Saturday, June 7th
Bob Benson woke his two grand-children up extra early this morning for a much anticipated walleye fishing trip on Lake Wisconsin. Ten year old Andrew and his nine year old sister Emily had been looking forward to this trip for several months. When it finally came, they each had to make a tough choice. The youth soccer team that they both play on was scheduled to participate in a tournament today as well. These two young anglers love fishing though and especially so if grandpa was going along.
We met at the boat launch, loaded up my 18' Lund with essentials for the day and motored off into the early morning sunrise with great expectations. The weather was absolutely perfect. Warm with not wind to speak of.
The three of them have fished together several times but walleye fishing was pretty new to all of them so the decision was made to start by slow trolling crawler rigs. I explained how the rigs worked and gave them each a fully rigged rod to use.
About five minutes into the first pass, Andrew hooked up with something. I'm not sure if Bob alerted me or if Andrew spoke up but when I first looked back I noticed the 6' long medium heavy action Fenwick rod had a substantial bend in it. The look on Andrew's face was one of determination as he held on tight while doing his best to reel up line. At first I thought maybe he was snagged but a little closer look revealed beyond a doubt that he did indeed have a good size fish pulling hard on the other end of his line.
It took a minute or two before the fish briefly rolled on the surface, then dived down below it again. Holy Crap, I thought. That was a big walleye! I'm not sure, but I may have said that out loud.
Andrew was more determined than ever now. The rod butt was jammed down into his stomach and he was pulling back hard, keeping the bend in the rod and doing a great job of keeping the line tight. The second time it came up just a little to close to the boat and right into the net she went.
Man, what a fish! Everyone in the boat was kind of in shock. The sun was barely starting to show over the eastern horizon and none of us were fully awake when this fish chomped down on Andrews night crawler. We sure as heck were wide awake now! We all witnessed Andrew catch his first walleye ever and she was a beauty, measuring up at a whopping 29 inches long!
After taking plenty of pictures, we finally got back to fishing. The crawler rigs picked up a few more fish, mostly sheepshead but also one or two more small walleye. Not enough action to stay with it and Andrew and Emily wanted to try jigging with crawlers. So we put away the heavy trolling gear and pulled out the St. Croix Avids.
After a short move to another good spot, I tied a 3/16oz precision jig on each one of the rods and showed them the proper way to hook up the night crawler. Everyone dropped their lines overboard and the action started shortly after. Emily hooked up with the first keeper, which turned out to be a nice, chunky 17" walleye. Bob pulled in a 16" sauger right after that. Then in short succession, they each pulled in a crappie. Bob's was the biggest at 13" long.
After that though, Emily took over. She must have caught four or five in a row and missed several more. Bob had some bites also, but couldn't quite get the hooked into them and ended up with a severely shortened night crawler each time it happened. All the walleyes & saugers were a bit on the short side of the 15" mark though so we decided to make another move in hopes of finding some more eaten size fish.
The next spot was putting out more of the same until big fish Andrew finally set the hook again. It had been awhile since he had any bites but now he was hooked up with what appeared to be another good one. Although it put up a pretty good fight, this dandy 22 inch sauger ended up in the net shortly after the battle began. Turn's out, this was Andrew's first ever sauger.
We caught several more small walleyes, saugers and sheepshead before the morning came to an end. The kids were getting hungry so we broke for lunch at Fitz's on the lake where we met up with Andrew and Emily's parents, Mike and Kim.
Maybe the best part of the day for me was watching and listening to the kids tell their mom and dad about the fish the three of them caught that morning.
I have no doubt that these two will be fishing for a long time to come. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if both Andrew and Emily both owned boats of there owned someday. They both were very anxious to learn about everything to do with fishing and when we got to the pier, they were quick to help with the bumper buoy's and tie down ropes. It was all great fun to them.
After lunch, Kim took grandpa's place in the boat. Unfortunately, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. We started out for the other side of the lake to do some trolling with crank baits but before we got there, I noticed one flash of lightning in the dark clouds off in the distance to the west. The winds had picked up considerably and the lake was now getting a bit choppy. I turned the boat towards the boat landing and we started making our way to safe harbor at a rate that prevented us from getting totally soaked.
The Merrimac siren started blaring just as we got to an area of the lake where the wave's weren't to bad. All morning long Emily had been hoping for a fast ride in the boat. Most of the time, due to the high price of gas and no big need to get anywhere fast, I just put the boat on plane and off we would go. But now Emily was going to get her wish. With siren's blaring I pushed the throttle down and away we went. I couldn't see her but according to her mom, Emily was smiling the entire way back to the boat landing.
We got off the lake with a little time to spare. Severe storms were brewing up all around the southern half of the state and off to the west it didn't look any better. Time to call it a day and go somewhere safe!
It truly was a pleasure to share my boat and spend some time in the company of this family. Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide today on Lake Wisconsin. It truly was yet another day that I will never forget.
Joel "Boog" Ballweg
