finaddict
08-17-2012, 08:04 AM
After running three salmon trips in the last week catching 80 fish (16 limits) and burning 170 gallons of fuel, I finally decided enough is enough and brought all my salmon gear home yesterday and I'm going to focus on walleye for the rest of the season. To stay on good numbers of fish I am running at least 30 miles from port one way and it's just too much. Anyhow, last night I fished walleye with repeat clients Dan and his uncle Al from Laona, WI. This is probably the 5th year in a row these two have come up to fish with me and every year we've limited out....they are like a good luck charm for the boat! Awesome fishermen themselves, I try and take them to new locations each year so they can learn a new area to explore when they come up on their own. Al is a technical wizard with fishing electronics and he brought along his latest gadget, a Hummingbird 989 that he has hooked up to a portable battery pack. He records the whole trip and puts a waypoint in for each fish and notes which lure we caught each fish on etc, etc. Then he goes home and compiles everything and sends me a map of our trip complete with where each fish was caught and on which lure. Very cool stuff and someday, when I get the time, I need to learn how to do more stuff like this!
It was touch and go whether or not we would get out last night with small craft warnings in effect. However, the wind was basically out of the NW so we decided we'd be just fine as long as we stayed close to shore and even though it was blowing like a hurricane, we never saw any waves over a foot. I decided to take the guys to a new spot we'd never fished together that is only a few hundred yards from shore and as soon as I got our 8 board spread in the water we started banging fish right away. We wound up boating 16 beautiful walleye 17 to maybe 25 inches in about 2.5 - 3 hours fishing time releasing several fish along the way. We had several doubles and maybe 2 triples throughout our trip and although this walleye fishing lacks the intensity of salmon fishing it still gets the blood pumping pretty good when you get a triple on! On the menu were 800 series reef runners and our best colors were Tuitti Fruitti (best), Purple Barely Naked, Fin's Day Old Muffin, and Blue Chartreuse Bare Naked. I think we had something like 20 or 21 hits throughout the night. Looks like beautiful weather for the rest of the weekend and I wish Dan and Al good luck exploring the new location I showed them last night. I'm gonna fish a few different groups the next few nights and plan on checking out some new water I haven't had a chance to fish yet this fall.
Ciao-
Capt. Jim McDonald
Fin-Addict Charters
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-12-12.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-12-12a.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-16-12.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-16-12a.jpg
It was touch and go whether or not we would get out last night with small craft warnings in effect. However, the wind was basically out of the NW so we decided we'd be just fine as long as we stayed close to shore and even though it was blowing like a hurricane, we never saw any waves over a foot. I decided to take the guys to a new spot we'd never fished together that is only a few hundred yards from shore and as soon as I got our 8 board spread in the water we started banging fish right away. We wound up boating 16 beautiful walleye 17 to maybe 25 inches in about 2.5 - 3 hours fishing time releasing several fish along the way. We had several doubles and maybe 2 triples throughout our trip and although this walleye fishing lacks the intensity of salmon fishing it still gets the blood pumping pretty good when you get a triple on! On the menu were 800 series reef runners and our best colors were Tuitti Fruitti (best), Purple Barely Naked, Fin's Day Old Muffin, and Blue Chartreuse Bare Naked. I think we had something like 20 or 21 hits throughout the night. Looks like beautiful weather for the rest of the weekend and I wish Dan and Al good luck exploring the new location I showed them last night. I'm gonna fish a few different groups the next few nights and plan on checking out some new water I haven't had a chance to fish yet this fall.
Ciao-
Capt. Jim McDonald
Fin-Addict Charters
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-12-12.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-12-12a.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-16-12.jpg
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg247/CR_Finaddict/8-16-12a.jpg