Ice'n Boji Land and other stuff.

Well again I have been away too long. I have finally carved out some time to do a little blogging. Here goes.

My ice fishing this winter has not been as I would like it to be. We have had suspect ice all winter and I have been unable to get out as often as I would like. I have only been on West Okoboji twice, didn't do much the first time and the second time Rick Dicus and I caught some nice gills and a few perch off Pocahantas point. Boji didn't freeze clear across until this week and it is not very good. Boji had been open from Pocahantas Point, north almost to Omaha Point and east into Given's Point in Smith's Bay. The only real good ice is in the bays, Emerson, Millers, Smiths and North Bay. The fishing has been spotty, you can get them but you have to work. There has been some very nice walleye caught.

Big Spirit is where I have concentrated this winter, primarily because the perch seem to have made somewhat of a comeback. Rick Dicus, Tim Milner and I have caught some nice perch up to 12 inches. However, you can only get a couple when they come in, they are gone so quick I can't believe it. We just can't seem to be able to keep them in the hole. Tim has caught some nice walleyes right at dark on the north end. The perch are off Buffalo Run in 22 feet and at the south end west of the pump house. I believe the pump house bite has stopped as has the Buffalo Run bite. Rick and I were out last weekend, I caught one nice 10 incher right away and that was it, I never had another fish on the Vexilar and Rick never saw a fish on the Aqua-View. We made 4 or 5 moves and it didn't matter.

The highlight of my winter fishing, is the trip I took to Lake of the Woods. The trip was sponsored by Clear Channel Radio, KMNS, Sioux City. Experience The Outdoors with Rick Dicus put it together. Rick and I shared a shack along with Steve Zant and Mike Luff from Wakefield, NE. The walleye fishing was sloooow. We did manage to catch 12-15 keepers per day along with a few perch. It was slow but some of the 80 some folks on the trip never caught a fish. I was given the nickname Tullibee Tim by my shack mates. I developed an absolutely world class knack for catching the dreaded Tullibee. Of course, Dicus doesn't want me to mention his skill at eelpout angling. Rick prefers to call them Burbot, that sounds better to him than eelpout.

Anyway if you get a chance to do that trip, do it it is a really lazy way to ice fish. Ballard's Resort sends a bus to pick you up and then they do everything. The hospitality at Ballard's is second to none, the food is fantastic and the guides friendly and knowledgeable. I would highly recommend the trip. I had never ridden in a Bombardier half-track that is fun. The guides took us out about 8 miles on Big Traverse Bay, left us with minnows, the shacks were already warm, they bring you a big lunch about noon and come and pick you up about 5 in afternoon. Then it is back to the resort for some supper. Of course in the morning you are treated to a breakfast buffet! Really great.

Rick Dicus and I will be presenting a seminar on sonar at the Nebraska Walleye Expo, Feb, 24-25 and 26, in Lincoln, Nebraska. We will be talking about setup, structure, reading weeds, contours and bottom composition transitions. We will not be talking about GPS mapping. To get that you will need to go to one of Doc Samson's very fine seminars. The information will be primarily aimed at the novice, you pro's might pick up few tips as well.

Well that is it for now, see you on the water.

Fishing Report

Well, the fishing is getting a little better. This past weekend my partner in crime, Rick Dicus, and I took to the ice. It was pretty slow on Saturday and Sunday, I could only manage small fish, Rick picked up a nice bluegill and a 16 inch walleye on Angler's Bay.
Yesterday, Dec. 21st, I started out slowly, in fact I got skunked on Smith's Bay on Boji, I moved to Big Spirit about noon and the fun started. I fished some waypoints on Angler's Bay, and caught 3 of the biggest gills I have ever seen and numerous smaller gills. I also got some perch, in fact I kept 5, the biggest was about 10 inches the others about 8 inches.
The ice on Smith's Bay was about 11 inches. The ice on Angler's is about 8 inches.
Merry Christmas to one and all and maybe we will see you on the ice.

