Long time friend Wayne Henn and new friend Darren Dykstra made the trip with me to the Dells today. Overall, the bite was kind of slow but we stuck with it and popped a fish here and there through out the day.
We started out with a minnow rig right over the side of the boat and casting either another plain minnow rig or a jig/plastic combo. The plain minnow rigs ended up catching all our fish today. We just could not find the right combination of jig/plastic to entice them into eating.
I carry a very large selection of plastics and I'm not afraid to use them but one thing I have learned over the years is that when confronted with small rivers and high fishing pressure, then reverting back to the most simplistic and basic rig can be a very good thing. And that reason alone is why I rarely head out without a bucket of minnows in the boat this time of the year.
Night fishing on the other hand, is completely different. I can't even remember the last time I've taken live bait along at night.
We called it quits around 4:30pm. Heavy fog was rolling in and if you've ever tried to navigate this river after dark in heavy fog, you won't forget it. It is pitch black at water level. Looking up, you can see only a little light between the tall canyon walls on both sides of the river. With my gps on the fritz, I knew better than to wait around until it got dark. Been there and done that before and I'm not interested in doing it again.
We ended up with eighteen walleyes between the three of us.
Eleven under 15" long, three in the keeper size range and four more between 20"-25" long.
