An Outdoorsman‛s Journal
Walleye on the Bay
Hello friends: Last week I was fishing on Green Bay with my good buddy Jeff Moll when my 90-hsp Etec died about four miles from the landing. We were lucky when a Coast Guard crew happened to come our way and gave us a tow. The problem is still being figured out but it may be the computer.
Jeff and I caught a lot of fish but no walleye, which was our quarry for the outing. This week I made reservations at North Bay Shore Park in Oconto County and fished out of my canoe on Green Bay. Monday, June 14–High 84, low 55 So, I arrive at North Shore at about 3:00 this afternoon and as usual pulled up to the landing first. I spoke with the occupants of three high-dollar boats who had just finished fishing, and all had the same report -- “Too hot, walleye are not biting.”
After that I built my camp at what is truly a beautiful and peaceful campground and rigged my canoe from my campsite for an evening of fishing.
There was an easy north wind blowing and I rigged up two poles with what I am going to describe as one heck of a hot bait and that is Northland’s “Butterfly Wing Nut Blade Super Death Rig.” In simple terms, it’s a nightcrawler harness with some new twists and it catches fish.
On my other pole I used a snap swivel and a Salmo crankbait. On the Death Rig, I was using 1.5-ounce bottom bouncers. I then headed out to sea and used the wind for my motor and began drifting with my setups and right and left planer boards. Almost immediately, it was fish-on and I caught a 4-inch perch. Over the next 20 minutes, I caught six sheepshead and perch as the wind easily pushed me south. Next, I caught a 12-inch walleye and then a 13 and a 14 and then a 16. Over the next two hours I drifted south and an hour before dark I was six miles from camp and realized I had better head home.
The catching stayed phenomenal. I caught a 15-pound catfish a 30-inch northern pike, and three more legal walleye to put me one away from my limit.
It became dark and I have to admit I really did not know how to identify camp from out on the lake and I was several miles away. I paddled, caught my other legal walleye, and made it to camp just before 11 p.m. My mood was excellent. Tuesday, June 15–High 81, low 48 Today I got the bajeezus kicked out of me! I went with the same plan except all three poles had the Death Rigs. The north wind pushed me south, the catching was slower, but as always, the sheepshead were hungry. About 10:00 the wind switched to the northeast. I was five miles south of camp and my world took a big, ugly dump!
Checking your lines for bait and weeds is a must if you want to catch fish. When you are paddling against the wind, and you check and then put out three lines, you are going to lose about a half mile.
So, I get a fish on, I do not have a chance to do a full 180. My planer boards cross, the fish is on my straight back pole which is a spinning rod. The fish is a sheepshead. My boards are getting very tangled. I foolishly leave the sheepshead in the water still attached to the spinning rod. The sheepshead does a lunge while I am working on my other rods. Pole and sheepshead are gone. I am pleased with myself that I am not mad, but there goes a hundred bucks. I start finishing pulling in my big ugly mess, the waves are large, and my canoe is taking on water.
I pull the last line in, and my spinning rod is attached to it with the sheepshead. Zero loss, except a mile south of where problem began.
I resume paddling into wind, I am gassed, and find two spots on shore to hike back to camp and leave the canoe. The stubborn grunt in me says “no” both times and I keep paddling. In April I crashed my canoe in similar conditions and am still suffering from the injury it caused.
Low and behold I made it to camp, no Coast Guard, no crashed canoe. I kissed the ground and opened a can of PBR.
When you are on a hot bite like I was the night before, enjoy every second of it! Sunset