Ice'n Boji Land

Well, this past weekend through Monday, Rick Dicus and I went on a search for good ice and keeper fish in Boji Land, both were hard to find. Saturday we went to Silver Lake west of Ayrshire, IA, it was so windy we came back to Spirit Lake and fished the boat ramp pond at Templar Park. Between the 2 of use we caught about 50 small bluegills and a few small crappies no keepers. Sunday we made the run back to Silver, the ice was about 5 inches thick and very slushy on top. Two guys walked across from the east boat ramp to where we were just west of the dam, so the ice was thick enough to hold them all the way across in that area. I wouldn't have tried it. Anyway, we both caught a couple of 10 inch perch and a walleye about the same length. As you can see pretty slow for an entire afternoon. Monday, we started at the Miller's Bay canals where there is ample ice, just small gills and an occasional small crappie, moved to the bay on the grade at Big Spirit, 4 inches of iffy ice and small, small perch. I did catch one that was about 7 inches.
There are reports of some keeper perch on Anglers Bay, but the ice is not good enough for my taste. I have heard reports of several anglers going through the ice around the lakes area. No drownings.
Be careful out there. The long cold snap has given some a false sense of security. It snowed about 8 inches on top of that first ice, that snow has insulated the ice well, as a consequence the lakes aren't making ice very fast.

New Ice Report

Just found out this morning that there is about 3 inches of ice in Millers Bay canals. I don't know how the fishing will be in there this winter, they were dredging it out last summer. I don't know if there will be enough weeds to hold gills and crappie. I will report.
I believe there will be enough ice this weekend for Anglers Bay on Big Spirit and the foot bridge bay on the grade at Big Spirit.
It is -12 this morning in Spirit Lake, IA.

The Ice Is Back

Well, we finally have ice at the Iowa Great Lakes. I took a drive around the area yesterday and talked to one hardy soul at the Templar Park boat ramp inlet, he said that where he was fishing it was about an inch and a half thick. I stepped back off the ice. All appears to be frozen except the main basin on West Okoboji. The problem is there is about 4-5 inches of snow on top of the ice that is insulating it and hampering making ice. The surface is slushy. Most of the smaller water froze last Tuesday night.
I have not been fishing, but I have been hunting. Phil King his brother Paul and I have had a couple of really nice goose shoots, getting our limit of 6 the last time out as well as three bonus Drake Mallards. We got into them last week the day before the storm that shut down South Dakota. The mallards where northern ducks, big with bright orange feet any yellow bills. We had our geese by 10:30 A.M.. We then spent about 2 hours just calling geese to our decoys, man is that a sight, at one time we had about 75-80 birds landing in the decoys they were all around us. Quite a sight.
I talked to Rick Dicus, EXPERIENCE THE OUTDOORS RADIO, and Harlan Herbst at 4 Seasons Bait and Tackle, Seney, IA. Rick as you know was my Trap Attack partner 2 years ago and he is fired up to get on the ice, as am I. Harlan has all your ice fishing needs at his shop.
Anyway that is what is going on up here. I am hunkered down waiting for safe ice. It is -8 F this morning in Spirit Lake, IA. Later

Fall musings

Well I haven't been here for 2 months, my bad. This fall was pretty uneventful, I didn't fish as often as I would have liked but I did get out.
The fall muskie tournaments went well with plenty of fish caught and released. We had an excellent turn out for the 25 anniversary of the annual tournament and the Idso Muskie Fest went well. I finally caught a muskie about 3 weeks ago. A nice healthy 33 inch fish, caught on a Salmo in 2 feet of water on Big Spirit. I went out the next week with friends Scott Bringle and Dennis Heidebrink and had 3 follows. This was the most action I had all year.
I caught some nice keeper walleyes on Spirit, on a slipbobber,1/16th ounce jig and a minnow, 8-12 feet of water around weed clumps that were still green. I have also been catching some nice eyes casting from shore.
I put the Ranger away 2 weeks ago and have been kind moping around since then. I have done a little pheasant hunting and will be going duck and goose hunting Friday the 18th. I am hoping that Rick Dicus will be able to get up here to go along.
I guess that as far as fishing goes now I am waiting for hard water. I have the Strikemaster and Fishtrap ready to go! The Vexilar's battery is charged and the reels have fresh line. I don't think it will be too long now,the temp this AM was 15 degrees.

