08-15-2012, 10:05 PM
Finally was going to have some time to get back to some fishing after the Cast for Kids event Saturday at Soldier Creek. I spent Saturday morning at Soldier Creek enjoying fishing again with my good buddy Nathan Kerr, his father and brother. Nathan is an autistic boy that dearly loves to catch fish! We had a great day with Nathan and his brother landing a total of 12 fish with the biggest being a cut at 21.5 inches.
The Cast for Kids event wrapped up and I finished catching up with a few of my friends that afternoon and headed over the hill for Starvation for a couple of days of well deserved relaxation. I arrived at the state park in the late afternoon to beautiful weather. Got settled in and launched the boat. I spent the next couple hours until dark hitting several of my "usual" spots with un-typical results, nada, zip, ziltch!!! [pirate]
As it had been a Long day with the 4:00am start I packed it in and loaded the boat shortly after dark. After some dinner and a shower I pulled up my favorite zero gravity chair with a glass of my favorite libation to a nice spot with a great view of the water. As I adjusted my position in the zero gravity chair for maximum relaxation I pulled out the old thinking cap and strapped it on. After allot of mental note reviewing, time of year, water temps, moon phase, and last but definitely not least water level I came to the following conclusions.
A - Not only did I not catch any decent fish but I did not see anything on my electronics that I had high confidence was in fact a walleye.
B - In fact I saw very few fish at all on my electronics. The bays and flats where I normally find fish this time of year were unusually blank, even of perch schools.
C - The rate of the water level dropping must have moved the fish into or very near deep water.
I headed out before daylight Sunday morning with the new plan of searching out main lake points and break lines near deep water. It wasn't long before I had my first "guest" in the livewell. As I felt sorry for him being the "Belle of the ball" all alone I soon invited several other guests to the party. While it wasn't fast and furious it was steady and consistent. The fish were primarily located in 16 to 21 feet of water with a steep break line nearby. I ended the walleye search with 17 'eyes over 14 inches, with the biggest being the 6 pounder in the attached pic. I caught probably twice that many walleye in the 13 inch and under class that I did not count. At 1:30 I switched tactics and went in search of perch. I found several schools in 24 to 38 feet of water. While the majority of these were actually "perchettes" in the 7 to 9 inch range if you continued to sort you could end up with some real nice 9 - 11 inchers and an occasional honest 12 incher.
As I sat around camp that evening reminising I decided to call a good friend that has been frustrated in his limited attempts to check the walleye off his bucket list. I knew he had Monday off and as luck would have it he was able to secure his "kitchen pass" on quite short notice for the next day. My friend met me at the boat ramp at 6:00 sharp and as we were loading up to head out he mentioned that 'he hoped he wouldn't jinx the boat like he had last time I called him and told him I had the walleye tied up and waiting for him.' Hmmm, was that thunder I heard over the howling wind gusts or just the walleye god chukling? It wasn't long before we had our answer. After an hour and a half of dragging crawlers that remained unmolested through areas that the previous day I couldn't make a pass through without hooking up a decent fish in the 2 to 4 pound range I had to give Scott his props! Dude, you really stepped up your game this time, not only were you able to give them lock jaw, but you made them invisible as they aren't showing up on the electronics either! And the Piece De Resistance, you were able to conjur up a wicked storm that has now settled into a steady down pour with no end in sight. Not only that but you felt it would be more convincing if you "forgot" to bring any rain gear with you. No doubt about it dude, your jinx powers are epic with this performance and you even threw in a good weather forecast for good measure!
Well after 2 hours of this I decided that I would not roll over that easily and ignoring what looked like a drowned rat in the back of the boat I headed off in search of another place where I could continue to explore my pattern theory. It wasn't long before Mr. Jinx was eating his words and checking off that pesky walleye from his bucket list, several times over! He had just enough mojo remaining to ward off any fish bigger than about 18 inches but I showed him a few so he'd know what they looked like. By the time I had boated about my 10th walleye of the morning and reminded him that he'd actually landed a couple himslef, all of a sudden the rain stopped and the sun came out. Hmmm, imagine that![:p]
About 12:30 we called it a walleye day and headed out in search of some perch to round out the menu. We ended the day with about 20 perch and kept about 15 walleye to invite home as honored guests for dinner.
