River Fishing 5-29

[sandmannd]

My oldest daughter, Reanna, has a taste for fishing now and wanted to hit the St. Croix River to see if she could get her first walleye. So Reanna, Lizzy and I headed out for Reanna's first river trip around 9 AM. We hit up the bait shop for some fatheads and made our way down to the bluffs. We launched the boat and started heading downstream to one of my favorite spots. With the no wake, it took a while to get there but that was fine. Lizzy drove the boat most of the way.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ0NiM3MXlA[/youtube]

What's funny is she started to read the graph and would tell me when there were fish down there and such.

So we got to the spot and fish were stacked in 16-30+ FOW. It was ridiculous how many fish were below us. Reanna is used to fishing with closed reels and bobbers. I gave her a spinning rod and explained how you feel the bottom and what a bite would feel like. We trolled around on these stacked up fish without a bite for a while. My little one, Lizzy, knows how to drop her line and feel the bottom. After about 20 minutes she said she had a fish on. Sure enough she pulled up a sheephead. I hate the things but the kids were catching. I rebaited her line and she dropped it down. Soon she had another fish on. Again a sheephead.

We trolled around and I moved us shallower. I had missed several light taps but I got a good hit and set the hook on a sauger. It wasn't big by any means but it was enough to fillet up. We trolled a little more and I tied into a nice 16" walleye. Shortly after that, I got a bass. Poor Reanna didn't have a fish but she said she was having a great time. So we moved around a little more and I got a dang sheephead again.

After a couple of hours in that spot and not a lot to show, I knew we only had less than an hour to fish so we could get home for our BBQ. I figured we would move up to the Bluffs so we could fish and only have a quick trip into the landing.

This was a decent move. Lizzy, of course, drove us up there. She wasn't in the mood to fish anymore and opted to play with my phone. Reanna and I dropped down and the fish were there. Not stacked like my other spot, but they were there. I tied into yet another sheephead and missed a few more bites. My game just wasn't on that day. Then I heard a drag going. I looked over and Reanna had a fish on. She fought it for a bit and I netted a nice 16" sauger. Our day was complete. I got Reanna on a fish!!

Shortly after that we packed up and headed in. The girls talked about their day fishing and then sacked out on the ride home. It wasn't my best river trip, but I spent time with my girls and we caught some fish. Doesn't get any better than that.

As for the no wake...... Saw a lot of people busting it and yelled at around a dozen myself. A few fishing boats broke it but it was mostly the dang pleasure boaters zipping around. I really wish the DNR or Sherrif had been out there giving out tickets. Heck, even my five year old was asking why they were breaking the laws and would yell to slow down.