Red River (North) - Monday, October 17, 2011

Red River Walleye Adventure #7

FYI, trip #6 will be up shortly and possibly in the hunting and fishing discussions!

Sunday Chris and I didn't really know what was in store for the day, but as time went on, we found out it was WIND. Bone chilling wind that really put a damper on boat control. We didn't give up though, bundled up in our bibs, beanies, jacket and gloves.

One thing that takes a lot out of you is even a simple task like grabbing a minnow out of the bucket. The shock, the numbness, and after wiping your hands off on the towel, the "hot" feeling. But I got my wish of 54-55 degree water temps, at the expense of 35 degree air temps with the wind chill.

The first few fish of the day at the first location heated things up. A nice 17 inch walleye, a few sauger, so it was a good sign although the action wasn't very fast. All the spots that looked "walleye-ish" to me were almost unfishable due to that nasty wind. I mean, the river flows North, and while fishing it was almost like we had the bow-mount trolling motor set to 5 mph! Well heck, at this point I'm not even looking for locations that I think are good, I just wanna get out of the wind!

I call this spot The Bermuda Log Jam. Had the craziest "vortex" of current and structure, and a few times I thought we had a nice fish hooked on and was swimming upstream, but nope, it was the current. Chris hooks into a nice fish and it gets the blood pumping. I hate hearing this "oooh it doesn't feel that big". When you fish with me, always, always, always assume it's going to be a good walleye. Because if it isn't, no big deal, but if it is, we wanna land it!

The fish comes to life right at the boat, and I see it's a walleye so I holler "walleye!" and Chris replies with a "really!?" Scoop it up, lift it in the boat, "OOOH MAN, it's 23.5 inches" Not quite what we're looking for in terms of "eaters" or "whoppers" but we don't want to take anything away from this fish, because I coulda stared at it all day.

Anyhow, Chris popped a couple nice pike, and I got the coolest little 8 ounce White Bass I've ever seen (well, since last year anyway). The next couple moves are all "missed fish" or "missed hookset" spots. Good hits, but nothing will commit. I even went out of my element and fished places that I pretty much knew weren't going to produce, just to think outside the box. All of those places, we could've connected but the fish won by stealing our minnows.

The last move of the day gave us a shot at a BIG WALLEYE. I told Chris that nothing would touch this 1 pound Leopard Frog but a Sumo Walleye. After 5 minutes in the rod holder the tip starts to dance. It looks like the beginning stage of a bite while I'm catfishing with circle hooks. Wait,.......wait,.....ooooh man I think it's going to commit.........then nothing. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. I'd like to think that if he would've NOT listened to me he would've hooked into it. But the Good Lord only knows.

A curious Mink sat and watched us from the rocks, and Chris got a really nice picture of him. My hands are raw, and a nice cup of coffee sounds amazing, not the stuff from my thermos either, straight from the coffee pot nice and hot. It was a successful day for though, I found some new locations, got to fish with a new friend-(who also gave me a VERY special gift, a custom made "fish picture station") and despite Mother Nature's best shots at us, we got some nice fish for the frying pan.

Thank you Chris, we'll see you next time I come to the Tailrace!

Tags: river, walleye, chris, red, north, day, really, 0, october, monday

Region: Red River (North)

Categories: Fishing