Hey guys,
Decided to go for a solo fish yesterday. The target species for the day was walleye.Drove by CB around 10am saw 2 traps out there, debate joining them for a bit but opted to hit walleye bay instead.
I was suprised to see sheer ice. I didn't really think that most of the snow would have melted considering the amout that had been on the ice. I was expecting crunchy snow at best. The top layer of slush wasn't completely frozen over yet but it was enough to support me without breaking through to the main layer of ice below which made travel a breeze compared to previous outings this year. Although the occasional snow patch was unfrozen.
This proved to be a problem though when I went to set my Frabill Speed Shak, as soon as I popped the support poles in place the thing caught the wind like and sail and tried to take off down the river on me taking me with in. In a panic I popped the support poles out as fast as I could and collapsed the shack before going for a ride. Unfortunetly I had nothing to anchor the shack to so I gave up on it for the day.
Popped 3 quick holes to determine the depth. First hole was situated in 20 or so feet of water. Dropped my jig down the and immediatly marked a small fish below my jig. Couldn't get him to bite though. So off the the second hole. the second hole was over about 25 feet of water. Again I immedietly marked a fish. This one cooperated a bit better and struck my spoon twice... missed him both times and he was off. Third hole was in about 30 feet of water and was devoid of fish.
Popped another dozen holes along the drop off and hole hopped for about a half hour. Nadda. Decided to hit up one of my usual haunts that had produced decent numbers in the previous days. Popped another dozen or so holes along the drop off. Fished it for another hour or so. Didn't even mark a fish which was suprising considering the amount of fish this spot has produced so far this year. My spirits were low by this point. I finally managed a tiny perch on a small frostee spoon. I thought to myself "At least I didn't get skunded!"
By this point I was serisously considering packing things in. The snow had started to come down pretty good and the wind was howling. I started the walk back to the launch. On my way back I passed by my first 3 holes and decided to give them another go. Sure enough I marked a fish which I proceeded to miss. This brought my spirits up a bit and I decided to stick around for a little while longer.
I decided to do something I had not yet done this year and fish the other side of the bay. Grabbed my rod, LX5 and a spud and went for a bit of a walk. Found a couple somewhat fresh holes which I proceeded to pop open with the spud. I dropped my transducer in and sent my jigging spoon down. Right away I marked an aggressive fish rising up off bottom. I paused my spoon as he merged with it and waited for the eventual strike. Sure enough I feel a solid tug on my line and proceed to set the hook on a nice little eye. Over the course of the next 15 or so minutes I managed another 3 little walleye from that very hole. An older gentelman came by to talk a bit and as he did so I caught a nice little crappie and as I was rebaiting my spoon I started to mark something on bottom. I dropped the spoon down as I was explaining to the gentleman how to read a flasher, sure enough as soon as my spoon got within two feet of the bottom the fish came shooting up from the bottom and inhailed my spoon. A short fight ensued and up came a beautiful little 12" walleye.
Search and Rescue ended up showing up. Some guy had been Kite Boarding on the river and had gone quite I ways out in the process. I imagine someone driving by on the highway saw him out there in the middle of the river and called 911. What he was doing was quite risky, the ice is quite thin out there. Even I was starting to wonder if he was going to go thru the ice after I lost sight of him in the blowing snow. About 15 minutes after I lost sight of him all hell broke loose and well over a dozen emergency vehicles set up along the highway and a search and rescue team set out to find him. About 5 mintues later I catch sight of buddy making his way back. I chatted him up for a bit not realizing that search and recue was looking for him. As it turns out he was oblivious to the fact as well. While I was talking to him I caught sight of the search and resuce team making there way across the ice. Buddy took off at this point still oblivious. By the time fire rescue got to where I was he was already gone. The search and rescue team was none too impressed. They questionned me as to wether or not I knew the guy and if I knew what he was doing out there.
I finally packed things up around 5pm after icing 10 walleye, the biggest of which being 13", 1 crappie and 1 perch. After a slow start it turned out to be quite the day.
-Eric