Winnibigoshish

Well, Dianne and I are back from Big Winnie. Man did we have a good time, weather was perfect except for the last day. We were forced off the water x's 2 by lightning not much fun.
We stayed at Williams Narrows Resort on Cutfoot Sioux, what a beautiful place and the hospitality of Joyce, Jerry, Joe, Bev, etal was marvelous. The resort is 372 miles from our house. The only bummer of the trip was the price of gas, the highest we found was $3.29/gal at Deer River, MN and the cheapest was $2.69 in Sauk Center on the way back.
Now to the fishing. The fishing was wonderful, the catching was so-so. Everyone was commenting on how slow the fishing was. I caught some nice fish one 24 inch and one 23 inch, of course those have to be released as the slot is to release everything between 17 and 26, that makes it rough, but it is supposed to be good for the fishery. We did have one meal of fish as planned and brought nine home, 7 walleye and 2 northern. I just couldn't get much going on live bait, you had to work real subtle breaks and with the wind I just had trouble controlling the big Ranger on those breaks, the backtrollers had more success. We did catch some fish drifting with a crawler and Phelps Floater, in fact the 23 came on that. Our best pattern was trolling #5 White Shad Raps in 8-12 feet of water along the north shore right west of the Gap. We lost 3 big fish and some smaller ones, they just weren't hammering the bait. Dianne kicked my you know what she caught most of the fish trolling. It was one of those deals same bait, same amount of line out etc and one rod outproduces the other.
As I mentioned earlier the weather was great except for that last day. We were on the water by 7:30 AM and the first storm came through about nine. We hightailed it back to the cabin and went out about an hour and a half later. We made one pull through our area and heard thunder, we were going to make one more pull, but thought better of it and left. I am sure glad we had the speed of the Ranger and 200HP Mercury Optimax available, because we wouldn't have made it back with out the speed. We stayed in after that, it rained over an inch in an hour, I had a wet boat when we got back to Spirit Lake.
This was my first outing with my new Lowrance LCX 25C and Navionics Hotmaps Premium North mapping chip. Man what a unit, the difference the color makes is significant. I recorded a couple of trolling runs on a chip, and that is really cool, you can see the sonar log as well as your path on the map, so you can get a better feel for the structure. I took the chip out brought it in the house and played it on the Lowrance Sonar Viewer in MapCreate 6. Really nice! I really like the capabilities of the unit, but of course I am a technology freak. I am going to get Doc Samson's second video, and learn more.
I am now preparing for the 25th Annual Release Tournament of Upper Great Plains Chapter of Muskies Inc. , I haven't been muskie fishing for over a month, so I have no clue as to what is going on out there. I am going to prefish tomorrow and Thursday. Later

Grandsons are cool

Well we just spent a wonderful week last week with our oldest grandson Stefan. He is now 16 and growing up so fast it is incredible. We spent some time on the water, of course (2 1/2) days to be exact. We caught some nice bluegills and had an excellent silver bass bite one afternoon. Stef out fished me of course.
Wednesday nite was Muskie League nite, and Stefan and I started on Eagle Point casting to a fish that I know is there, but she wouldn't show. I was proud of Stefan's casting ability, he did well for just learning how to cast baitcast equipment that week. It was raining pretty hard so we started trolling Depth Raiders in Emerson Bay, moved to Sunset and ended up in Smith's Bay, all to no avail. Randy Pritts won over $700.00 with a 40 inch muskie. Stefan enjoyed himself as did I. With the water temps starting to drop the skies should go on a tear soon.
Don't forget the 25th Anniversary Upper Great Plains Fall Release Tournament, Sept 16-18. The cost is $30.00 if you enter this week $35.00 after that. You get 3 meals BBQ ribs Friday nite, Chicken and biscuits Saturday, and brats on Sunday afternoon. Hell that is worth the cost of admission. There will be a lot of baits, rods nets on the raffle table as well as door prizes.
We are also giving away some fishing trips this year to Canada and Minnesota.
I haven't been up there but I am hearing rumors of a walleye bite starting up on Big Spirit, pull plugs in the basin on the edge of the break. The smallmouth bass are on a tear in Okoboji as well as the bull bluegills and perch.
Keep your hooks sharp and your line fresh.

