Filed under: Adventures — admin @ 9:34 pm
I happened to go through my camera tonight. I found some nice shots of some autumn smallies. The season in Minnesota extended nearly through September for topwater action this season. I believe the water finally put them down by about the fourth week of the month. But before that I recall some glorious days. Is there a nicer month than September? I doubt it.
Here’s some frequent boat mates with some dandy smallmouth as we capped off the season on the
Mississippi. It was a memorable one.
We had great water conditions from July through September. The water’s up now, but that doesn’t seem to bother the walleyes (I brought home a 15 and 18 incher tonight - it’s dark by 6:30 p.m. now).
These photos also show the differences in lighting. Dave Kollmann’s fish, top right was flashed in the late afternoon with the sun facing him. We turned the boat specifically for the shot - and it turned out very nice. Dennis Erickson’s big tar-baby (middle left) was taken middle of the day with bright light shadowing his face somewhat - probably should have flashed that one too.
Bruce Miller’s fish (right) had a nice back drop with an old roll in dock. Just a nice fish (a bit on the dark side - some of these fish are quite dark) on a great day.
Although the sun was quite bright, this photo was flashed, albeit with a small camera’s flash, but some flash is generally helpful on extremely bright days. It’s about the only way to see the fisherman under a billed cap.
Ahh….what a summer!
Filed under: Adventures — admin @ 7:48 am
I like to do things the easy way.
Why struggle to catch summer walleyes, when they bite like crazy in the spring and fall? Why fly fish 15 foot holes in the fall with sinking line that feels like you’re throwing telephone cable - when you can hit fish shallow all summer long.
We’ve heard it all too many times. While everybody’s greasing up their guns in the fall, the fish are really biting. When the water cools and my shallow water fly fishing are days over, I don’t quit fishing - I switch over to another favorite…walleyes. I now limit most of my walleye fishing to the spring and the fall. And no, I don’t use a fly rod. I use a spinning rod just as anyone looking for practicality and efficiency would.
For me - now, summer’s for unbridled fishing excitement with topwater explosions and poppers disappearing into riverine holes causes by a surging bronzeback. Spring and fall are for fast walleye action as well as other species.
Last night while trying to catch a dinner of walleyes for myself and the cameraman (daughter Sienna - left), I tripped over a couple of late season smallies.
They had the audacity to hit a lead head jig and a 3″ black shiner Gulp bait - standard fall river fare. In truth, I’ve taken several large smallies this fall while fishing walleyes. It tells me there’s still some relatively shallow smallmouth to be taken - perhaps by a flyrod (which are now in storage…).
Of more interest were the stomach contents of a smallie…’er I mean a walleye, I was filleting out last night. The 15″ walleye (perfect size) was full of 2 1/2 inch bullheads, tiny catfish, or most probably Madtoms. I would guess young-of-the-year bullheads or cats would be larger by now. (Maybe you ichthyologists out there could tune me in - these were a brownish color.) Not sure exactly what they were, but the fish seem to having their way with the little guys right now.
I’ll bet a Muddler Minnow, Shenk’s Sculpin, or Dave’s Water Pup - run on sink tip might put up a few smallies right now. I may give it a shot soon to check it out.
On the other hand, maybe I’ll just pop a few more smallies like the one on the right I caught last night, via spinning rod, and take the photo without showing what kind of equipment I was using for the purists out there!
Sneak down to a river near you and plunk in a jig. You never know what you’ll catch! I also came up with dime sized scales on the hook tip twice last night. There’s some big critters down there just waiting to be snagged…’er I mean caught on my deadly jig.
Stay tuned: the river bring-eth big suprises to those who dare.
