First three days we had nice weather, but the walleyes were quite elusive. The kids did a number on some nice slab sized crappies, and the wife managed to catch a 22" northern. Then on Tuesday, the rain hit and the weather turned to garbage. It stayed cold and rainy pretty much the rest of the time. The wife and kids spent plenty of time in the cabin, with me out on the boat. All in all, we had a good time. The biggest walleye I got was a 24", and we had 8 other walleyes in the 14- 15" range. Brought home alot of nice crappies. The sunfish we caught were a tad on the small side compared to pat years, so we didn't keep any of those. Only got a few northerns around that 22-23" range that we kept. All the perch we caught were wormy, so we didn't keep those, either. My youngest daughter is going to be retiring her Barbie pole for a real fish pole, now that she caught her first northern(12") and her first walleye(14 1/2") with it.
Sounds like a good time! Where were you hitting crappies? The bluegills in the weeds near BlueMax and Eagles Nest have been on and in the 9 inch range...
We got most of the crappies on the south side of the island that the airplanes park on right when you get on the main lake. The sunfish we picked up by on of the islands to the east of Highbanks. Most of the sunnies were around 4-5".
If you find the 4-5" sunnies the big ones are usually mixed in there they just don't get a chance to bite. I've had good luck with trolling small leeches on a spinner jig through those sunnies and will limit the small ones you get. You'll usually get only the 8-9 inchers and the ocasional 10-12 incher.
Four kids and my wife trolling just doesn't sound all that relaxing. Especially when the youngest does her own version of trolling by walking back and forth all over the boat.
Scholars have long known that fishing eventually turns men into philosophers. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to buy decent tackle on a philosopher's salary. ~ Patrick F. McManus
