Walleye Fishing With Hanson

[sandmannd]

Chris was looking for someone to fish with yesterday. I've known Chris for a few years through different forums and have fished on the ice with him once. I've been wanting to fish more with him as he's fun to hang out with and has some pretty good fishing knowledge. We hooked up yesterday for our first open water trip together and headed down to pool 4 out of Evert's Resort. We got down there around 7 AM and loaded up on some jigs and plastics, no live bait this trip. We had heard the bite was going very well over the last week so were pretty excited to hit the water. Got the boat on the river, parked the truck and headed up stream.

I point Chris to where I usually start fishing and spend much of my time on Pool 4. We steered in there and met up with Doug, a river fisherman I haven't seen in a while. Chris started with a gray sparkle jig that he put a firecracker w/chartreuse tail ringworm on. I started with a pink head and firecracker paddle tail. Wasn't long and Chris had his first fish in the boat. We fished a little more and Chris was getting some decent bites. I changed up my presentation every so often to see if I could find another color that would work. Changing heads and bodies to no avail. After Chris put a few fish in the boat it was time for me to beg him for the jig and body he was using as I hadn't purchased those.

I changed it out and first drop down, didn't even hit the bottom, my first fish was on. Sheephead!! So dropped it back down and got a 14 1/2" eye. Now it was getting fun!! Chris and I did were doing pretty good and the next fish Chris pulled in was the biggest Sauger of the day. Didn't measure it, but it was a piggie.



We played bumper boats with between 4 and 10 boats throughout the day. There was a small seam to stay in and catch some fish. We fished pretty hard for about 7 1/2 hours. I did manage a pig myself close to what Chris had. We boated over 25 fish throughout our time and ended with each having our limit of keepers ranging from 15 1/4" up to the two hogs we pulled in. I'm guessing between 19-20", which is big for saugers.

So about 2 or so we decided to head in. As we put our gear away, Chris commented that "As long as the motor starts, it's a good day". Uh-oh, motor not starting. So we used the trolling motor to get back in. Just as we were getting close to the docks the trolling motor died on us!! So we paddled the rest of the way in and made for an interesting boat load.

Got everything loaded up and we went back into Evert's Resort to shoot the bull and pick up a few more of those jigs. Dean was back from Deer Hunting and told us reports from folks was that it was a slow day on the water. Chris and I agreed that if 25+ fish in the boat in a day is a slow day, hitting a hot day would be a blast.

Was great to get out with Chris, thanks for picking me up and getting me on the water again. Hope to do it again one day.