Mother nature had other plans, however. We awoke on Saturday, May 9th to 50 degree overcast skies with 5-20 mph gusting winds from the Northeast. A cold front had rolled in over night. Things were going to be difficult, but its the Minnesota walleye opener, what are you going to do, not fish?
I've written before about my less than gracious opinion of shore fishing. However, it's better than not fishing at all. So, with our tackle boxes and a few tackle setups, me and my fishing buddy Adam headed out to the St. Louis Bay.
Our first destination was the Munger Landing, where I fished last year on opener. I did a detailed fishing report for that spot if you want to know more about it. For now, I'll jump to the meat of it: the spot isn't really smashing, and the dock was filled with anglers. It made no sense to me, with weather like we had I thought we would be alone. Alas, we loaded the truck back up and headed further up the estuary to a more secluded landing.
Upon arriving at the Boy Scout Landing in Fond du Lac, we were met with the exact same situation. The parking lot was hectic as can be, and the dock was filled from edge to edge with people bumping elbows. The exact opposite of a peaceful day on the water. I wasn't going to have it.
We got back in the car and broke out Plan F: make a drive inland for one of the Arrowhead region's vast reservoirs. We figured heading 30 minutes inland would get us away from the hustle and bustle, and hopefully give us some room to spread our wings a bit. Our destination? Fish Lake Reservoir.
Fish Lake is a very large reservoir, an impediment on the Beaver river. The lake has respectable populations of walleye, pike and crappie. This day, we were going to head for the damn on the northwest end of the reservoir. About 150 yards of rip rap lie on either side of the small dam outlet. We arrived and found the rip rap completely free of fishermen. Our placement put us in a little cove with the wind directly in our face. The combination of rocks, steady wind blowing in, and a secluded eddy away from the main lake basin looked very attractive to us.
We expected the shallow water adjacent to the rip rap to be holding walleye, and as such, rigged up basic 3/8-oz jigs and minnows. We casted the entirety of the little inlet for about 30 minutes, with little luck. Then, with the suddenness of a broken shoelace, it happened. Adam had his jig and minnow bottom bouncing in, about 20 feet from shore, when his line drew tight and his pole bent over.
"Fish on," Adam shouted. I set my tackle down and ambled over the rocks toward him. A few quick drags drew line away from shore, but his Abu Garcia Cardinal STX-20 performed admirably in working the fish in. A flash of white belly had us thinking he had walleye, but upon closer inspection, it was a trim, 24" northern pike. He quickly landed the fish, unhooked, and released before I was able to snap a picture. "We'll get a pic of the next one," he said, a little unsure if there really would be a next one on a day like today.
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| 27" |
Deciding to act upon the new found information, I figured I would break out my best pike confidence lure: Daredevle spoons. I rigged up a 3/4-oz red and white spoon on my medium-heavy Fenwick, and on my first cast out into the bay was greeted with a thump on the end of my line. After reeling in a 27" pike, I casted again in the exact same spot and drew out a much slimmer 20" hammer handle. We had hit a theme, and stuck with it. Both of us rigged up spoons and continued to crush the pike the rest of the morning.
When we went to the local bait shop on our way back to Duluth, we asked the clerk if he had heard anything from fishermen about their mornings. "Slow," was about all he had to say. Upon further probing, he more or less said that the cold front combined to make fishermen antsy to get off the water, and fish tight lipped. When we said we had each caught a handful of pike in the previous hours, he remarked we were some of the only successful fishermen of the morning that he had heard of.
The lesson here? Play the cards you're dealt. A windy cold day could've turned us away. Our first two fishing locations being overcrowded should've. But instead, we stuck with it, and decided to stay focused. We were rewarded.
I like to think, if you spend enough time on the water, it all evens out in the end. The bad days are offset with the really memorable ones.
I'm not just talking about fishing anymore, am I? We'll leave the philosophy for another post.
Tight Lines!
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