Details:
Water temp - 71'ish
Depths - 16 - 21 walleye, 24 - 38 perch
Tactics - bottom bouncing and jigging
Colors - gold and green
[fishin]
[signature]
The Cast for Kids event wrapped up and I finished catching up with a few of my friends that afternoon and headed over the hill for Starvation for a couple of days of well deserved relaxation. I arrived at the state park in the late afternoon to beautiful weather. Got settled in and launched the boat. I spent the next couple hours until dark hitting several of my "usual" spots with un-typical results, nada, zip, ziltch!!! [pirate]
As it had been a Long day with the 4:00am start I packed it in and loaded the boat shortly after dark. After some dinner and a shower I pulled up my favorite zero gravity chair with a glass of my favorite libation to a nice spot with a great view of the water. As I adjusted my position in the zero gravity chair for maximum relaxation I pulled out the old thinking cap and strapped it on. After allot of mental note reviewing, time of year, water temps, moon phase, and last but definitely not least water level I came to the following conclusions.
A - Not only did I not catch any decent fish but I did not see anything on my electronics that I had high confidence was in fact a walleye.
B - In fact I saw very few fish at all on my electronics. The bays and flats where I normally find fish this time of year were unusually blank, even of perch schools.
C - The rate of the water level dropping must have moved the fish into or very near deep water.
I headed out before daylight Sunday morning with the new plan of searching out main lake points and break lines near deep water. It wasn't long before I had my first "guest" in the livewell. As I felt sorry for him being the "Belle of the ball" all alone I soon invited several other guests to the party. While it wasn't fast and furious it was steady and consistent. The fish were primarily located in 16 to 21 feet of water with a steep break line nearby. I ended the walleye search with 17 'eyes over 14 inches, with the biggest being the 6 pounder in the attached pic. I caught probably twice that many walleye in the 13 inch and under class that I did not count. At 1:30 I switched tactics and went in search of perch. I found several schools in 24 to 38 feet of water. While the majority of these were actually "perchettes" in the 7 to 9 inch range if you continued to sort you could end up with some real nice 9 - 11 inchers and an occasional honest 12 incher.
As I sat around camp that evening reminising I decided to call a good friend that has been frustrated in his limited attempts to check the walleye off his bucket list. I knew he had Monday off and as luck would have it he was able to secure his "kitchen pass" on quite short notice for the next day. My friend met me at the boat ramp at 6:00 sharp and as we were loading up to head out he mentioned that 'he hoped he wouldn't jinx the boat like he had last time I called him and told him I had the walleye tied up and waiting for him.' Hmmm, was that thunder I heard over the howling wind gusts or just the walleye god chukling? It wasn't long before we had our answer. After an hour and a half of dragging crawlers that remained unmolested through areas that the previous day I couldn't make a pass through without hooking up a decent fish in the 2 to 4 pound range I had to give Scott his props! Dude, you really stepped up your game this time, not only were you able to give them lock jaw, but you made them invisible as they aren't showing up on the electronics either! And the Piece De Resistance, you were able to conjur up a wicked storm that has now settled into a steady down pour with no end in sight. Not only that but you felt it would be more convincing if you "forgot" to bring any rain gear with you. No doubt about it dude, your jinx powers are epic with this performance and you even threw in a good weather forecast for good measure!
Well after 2 hours of this I decided that I would not roll over that easily and ignoring what looked like a drowned rat in the back of the boat I headed off in search of another place where I could continue to explore my pattern theory. It wasn't long before Mr. Jinx was eating his words and checking off that pesky walleye from his bucket list, several times over! He had just enough mojo remaining to ward off any fish bigger than about 18 inches but I showed him a few so he'd know what they looked like. By the time I had boated about my 10th walleye of the morning and reminded him that he'd actually landed a couple himslef, all of a sudden the rain stopped and the sun came out. Hmmm, imagine that![:p]
About 12:30 we called it a walleye day and headed out in search of some perch to round out the menu. We ended the day with about 20 perch and kept about 15 walleye to invite home as honored guests for dinner.
Details:
Water temp - 71'ish
Depths - 16 - 21 walleye, 24 - 38 perch
Tactics - bottom bouncing and jigging
Colors - gold and green
[fishin]
[signature]
]