Bluegills

Well, I was out yesterday with Dianne and grandson Stefan, bluegill fishing and it was tough. We fished Emerson and Eagle point with limited success. I wanted to drift the weeds in Emerson, however, the wind laid down and we couldn't drift effectively. We anchored in a spot that Rick Dicus and I had good luck on and caught nothing. We finally ended up in Haywards Bay about a boat length from a friend of ours, he was nailing nice gills and Stefan caught some nice ones. Dianne and I didn't have the touch. Stefan thinks it is cool to catch more fish than grandpa and so does grandpa.
We are going out later in the day today, my friend said the real bite starts around 6:00 PM, yesterday we quit early we had been out since 7:00 AM and the sun had us pretty worn out.

Late summer report

Hello one and all. I must again apologize for the tardiness of my reports. Here is a synopsis of what has been going on in BojiLand since my last post 7-11-2005.
Muskie fishing for me has been a joke, I haven't even had a follow this summer. I did have a very vicious strike on Eagle Point on West Okoboji 2 weeks ago during league but that has been it. I must admit that I have only been muskie fishing this summer on league nites and no one is getting an action on those nights. I know some of the guys have been doing well but not me. I know of one fish on Big Spirit that is in the 55 inch plus range that several of the Upper Great Plains Chapter members have seen but I have not seen her. No one caught a legal fish during the moonlight madness tournament August 6-7th, 4 sublegals were caught. I would like to remind all of you of the 25th Annual Fall Release Tournament September 16-18. This being our 25 th anniversary, we are going to have some awesome door prizes and raffle items, including about 4 fishing trips to Canada and Minnesota, rods, reels, nets, hookouts, Knipex bolt cutters, and many many baits. Your entry fee of $35.00 gets you 3 meals that is worth the price of admission. Friday nite's meal is Barbecue Ribs by the Blau brothers, don't miss that one.
My walleye fishing around here has been so-so. I did manage to catch a 27 incher on Big Spirit, July 16th as well as two 18's but that is the best day I have had. Dianne and I went to Lake Sharpe the week of Aug 1st. I hooked on to the Ranger and picked her up at the Sioux Falls airport on Monday the 1st (she was returning from the bushmaster Classic) and we headed for Chamberlain, SD. We had excellent fishing on Sharpe in spite of the 100 degree heat. We had our limits caught by noon all three days. We caught all of our fish trolling crankshaft on lead core line in 35-40 feet of water.
I have been having sporadic success fishing bull blacklist in West Okoboji. Some days you just hammer them and the next you have to scratch for them. The later was the case yesterday, Rick Dicus and I went out and scrapped up 14 of them but they were nice ones. Dicus did most of the catching yesterday, not me. In fact, we were anchored in 22 feet of water and he was casting a pilkie with a couple of maggots and catching the bulls as he reeled it in. I never caught a one doing that, I just didn't have the touch yesterday. I did, however, have the touch on Wednesday, when the catching was done mostly by yours truly. It is funny how that goes, 2 people in the boat doing the same thing and one guy gets them and the other doesn't. Strange, but I am sure all of you have experienced this as well.
Today Dianne and I got to Sioux City to pick up our oldest Grandson Stefan. Stef will be with us a week and we will do some fishing. Stefan is almost 16 and has his learners permit for driving. He will want to drive granpa's truck, but he also asked if I was going to teach him how to operate the Ranger. I told him of course, right after he learns how to back the boat trailer down the ramp. We will work on that. Stefan is also going to fish Muskie League with me Wednesday nite, he is looking forward to that I think as he has never fished in tournament, but has watched me at weigh-ins in tournaments I have fished.
perch fishing has been slow on Big Spirit but some nice fish are being taken on the deep weedlines on West Okoboji. Dicus and I started yesterday on Spirit but could not even mark anything in the basin. I believe the perch are in the weeds and we didn't feel like going in the weeds and grinding it out. We moved to Okoboji as reported above.
Dianne and I will be going to Winnibigosh the first week and September and I will report to you about that outing. After all even though Winni is several hours from here I get to define the boundaries of Boji Land, because this is my Blog. So Boji Land is where ever I am fishing!
LATER

