Late spring’s shallow multi-species fishing action
By Tony Peterson
If you want to have a great day on the water right now, get shallow, stay stealthy, and find some timber to work with different types of bait.
With the water temps struggling to stay above 50 degrees, we set out to find a shallow bay with some wood. There wasn’t a piece of greenery showing in the water yet, so we found few structure options.
Almost as soon as we idled in and tossed out our bait, we found perch. We caught almost all males, but the fact that they were there and biting was good enough for us. As the morning gave way to midday, the water temps climbed a few more degrees and the perch turned into crappies – good ones.
Among the slabs were a few sunfish, pale from having spent the winter in deep water. We also landed a few pike and lost a solid largemouth, all in just a few hours.
As the afternoon came and went so did most of the fish. This isn’t uncommon in the spring when the water temperatures can fluctuate quite a bit during just one sunny midday session. As we headed back to load the boat, I realized our best lesson was to get shallow with a variety of baits and work every piece of wooded structure well.
It was also clear that one pass on the good structure wasn’t enough because there were times where it seemed a new wave of fish had moved in when just an hour before they simply weren’t there. I don’t know if that’s the case or if they weren’t biting, but every pass was like a new opportunity to catch fish. Caveat: as long as we kept a low profile and didn’t make too much noise.
If you’re in the mood for some multi-species action, this is a good time of year to get shallow and be stealthy. We caught fish on waxworms, nightcrawlers, small leeches and, of course, minnows. But the key was to make fairly long casts and try not to disturb the fish holding on the limited cover.
That rule will hold true as the lilypads start popping and the fish have more vertical cover, but right now it’s a must. Bottom line is be patient, and if you’re not having luck early or late, get out there right in the middle of the day when the water temp is peaking. It’s not supposed to be as good at noon as 6 a.m., but the fish don’t know that.
Ten Easy Ways to Catch More Walleye this Spring
0
By Jason Mitchell
That late spring period is a coveted time for walleye anglers. More specifically, the post spawn time frame often creates great windows of opportunity. While each fishery can have a different personality and the nuances can vary, we have found some universal concepts that do seem to be applicable just about everywhere we fish.
Below are some hard-earned insights from our team that have not only narrowed our focus but also kept us on track. We often joke with fishing that we can never say “never” or “always” as there is always an exception, but the follow list is something to consider.
The post spawn period is a coveted time for walleye anglers. Consider these ten pointers for catching more walleye this spring.
Use your temperature gauge to find pockets of warmer water. Learn to use side imaging when fish are in shallow water. The warmest water you can find will often hold walleyes early in the season.
1 – Watch your temperature gauge. Early in the season when water temperatures are still on the cool side, finding the warmer or warmest water often means finding fish. Particularly during stable warming trends after the fish have spawned, we often find more fish using shallow water and the best shallow water is often the warmest. You will find fish on other locations but the locations that have the warmest water almost always hold fish.
2 – Trust and Incorporate Side Imaging. Because fish can often be shallow or high in the water column early in the year (especially when the sun comes out), you won’t often see fish below the boat on traditional sonar. Where you can see fish however is with side scan or side imaging. I personally use a Lowrance HDS Carbon that I really like for showing fish. If you are first learning how to interpret what is on the screen, move the boat at a faster speed than the speed you would typically fish so that you get a more defined picture. An optimum speed is often around three miles per hour. Fish will often look bright and look like a stretched-out piece of rice with a shadow next to the mark. The shape of the fish can get distorted based on your speed and how the fish or boat is moving.
3 – Drink the Cool Aid. Colder water that hasn’t been mixed up by wind is often very clear. On many fisheries, the water will stain up as it begins to warm. You can often quickly identify the best areas by how the water looks. You are not necessary looking for turbid or dirty water that has been churned up by wind but rather just a nice stain in the water that you can still see through. A good color will resemble cool aid. When the water really clears up, spend the time to look for that water with the stain. That stained water will often coincide with water temperature.
4 – Be Patient in the Morning. What we see so often when the water temperatures really cool off at night is that it takes a little while for some spots to get going. We so often find that we struggle to scratch a few fish in the morning, but the bite keeps getting better as the water temperatures warm through the day. If I were to pick a prime-time day in and day out, early afternoon would be tops so don’t give up on good spots too early in the day.
Make a point to cast or pitch away from the boat and cover water by fan casting. Fish often push off the boat in shallow water and casting enables you to cover a lot more water.
