Species: Walleye
Size: 12″
Lure used: leech on lindey rig
Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 12″
Lure used: white pearl super fluke
Species: Largemouth Bass
Size: 12″
Lure used: white pearl super fluke
Date: 6/14/2009
Time: 7:30-11:30am
Body of water: Bald Eagle Lake
Location: White Bear Lake, MN
Weather Conditions: sunny
Mark, Rob, and I decided to go to Bald Eagle Lake this morning in the Norther suburbs of St. Paul, MN. We had determined yesterday that we would meet up at 7am. Mark suggested 6, but I didn’t think I could get up that early. It turns out, Mark was up at 3 and Rob was up at 4, so I slowed them down 3 hours. When I got up at 6:30, I thought I was crazy. Why on Earth would I get up so bloody early on a Sunday? But once I was on the water, that all went away.
We started at a hump Mark knew of in the middle of the lake. Neither Rob or I had ever done any lindey rig fishing, so we decided to try that out. Mark set us up with some leeches and his rods (since they were already set up) and started to teach us what to feel for and how to react.
Within minutes, I felt a strong double-tick, but my instinct was still to set the hook, so I lost him. I’m sure it was a 10-pounder. 🙂 Mark opted to cast with a deep diver crankbait and caught a small largemouth bass during the 40 minutes or so we were at this spot. Other than that, it was kind of quiet. I also tried casting with a super fluke into the weeds, but the fish weren’t interested.
Our second spot was a rock pile that Mark really liked. We were all lindey rigging here and we got some nice hits. By now, I had conditioned myself to let line go when I felt a hit, but none of us were catching any of the strikes. I finally did catch a 12″ walleye that ended up swallowing the hook, so we kept him.
Action was so good at this spot, we must have motored up and drifted back over the same spot 30 times. Each time, one or more of us would get a hit, but no one could set a hook. More than one leech had multiple gashes from the action.
We finally got off the rock formation and headed for a weed bed. I was casting with a fluke, Mark went back to his deep diver, and Rob opted for a couple of different lures including a spoon to go after Northern. I got two small largemouths and Mark and Rob each landed a couple of small largemouths. We let them all go.
Overall, I think it was seven fish between the three of us over 4 hours. Not too bad, but we would have loved to land some of those bites over the rock pile. We’ll definitely be back.
