First Walleye of 2010

Posted by MNAngler On June - 5 - 2010

Species: Walleye
Size: 8″
Lure used: Lindy rig with leech

Date: 6/5/2010
Time: 5:00-8:30pm
Body of water: Bald Eagle Lake
Location: White Bear Lake, MN
Weather Conditions: overcast and rainy turned to partly cloudy

Mark, Steve, and I headed to Bald Eagle Lake this evening to try our luck at some lindy rigging. We got on the lake at about 5:00pm and started on a rock pile South of the island. Mark put on a nightcrawler, Steve used a minnow, and I had on a leech. We figured we’d try the gamut and see what worked.

I got the first tick, but it didn’t feel like a walleye. I let the line go and after what felt like an eternity, set the hook. The set stuck, but when I pulled it in, it turned out to be a little perch. A few minutes later, Mark landed a small perch, too. A few minutes after that, Steve got a hit. But when he tried to set the hook, the line broke. He said it felt really good, though, and Mark saw the whole thing and agreed it was probably something big.

After about an hour with no more action, we headed over to our usual rock pile. All of us started getting ticks, but none of us could get a good hook set. At one point, Mark had to turn the boat around and asked me to reel in so as not to get tangled in someone else’s line. As I started to reel up, I felt some action at the end of my line like a fish. But then it stopped. When I got the hook to the boat, a walleye was at the end of my line! But it was just a little guy. About 8″. My first walleye of the season.

We had a few more misses and then it got quiet again. It was about this time that I was considering casting for bass or muskie. But I stuck with it. About 15 minutes later, we decided to move back to our original spot.

When we got there, I decided it was time to start trying for another species. I was going to throw some bass lures at first, but then decided to honor the muskie opener and try throwing a bucktail. I had brought my muskie rod along and cast a black bucktail with a small grub tail attached. We were in about 20 ft of water so instead of reeling just under the surface, I wanted it to go a little deeper. I waited for about 5 seconds after the cast before beginning to reel. But 4 out of 5 casts, the spinner wasn’t spinning when I got the bucktail back to the boat. After a bit of experimentation, I discovered that the spinner gets in a position where it can’t spin if it isn’t reeled in right away. I never knew that about the bucktail spinners.

After another 30 minutes or so we decided to call it a night. Good thing, too, because my arm was getting really tired. The muskie rod I was using (which was actually a salt water rod we got in North Carolina) was really heavy. Back at the boat launch, Steve disembarked first and went to get Mark’s truck. There were quite a few people waiting to get off the water, so Mark and I decided to throw a few casts for bass in the lily pads right by the boat ramp. On Mark’s second cast of a chartreuse/white spinnerbait, he got a hit! It was a nice 12-13″ largemouth. My four casts with a bubble gum fluke didn’t yield anything. But all of this happened within about 3 minutes. Steve got the trailer in the water a lot faster than we expected.

Overall, the evening was a bit disappointing. But I made a mental note to come back and try the lily pads on my own with a float tube. The only thing that worries me is all the boats that go through there since they are right at the boat landing.

I’d also like to try going after the muskie in that lake again. I should catch one in another 970 casts or so.

One Response to “First Walleye of 2010”

  1. MNAngler says:

    This post was picked up by the Chicago Sun Times: http://bit.ly/blSj2q

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