5 – When to Follow the Wind. Fishing the wind is so crucial on many fisheries. Wind will distort light penetration, hide your presence and stack warm water into a location. Heat combined with wind is often a sure bet combination that produces fish.
6 – When Not to Follow the Wind. Knowing when to avoid the wind can be just as important. Excessive winds that start to muddy the water to a point where the water becomes extremely turbid can often be something to avoid. When wind creates enough of a current to suck up colder water from deeper or more expansive sections of a lake and then pushes that colder water onto the location you are fishing, simply avoid it. Wind is good until the water temperatures start to drop. Therefore, the calm or protected locations can often fish better in extreme weather.
7 – Deep is an Option. Most of this list so far is geared towards active fish in shallow water but there are times when the shallows are devoid of life. If the season feels really behind schedule or if you are dealing with the after effects of massive fronts that crashed water temperatures, fast forward to channels and deeper structure. Most of the time, these locations can still be shoreline related but you will also see fish pile up onto deep offshore locations in the most extreme weather or conditions. Remember as well that both shallow and deep are relative. There are some fisheries where shallow is ten to fifteen feet while that would be considered deep on other bodies of water. Each fishery will be unique.
: Jerk baits like the Salmo Rattling Sting compliment live bait. Find fish faster with suspending hard baits and soft plastics. Switch over to live bait when you wear out your welcome.
8 – Slow and Slower. We catch fish with a lot of different presentations early in the season, but we often find that we need to slow down to catch fish. Not just the actual boat speed or lure speed but slowdown in how we fish where we catch more fish by being methodical. You can miss fish so easily by simply working too fast. You must find the fish and cover water but force yourself to slow down when everything feels right. We often find that we start to catch fish when we slow down and catch even more when we slow down even more. There are a few exceptions however. If you are fishing sand grass and low-lying weeds and you keep bogging down in the vegetation with a jig for example, pick up your speed and lighten your jig so you can glide and hang above it.
9 – Cast More. There are still many areas where most of the walleye fishing is done by dragging jigs or rigs below or behind the boat. That no doubt works and should remain in your tool box but make a point to fan cast more this spring. You will be amazed how many days where you simply catch so many more fish.
10 – Two Punch. We often catch fish early in the season with soft plastics and jerk baits. These artificial options can be worked a touch faster to cover more water. When you wear out your welcome with the artificial options, come back through with live bait. A jig with a soft plastic truly compliments a jig with a minnow. Incorporate both into your arsenal and get confident with both. This one, two, punch will elevate your game dramatically.
Watch Jason Mitchell Outdoors on Fox Sports North every Sunday at 9:00 am. Find out more information at www.jasonmitchelloutdoors.com
An ode to worm fishing:
A nod to angling simplicity
By Dan Ladd
Worm fishing is simple. If you like to cast, then you throw it out there, let it sink and work a slow retrieve back. On a stream, perhaps you float it downstream by structure and through eddies without too much weight on the line. Or maybe you’re just sitting in a lawn chair or on a dock with a bobber attached to your line and a worm on a hook just waiting for a fish to come by.
Have you ever wondered what came first in the world of trout fishing: the worm or the hook? The two obviously go together like bread and butter and whoever figured that out sure didn’t go hungry.
I’m a big fan of simplicity, especially when it comes to things like fishing. Sure, I like gear and gadgets, but I remain a strong advocate of sitting on a streambank, dock or shoreline with a simple fishing pole, rigged with a simple fishing hook with a time-honored bait attached to that fishing hook. This is especially the case when there is a kid involved, or any newcomer for that matter.
When I was a little kid, my family moved from a suburban area out to the country. My siblings and I went from riding bikes on sidewalks to riding them in horse pastures and dirt driveways. Right across the road from our house was a stream that to this day holds a population of small, native brook trout.
My father outfitted us with simple fishing poles. We dug worms out from under rocks, wood piles and in gardens. I remember rainy nights in the spring when my older brother would got out in the grass with a coffee can and return in a short while with it full of night crawlers.
Earthworms worked as bait then, and they do now. That’s why they’re sold everywhere, not just at bait shops – even convenience stores anywhere there is nearby fishing access.
Trout season is here, and as the ice melts on local ponds, the snow recedes from along the stream banks, and the water temperatures rise, anglers of all ages, gender and skill levels will be getting in some early-season action. And worms will be the chosen bait for many.
Worm fishing is simple. If you like to cast, then you throw it out there, let it sink and work a slow retrieve back. On a stream, perhaps you float it downstream by structure and through eddies without too much weight on the line. Or maybe you’re just sitting in a lawn chair or on a dock with a bobber attached to your line and a worm on a hook just waiting for a fish to come by.
