Fishing Pool 4 - March 24th, 2011

[sandmannd]

River Dan called me earlier in the week and said he was going back to see if he could land some more of those pigs he got on Sunday. I told him I was up for it if I could find a sitter. He called last night and I had no one to watch my daughter. Well this morning something came up and I was able to make it. I called him and we met at Evert's Resort at 7 AM today. Dan had another buddy Joe along. We stopped in to talk to Dean for a bit and Dan had brought fresh rolls his wife made! We all picked up some plastics and jigs from Dean, got some minnows and headed out to launch the boat.

To say the river is high and moving fast is an understatement at this point.



We made our way out on the water and we were greeted by a lot of ice packs in the area the big girls had been on Sunday. This made fishing extremely difficult. Not only could you not hover over the tons of fish we marked but you had to continually move to get into open water to be able to fish.

Here's what we saw when we first started fishing in the morning:









My weapons of choice, as per the norm for me, were my Limit Creek arsenal of rods including my 8'3" for lindy rigging. We all started out jigging plastics of various colors and styles and, since the ice was horrible at first, I threw out my long rod with live bait. It wasn't too long and I had a nice keeper walleye on the rod. After that I pulled in a red horse that was pretty good side. Dan got a cat and then I got a cat. Then the ice really started to move in. Joe got a nice sauger just as the ice moved in. We moved around a lot and tried to get to where we could fish for more than five minutes before we were consumed by ice, but it was turning into a losing battle. The ice started getting bigger, higher and faster! It was like a Buick coming at you!

Dan trying to fish and control the boat.



We moved a little and Dan got a huge hit. He fought the fish for a while and I tried to get these ice boulders out of the way with the net, but it was a losing battle. Couldn't get the ice cleared before the fish broke off.

We were five hours into the day of fishing and were finding it harder and harder to fish through the ice. Dan moved us to another spot and it had little to no ice. Didn't take long and I had a keeper on the plastic. I no sooner put that in the live well and had one on the live bait rig. Course I said "I'm schooling you guys" and my bite shut off. Then it was Joe's turn. He put on a clinic with keeper after keeper coming in. Dan boated a few nice fish as well. I think I got one more for the day before we had to call it quits.

We didn't get the big ones today and we were all disappointed a little. We all knew they were down there but there was just no way to control the boat to stay on them.

It was a great day on the water with a great friend and a new friend. Thanks for getting me out Dan.

Here's a pic of a couple of keepers I had.


 

[Lee Borgersen]

Nice report sandman.

 Kudos to you guys for getting out and fighting Mother Nature this time of the year. Most of the rest of us are just reading reports and waiting for warmer weather. When we see guys like you and Dan out there were kicking our own butts for not being ready for open water yet.

[sandmannd]

Thanks Lee, it's not for the faint of heart out there. If you haven't spent any time on the river, now is not the time to start. Get used to it in the summer when it's a little slower and not high. We fished slack water all day. You really have to know how to read things or you could get in trouble in a hurry.

All that considered, it's a blast when you are out there. You do get the occasional heart flutter when a huge berg hits boat unexpectedly though!