It is picking up a bit

Well, I finally caught some keeper walleyes on Big Spirit. Friday we caught a nineteen and Saturday I caught an eighteen and a twenty-seven incher! We caught probably only 10 short fish but we only fished in the afternoon until about six. Man is it hot out there even with 20 MPH winds. I am hoping the larger fish in the basin are about to go on a tear.
I don't know what to think, most anglers are of the opinion that the larger fish are all gone, I am not so sure. However, I do think that a slot where you would release everything between say 15 and 22 inches might help. I bet you would only have to do that for a few years and the numbers of nice fish would be back. I don't know I am not a fisheries biologist but it might bear some looking into.
You know I bet some of you are asking why I never seem to report about West and East Okoboji, it is because I haven't been on that water since before Memorial Day. I just am not going to put up with the boat traffic hassle until I start muskie fishing at day break until about 9 or 10 AM. In my opinion it isn't worth the aggravation, I know there are some nice bluegill and crappie being caught as always. I have not heard many walleye reports. I know the muskie guys are catching a few in the weeds. You can always get something going on west if you are willing to bounce around in the boat chop.
I have friends who are going out to South Dakota from time to time and the report is that Oahe is back. If you are diehard "eye" chasers you already know that.
I talked to Shannon Green yesterday and he and Randy Meyers had a good trip to Lake Of The Woods. They caught 14 muskies and really had good walleye fishing as well. The crew that I go to Lake Of The Woods with left last Thursday, I was unable to attend this year.
Well that's it for know. Keep your hooks sharp!!

Fishing is slow.

Hello all, I have again been remiss in my reporting. I have not been out very much as of late and when I have been I catch numbers of walleyes on Big Spirit but very few legal fish. I know some of you are getting them but not me.
We had muskie league last nite and no fish where caught and no follows where reported. Dianne and I tried Reed's Run and the cabbage beds in Anglers Bay, all to no avail. It has really been dead. Hopefully the muskie will go on a bite soon. The guys from the muskie club left for Lake Of The Woods this morning. This is the first year in 6 that I haven't gone, I am not in a good mood!
I talked to Steve Smith, Marketing Director for Ranger Boats, last week. Steve told me to look for a major announcement coming soon regarding the 620. Ranger has made some changes, to the hull and some Hi-tech stuff as well. I am not at liberty to share these changes at this time.
I had a good conversation about a week ago with my high school chum Marv Gilbert, he said he has been doing fairly well on the river when he is able to get out. I need to make a trip to Clinton and do a little fishing again with Marv, it has been about 7 years since I was last over there to fish with Marv and Bill. Anyway that is about it for now. I am still trying to get to the Missouri but haven't gone yet.

Fishin Boji is Sloooow

Well it has been awhile since my last entry. Fishin has been slow, in the Iowa Great Lakes area, at least for me. While it has been easy to catch numbers of short walleyes, the keepers are coming harder. I would think the fish would go on a chew soon.
Rick Dicus and I have been to southern Minnesota recently and have had mixed success. We are catching some nice walleyes up to 25 inches but it is hit and miss, we get them one day and the next day nada.
This past Sunday my wife Dianne and I went up to Big Spirit and of course she kicked my you know what. We both caught one keeper, mine was just 14 inches and hers was 25 inches. Way cool, I love it when she catches a nice fish.
The muskie fishing has been spotty, I haven't hooked up yet and have had only one follow. I have only been out twice though. I know some of the guys that are out quite a bit a catching some fish. Dianne and I saw two legals caught and kept on Sunday and there was a 52 inch, 41 lb ski caught last week in front of Reed's Run by a walleye angler trolling. Oh, well that is the way it goes, I have been hunting for a 50 plus fish for years now, to no avail. Someday!!
The panfisherman have been doing well all over the Iowa Great Lakes.
What a blessing they finally found the Hellmers boy, who drowned last fall in that dock barge accident. I hope the family finally gets some closure.

