Roach said. “You troll crankbaits over the shallow rocks or on the edge of some deep vegetation after the sun goes down.”

Use lures that stay close to the bottom, Roach instructs. “Keep your trolling speed slow, use a lure that gets down near the bottom, and make sure it has good wobble at your speed,” he said. “On lakes with a decent population of walleyes, that fall night bite can produce a lot of big fish.”

My favorite fall fishing is the topwater largemouth bass bite. My favorite fishing buddy to fall topwater fish with was Stacy Barbour, who has passed on, but there were many mornings when the mist was floating above the water that we would cast top water chuggers and weedless frogs to docks and pads. “We have to get out early.” Barbour would say to me when he’d call to set up the outing. “I’ll pick you up right when the sun comes up.” And he would be there two minutes early chomping at the bit because he knew those bass were already feeding around those docks and pads.

Barbour was correct in his penchant for getting out early. We would get into the bite almost as soon as we began casting and for an hour, maybe two, the action would be steady. Then, like someone threw a switch, it was over. The topwater lures came off, the spinnerbaits went on, and it was out to the weediness to fish for pike.

The biggest fish I have caught over the years have been hooked in the fall. I have some great memories of spring, summer and winter, but the stories I tell of my fall exploits outnumber those of the other months. It pays to be on the water when the leaves tell you it’s time.