walleye express
06-10-2006, 07:10 PM
Was feeling a little left out and itchy about stalling and not getting into the Macs Lures Walleye tournament out of my home marina at Hoyles, until Thursday night when 2 guys called for a river charter for today.
I knew the Tittabawassee was still running higher than usual for this time of year and also figured the bass would be on the smaller side, given the spawn is pretty much over for the season. What I didn't figure on was that is would still be running muddy, with not much rain this last week or so. But away we went up stream to the spillway. And things started out pretty slow with some really small smallies being the only few fish biting.
But persistence finally paid off when we finally located where some of the remaining bigger smallies were holding, along with the only technique that seemed to be able to catch them. These fish were right on top of a rock pile only 1 foot under the water. Casting bobber and jig rigs, with the jigs that tight under the bobbers looked and felt pretty weird, but it paid off.
Then about 1 hour before we were to leave, I tied on one of my weird 1/4 ounce, Home made "Pink" round ball head jigs, decorated with Red, Medium Ice Chenille that one uses for tying flies. Head hooked a medium shiner, and tossed it up into the current at the spillways face. Gave it 2 bounces before the rod was almost ripped from my hands. I played the fish around the boat twice and got a small peak at it, and declared it to be a nice size carp. To my surprise it morphed into a very nice walleye, when I finally nursed it to the top. I'm thinking 5 of these would have put me in the money at the Macs tourney today. :)
http://www.walleye-express.com/albums/bass/IM001114.jpg
http://www.walleye-express.com/albums/bass/IM001116.jpg
http://www.walleye-express.com/albums/bass/IM001120.jpg
I knew the Tittabawassee was still running higher than usual for this time of year and also figured the bass would be on the smaller side, given the spawn is pretty much over for the season. What I didn't figure on was that is would still be running muddy, with not much rain this last week or so. But away we went up stream to the spillway. And things started out pretty slow with some really small smallies being the only few fish biting.
But persistence finally paid off when we finally located where some of the remaining bigger smallies were holding, along with the only technique that seemed to be able to catch them. These fish were right on top of a rock pile only 1 foot under the water. Casting bobber and jig rigs, with the jigs that tight under the bobbers looked and felt pretty weird, but it paid off.
Then about 1 hour before we were to leave, I tied on one of my weird 1/4 ounce, Home made "Pink" round ball head jigs, decorated with Red, Medium Ice Chenille that one uses for tying flies. Head hooked a medium shiner, and tossed it up into the current at the spillways face. Gave it 2 bounces before the rod was almost ripped from my hands. I played the fish around the boat twice and got a small peak at it, and declared it to be a nice size carp. To my surprise it morphed into a very nice walleye, when I finally nursed it to the top. I'm thinking 5 of these would have put me in the money at the Macs tourney today. :)
http://www.walleye-express.com/albums/bass/IM001114.jpg
http://www.walleye-express.com/albums/bass/IM001116.jpg
http://www.walleye-express.com/albums/bass/IM001120.jpg