Boji Update

Walleye fishing has been slow, in the last two trips to Big Spirit, I have caught many fish and only 4 keepers. Dicus and I caught 3 keepers a week ago. Scott Berry and I caught about 25 fish on Monday of this week and had one 18 inch fish and a 17 inch smallie. However, on late Monday afternoon the muskies went nuts in shallow water. I netted a 40 for Mark Mitchell and he caught two more after I left. I had 3 skies to the boat in 2 casts. The first muskie came in hot and took a swing at my bucktail, missed and took off. On the next cast 45 plus came lazily to the boat with a small male by her side. They weren't interested in eating, the spent about 30 seconds behind the boat near the big engine and then lazily swam off.
Rick Dicus and I are going to a small prairie lake in Minnesota this morning, walleye fishing, I will report later.

I'M BAAAACK

Well it has been awhile. I have been lackadaisical in my posting on BojiLand.
The walleye opener was a bust for Scott Berry and myself, what with a lightning storm coming through every 15 minutes, cold and wind it was tough. We didn't even go out at midnite this year, too many storms in the area. We finally got out Sat AM, and pulled cranks on leadcore at the north end of Boji, Egralharve, Emerson, nothing. We made a decision to move to the first basin north of the narrows, there we contacted probably 30 walleyes Saturday afternoon. Water temp on East was 63 as opposed to 53 on West. The best lure was a Ripstick, in a purple back chartreuse side, white belly pattern, we also caught a few on Baby Thunder Sticks. Sunday we tried the deep water in Browns Bay on West Okoboji and caught one smallie.
Yesterday, Dianne and I went to Big Spirit, it was her first outing of the year, we had a blast. I didn't keep and accurate count but I lost count at 28 walleyes. We caught 3 keepers. I caught a 32 inch muskie, too bad season is not open, I would have had my first report of the season for the club. We caught them on 5Ft leaders, bare red #2 hook, 4-6 ft lead and a green bead, with a No-Snagg sinker, and a minnow or leech, in 10-17 Ft of water. It was a beautiful day for a change, light wind (just enough) although it was a little chilly.

Clear Lake Muskie

Well the Heartland Chapter's annual muskie tournament is over. Mark and I blanked on tournament day but we sure got cold. Man was it windy and cold. We caught 2 sub-legals and lost a big one on Friday trolling, but the tournament was Saturday. We actually were trying to pick up a few walleyes on Friday, when the muskies hit. The best area was from the fish hatchery east to the DOCK restaurant. The winning fish was caught west of that on Fishermans Reef, a nice 42 incher I believe it was. We had a great time and the Heartland Chapter did an excellent job, I believe Chris McCabe told me they had 62 fishermen this year, their largest turn out ever.
I am now getting ready for the walleye opener here at the Iowa Great Lakes. My friend Scott Berry and I will be hitting West Okoboji first fishing out of his 2050 Skeeter and then if that doesn't pan out we will move to Big Spirit and fish out of my Ranger 619. His boat is in the hoist so we won't have to fuss with taking his out etc.
The weather is supposed to warm up into the 70's this weekend, that will be heaven. The low here last night was 28. WOW

Heartland Muskie

I have nothing to report about the Iowa Great Lakes, I haven't been able to get out for a week. I believe the bass have slowed down some. I know they are still getting crappie in the canals and off the grade but that has also slowed due to the cold rainy weather. BIG NEWS I failed to report that the spillway on Big Spirit is running, good news for fishing in East Lake where the spillway runs into East, walleye, silvers etc.
Well, I am off to Clear Lake, IA Friday, for the Heartland Chapter of Muskies Inc.'s annual Dale Ahrendt Muskie Spring Tune-Up. If you are a muskie hound I would encourage you to enter the tournament. It costs $25.00 and you get at least that much back in food. You can sign up at tournament headquarters "The Other Place" 200 Highway 18 West, Clear Lake, IA Friday night, or you can sign up at the boat ramp at McIntosh Park Saturday morning. The Heartland Chapter always has good food, a ton of door prizes and raffle items. I will report on Monday.
Of course you all know that the walleye opener is the following weekend, May 7th. I would encourage one and all to sign up for a chance at a $10,000.00 tagged walleye, all proceeds going to Easter Seals of course.

