Well folks, I finely got to go fishing today. Figured I needed a break from
everything else. Amanda stayed over at a friends last night so it was just
Theresa and myself. I loaded the canoe this morning, ( I have to figure out
some way of doing this other than lifting it, that almost ended the trip),
about 6:30 and found most of my fly fishing equipment and we headed down to
the dam area about 7:30. We put in and started to cruise the rip rap and I
was testing a couple of the ideas sent to me. Leaches didn't get any
interest so I switched to one of my "Clouser" knock off designs. I found
that with the sinking line I could cast about 30 to 40 feet out then strip
off line to get it down further. Slow retrieves at 20 feet up to 10 feet
resulted in several "Bumps" but no solid hits. A twitching retrieve produced
my first honest hit. It was a violent hit that took me by surprise and then
it was a quick fight till it hung up on bottom. We found that I was getting
several strikes near the channel lip to the discharge of the dam. Depth was
about 15' then dropped off to 40' in the channel. The fish were hanging out
just around the transition. It took some work to get the flies down there
but it did produce 4 hook ups but none of them made it to the canoe. The
best I can figure is that they were watching for food to come over the edge.
The best one was as we were drifting to the channel I had a pause in the
fly, I pulled back to set the hook and the fight was on. The 7/8 wt rod was
almost bent double twice, then I managed to start working to the surface and
it headed for bottom again. This time it found something to wrap around or
under and parted the 8# leader about 2" below the fly line. I found that if
we paddled into the breeze and I worked out the line to it and allowed the
fly to sink as we drifted back towards the channel the fish would hit as it
dropped off.
Now for what I learned today about fishing for walleye in a lake. #1, I
have to find me an affordable depth / fish finder, used or whatever. If I
could have positively located the channel and marked it, then I could have
anchored the canoe and fished it rather than work the fly down and drag it
across, ( Yes I know, it sounds a lot like trolling), until I found the
channel.
#2, try to keep a fairly tight feel to your fly, that way I could
recognize the strike and set the hook before they spit it out. Again, being
able to have located the channel would have helped.
Now the next time I get out there I have to find another drop off in
about 15' of water, it is supposed to be the "Classic" walleye haven.
Still working at it....
Jimi