Worms catch everything, not just trout, and this is especially the case in the early part of the open-water fishing season. You always see pictures of bass, pike and other larger species being fooled by anglers using a worm as bait.
But it is trout that we think of when we put that worm on our hook. Maybe it’s the wild brookies like the ones in the stream near my home, or those browns and rainbows recently stocked by New York state or a local county fish hatchery. For the more serious trout angler, the worm is on a hook and a leader about 18 inches from a Lake Clear Wabbler being slowly dragged behind a moving watercraft.
Yes, there are other baits and other fishing methods. But a simple hook and a worm has always gotten the job done, and always will.
Mille Lacs Walleye fishing: 1 keeper in May, C&R starting in June
Anglers on Lake Mille Lacs will be able to keep walleye during open-water fishing for the first time since 2015, the Minnesota DNR said in a news release Tuesday, March 12.
Mille Lacs anglers will be able to keep one walleye between 21 and 23 inches or one walleye over 28 inches from Saturday, May 11, through Friday, May 31.
(Photo by Brian Peterson)
Similar to recent years, a night closure for the 2019 walleye fishing season will be in effect on Mille Lacs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. beginning Monday, May 13. The night walleye closure will remain in effect throughout the entire open-water season, which ends Nov. 30.
Catch-and-release fishing for walleye begins Saturday, June 1, and other than the night closure, there are no planned closures for walleye fishing this season.
The DNR is able to allow this limited harvest opportunity because of an improving walleye population bolstered by a 2013 year class of fish that has been protected by conservative fishing regulations, the DNR said. The 2013 year class is starting to produce young fish that appear to be surviving.
The DNR expects a strong increase in the number of anglers fishing during the period when walleye harvest is allowed. Allowing the harvest during May, when water temperatures are lower, will limit the mortality of released walleye associated with this increase in pressure. Both harvested fish and those that die as a result of being caught and released are counted against the state’s walleye harvest allocation.
According to the DNR, the Mille Lacs walleye population has undergone many changes over the past two decades that have coincided with significant aquatic system changes including increased water clarity and decreased walleye productivity; the introduction of zebra mussels, Eurasian watermilfoil and spiny water fleas; a changing zooplankton community that may be altering the aquatic food web; and declines in certain forage species, including tullibee.
More information about fishing on Mille Lacs, ongoing DNR management and research, and Mille Lacs area recreation opportunities is available on the DNR website at mndnr.gov/millelacslake.
After initial ice-melt surge, think spring river walleyes
By Terry Tuma
Across the North Country, before regular inland walleye seasons begin, border waters provide fun opportunities to catch numbers of walleyes and sauger.
Anyone who’s encountered this bite before knows that prior to spawning is the best time for fast action and big fish. That’s why seasons are closed in many areas. But in Minnesota, we have access to a couple great border waters where we can get a taste of open water.
Spawning takes place when water temps reach the mid- to upper 40. I find that small males are much more catchable during the peak of this season. The larger female bite is almost nonexistent for about two weeks. Then, after resting, walleyes feed very heavy, and this is an excellent time for fishing.
Pre-spawn walleye locations are near spawning grounds. Check gravel and rocks in shallow water up to about 10 feet. Many anglers fish below dams where fish naturally stack up.
Look for saugers deeper, too. High water usually will move walleyes out of the main channel into riprap and trees. We can catch these fish by tossing light jigs into these areas. Vertical jig the riprap, too.
Also check current breaks. Walleyes prefer slower water whereas – general rule of thumb here – sauger like faster current most of the time.
As for jig weight, it must be heavy enough to contact the bottom – no lighter or heavier. Use a very slow (if any) classic lift-drop jigging method – my best results is to hold it 2 to 3 inches off bottom.
Tip your jig with large fatheads – I find that plastics can be quite productive. Three-ways are very productive with minnows. Also use live-bait rigs with heavier sinkers just to be in touch with bottom.
On places like the Mississippi River, you’ll be playing bumper boats below the dams with anglers from around the region. After all, it’s the only open-water fishing for miles. Work hard to avoid fishing pressure by searching back waters, bridge pilings, incoming rivers, and tail waters. Search for current breaks or seams that might just contain larger fish.
As for gear, I usually use a 7-foot, fast-action medium power rod with 8-pound mono or fluorocarbon line. And boat control is mandatory – either back trolling or hovering. I usually don’t anchor in these river situations, but you certainly have that option.
This is a short season but a fine prelude to open water fishing 2019.
