Walleye On The Long Rod

[sandmannd]

Well, it's been since November that I've got out in the boat for some walleye action. I took my daughter to the mall today and on the way home I got a test from my good friend River Dan. He said he was hitting the river and asked if I wanted to come. It took a quick call to my sister-in-law to see if she could take Lizzy for the afternoon, called my wife to tell her what was going on and then called Dan and said I was in!! I got home, changed into my fishing gear, got my rods and tackle box and heading for Dan's house.

We got down to Evert's Resort around 3 and chatted with Dean for a bit. We were told the bite had been slow but he pointed us in the right direction. What we didn't listen to was him saying you needed meat on your hook. We figured plastics would do us just fine as they usually do this time of year. So we got the boat in the water and made our way up stream.

We got out and immediately marked a lot of fish in our first spot. Man, I missed the river!! The running water and the scenery down there always get me. The snow just added to how great it all looked and as usual we were joined by a couple of eagles above us.







We fished this area for a half hour or so with our jigs and plastics. You could literally feel your jig bouncing off fish they were so thick. I pulled up and changed out my plastic.

My jig of choice was an 1/8 oz Silver Shad Glitter.


I switched my plastic to a Firecracker-Chartreuse Tail


It didn't take much longer and I felt that THUMP! that could only be my favorite fish!! I thought I had missed it as I lifted slightly and didn't feel anything. I dropped the tip for a second and slowly raised it. This time I felt some weight so I set the hook. It was on!! The fish came up and I could see my first Sauger of the year! We got her in the net and took a quick pick of her.



The fishing was a little slow and at one point I looked up and saw this Titanic sinking iceberg coming at us!





We fished up till 5:30 and couldn't manage another sauger or walleye. We did each manage to snag a catfish in the side. Like I said, we could feel our jigs hitting the fish under us, I think we just managed to get a hook into a couple of cats. Dan also managed a sheephead. It was a little cold and the wind was blowing pretty good down there, but man was it nice to be in a boat with the long stick in hand once again. I'm looking forward to the next trip down to Evert's Resort.