Had a customer cancel my job yesterday, so I ran to UL west side, on short notice. Wanted to try the Jordan below the gates, but they have already got it at full flow, and it all looks the same, and I've never caught anything there this time of year. Ran over to Pelican Bay instead and soaked baby wb inside and around the harbor rocks. Also cast jigs, roadrunners, tubes, and a couple rapalas and caught nothing, no interest at all. Finally put a worm on a hook with no weight to try for carp. But even that, no dice.
I knew I was jumping the gun after the storms, but that was the only time I had this week.
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Yeah, in a day or two some body will go knock em dead though.
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[#0000FF]Don't beat yourself up. Those silly fishies operate on their own schedule...for their own reasons.
Art? Science? Luck? Takes a bunch of all three.
The problem with wanting what you can't obtain is that it messes up your thinking. Pretty soon you begin to believe all that mystical nonsense other folks would have you believe.
There's a story about such a fisherman who had lusted after catching a huge fish in a certain hole. Suddenly, in a flash of light and a puff of smoke the devil appears...and tells the frustrated angler that he can help him. He offers to help him catch that fish...but there is another catch. The angler must give up his soul. To which the angler replies..."So...what's the downside?" (Actually, that is a paraphrase of an old lawyer joke, but it is just as funny if you substitute a fisherman.)
I have had the good fortune...or misfortune...of getting into the walleyes when they were "wide open" and "on the chew". At those times they can be so easy to catch you wonder how or why you ever failed to catch them before. The downside to that is you are forever frustrated when you bust your backside to catch more...and can't. Diabolical fishies.
Simple actually. Always be optimistic but be prepared for disappointment. Kinda like marriage.
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Oh. I wasn't beating myself up. I knew my timing was off, but I hoped to pull off a miracle and catch one big cat.or something along those lines.
I always make a couple warm water skunk trips while the water Is too cold still, wishing rather than knowing the fish will be there. And I probably always will until I learn more about where they are and how to catch em this time of year in Willard, UL, Mantua, Pineview, etc..
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We hit the same spot about 11am and got one bite on a worm that wrapped around one of the rocks. Very slow day. Still better than flipping channels.
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The gates are open? That's weird if so cause I was fishing the JR around Sandy/SJ and the water level line is actually down by a few inches from a couple weeks ago which was as low as I thought it could get!
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Too bad you weren't able to get into them on your day off.
Your point about the storm brings up a question i've been wondering about for a while now. When it comes to these spring time walleyes how much do storms and cold fronts impact the fishing. In my head I feel like we need 3 or 4 days of stable weather for the bite to pick up. But having never caught one I might be totally off..
Thoughts?
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I know almost nothing about walleye, but in the spring it seems that way for the other species. It seems like if I am fishing during a warming trend this time of year I do better. After a nice cold spring rain or overcast days, if we have at least two or three nice sunny and warmer days, that's the time to hit many of my favorite lakes for warm water species. I know the fish are there somewhere, but it seems if the water is warmer today than yesterday, the white bass, cats, bluegills, crappie, etc show up to play.
This lasts until May or so, after the water has gotten to or above that ideal temp for bass and gills. Etc. Seems like...
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Took me a long time to figure it out but here's a hint……walleyes are not at all like bass or bluegills in response to fronts and storms. It snowed all day today but I'm sure some eggs were spewed tonight lol. Spawn is going to be over very soon.
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