Boji Update

Well the tempo is picking up in the Iowa Great Lakes Region (Boji Land). Last weekend there was a bass tournament on Okoboji and on Spirit. The smallie bite continues to be hot for us. I took a drive around Big Spirit last Saturday and not one boat was on our spot or any spot like we were fishing. I didn't go to the weigh-in so I don't know how they did. Mark Mitchell and I took a run at both Big Spirit and West Okoboji last week and did well. The bass we caught on boji were not as big as the bass on Spirit. I believe the water temperature is the reason, Big Spirit was about 56-58 and West Okoboji was 48-51. The big females are up shallow on Spirit and not on Boji. The water temps are going to take a plunge tomorrow nite, lows expected to be in low 30's brr.
Rick Dicus, Harlan Herbst and I took another run at Silver Lake Sunday, it sucked. We got on the water at 8 AM in fog so thick you could hardly see the buoys at the boat ramp. After a little confusion until we found the point to follow, we pitched jigs from the southeast corner to Trapper Bay, Harlan caught one sheephead on a deadstick and crawler, and Rick and I missed one each. The walleye definitely were negative. Water temp warmed to 58 in the afternoon, still nothing. Rick caught a 13 incher on a Flasher Jig in the afternoon, and I got bit off by a Northern and that was it. Harlan got antsy about 3:30 so we quit, mistake. Leif from Hartley was just putting in when we took out, he said he killed them from 4:00 until dark on Saturday. Oh well, we had a good time anyway.
I talked to my good friend Scott Berry yesterday. He is just back from a GNWC tournament out on Lake Sharpe in South Dakota. He and his partner Curt had to fish in 35 MPH winds during the tournament, but they did fill a limit, good enough for 13th place just out of the money.

Big Spirit Bass Are Hot

Hello, all. I was able to get on the water Thursday afternoon with my good friend Mark Mitchell and after a good deal of searching we found the spot on the spot totally opposite of what we expected. We were looking for early season smallies on the rocks in the sun and they weren't there, they were in what little bits of weeds we could find. What a blast! We caught smallies, largemouth and silvers. The bait was either a medium size Rapala Husky Jerk or a Rapala DT6 both in Silver Minnow color. We did catch a few on Frenzies but the Husky Jerk was the best. What a blast, beautiful day on the water.
Again I was amazed by the Optima's. We got on the water about 2:30 and came off at 7:00, I plugged the charger in and went about the usual after trip boat chores and the green lights came on about 30 minutes later, granted the wind wasn't howling so I didn't have to run the trolling motor on high, but that is still pretty impressive to me. Later

First Soft Water Outing Of The Season

Well, I finally was able to put the Ranger in the water and do a little walleye fishing this past weekend. Here is what went down. Sunday, Rick and I fished Silver Lake in Dickinson County to no avail, I lost one fish and Rick landed a 10 incher. A real disappointing trip, because the reports had been excellent. Evidently the bite had switched to evening because there were 5 guys in belly boats and an equal number in waders just west of the boat ramp when we came in Sunday night. BRRR, the water temp was 49.4.
Monday April 6th, we packed up and went to Storm Lake in Buena Vista County, and man am I glad we did. We caught 12 walleyes and kept 8 between 15 and 17 inches. We just couldn't get that last fish for 3 limits. Rick Dicus (Experience The Outdoors) and Harlan Herbst, (4 Seasons Bait and Tackle, Seney, IA), were in the boat with me. The pattern was Walleye Flasher Jigs and a minnow in 5-2 feet of water. It also seemed to help if you had a piece of Berkley Power Grub on the jig as well. The walleyes were really biting short, you had to feed it back to them if you felt them, it didn't help to have a stinger on, they ignored the offering completely if a stinger was added to the jig.
I was really impressed with the performance of my Optima batteries, the 3 D31M batteries had plenty of power to push the 74lb thrust trolling motor and run the live well, bait well, and all the electronics all day long both days. It takes about half the time to recharge them that it takes to charge the wet cells. I think I have convinced Rick to give them a try, I know he has ordered one to replace his cranking battery that was dead this spring. Anyway the the first trip of the year was a lot of fun with friends, with the bonus of catching a few fish.