An old dog can learn new tricks

Dark cold and is that, no not possible. Snow! Cripes enough already, this is going on 8 months. 33 degrees on the bank marquee as Nathan and I head south, a good direction head. The plan is to hit the river in Washburn north of the bridge. As we pull up to the ramp it’s apparent that the bite is improving in this area. Lots of boats on the water and I have a good walk back from parking the rig.

Nathan and I haven’t been in the boat together for way too long. I have the privilege of being guided today as we are fishing out of his Warrior tiller, a perfect boat for the river. The plan is to pick up where I left off last Thursday and see if any fish are still in the area. Our first strategy is to drift downstream and vertical jig the current breaks. Let’s not waste any more time than we already have on that subject.

First fish of the day belongs to the bundled up guys in the Ranger fishing this same section. We trade info and with that the Shad Raps are working 8 feet and Nathan gets our first fish of the day, a very respectable sauger! Seems to be all the fish we have a license for in this area.

A move downstream and into another current break is the formula for fish #2 and moment’s later fish #3 gets an early release. We drive a trench in the water looking for the secret to fish 4 but have to throw in the towel and make another move. At least we are moving downstream which is south; a good way to be traveling since now it is spitting snow.

Water temps are down as you might imagine but I didn’t imagine a drastic drop of 6 full degrees, from 48 to 42 in 2 days! The water temps have us second guessing the crank bite so we put on jigs again and move into the best location of the day. If there is a theme to the day it is the seminars everyone is putting on for my sake. Remember the first fish of the day, show offs are holding up yet another fish. The second seminar going on at the same time in the room across the hall is put on by the Lund Team pulling boards and cranks. They have it dialed in, fish after fish after fish. The good part of having a limit on walleyes is saying goodbye to the Lund who has most certainly, by now, limited out.

It doesn’t take us long to apply some of the lessons and wouldn’t you know it. An old dog can learn new tricks. We get several opportunities to use the net as we put the cranks back into 6 feet at 2mph. Our best crank today is the back and white or (Minnow) Shad Rap in 5 and 7. This location is what you picture as ideal in the river. A current break at the top, compliments of a sand bar, with deep water on the shore side perfect for drifting a jig downstream. To the west, where we concentrated our time is a sand bar providing shallow water and yet another current break. We spent most of our time on the shallow side of this location which by the way is a very short distance upstream from the ramp. Easy access, easy fishing, that is if you like dipping your hands into 42 degree water when it’s snowing.

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