As spring approaches, so does fishing opener. My tackle is at the cabin. I’ll go there soon and begin preparations, stopping at the Mule Lake Store to pick up a fresh License. The following is the preliminary draft of my list of things to do. This list includes both things to do in preparation, as well as New Year of Fishing Resolutions.To Do List:
- Take everything out of the tackle boxes and put it all back in, organized.
- Throw out all the bits of live (now dead) bait and other bits of unrecognizable organic matter.
- Cut the second and third hooks off of recently acquired treble-hooked lures, bend the barbs flat, and sharpen the tips. No sense in causing any unnecessary damage.
- Stop at the tackle shop to pick up some Ironclads. Having just learned that “gummy worm” (sic) fishing lures are loaded with toxins, I’m switching strategies!
- Find, on sale, a reel with lots of space for high-weight test. Match it with a relatively stout pole for landing very large fish from a very small boat.
Opener Resolutions:
- Keep some fish this year. It is better to preserve (indeed, pickle) the smaller pike than to toss them back.
- More trips in the boat, less fishing from shore.
- Fish that underwater ridge that I suspect the muskies lie against. This is the old right bank of some Pleistocene incarnation of the Mississippi River, with the steepest drop off in the lake. I don’t think it holds walleye, but I think it holds muskies.
- Fish that buried ridge from a canoe or rowboat. Maintain Spencer Tracey persona during the entire venture.
- Learn how to catch walleyes.
- Catch some walleyes.
- Keep and eat some of the walleyes. They are a sustainable resource.
Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:
In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle
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or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
I’ve never met a walleye that could resist a night crawler harness trolled nice and deep and slow…
Greg,a) You may also want to check out the Gulp line of soft baits — I know they’re biodegradable but can’t speak to the toxicity.b) If you’re ever in NE Wisconsin you’re more than welcome in my boat. Plenty of walleyes to be caught in Lake Winnebago. I fancy myself a pretty accompished walleye angler, especialy for an academic 🙂 As a former Gopher, I’d be happy to offer any advice.
I use gulp all the time, if need a soft bait.But it is still true that a Texas Rigged plastic worm (dar/black) is my number two lure at the cabin at this moment.I will be happy to come by and try your lake some time!We went, two years ago, to lake of the woods. The fishing information up there talks about walley this, walley that, then has a list of fish caled “other” …. bass, northerns, muskies, etc…..We fished only out of a canoe in medium depth or shallow waters (this was in late August) and caught one bass and two northerns. Every 35 minutes. For three days.What I’m saying is if everyone is sufficiently walleye focuses, the other fish tend to grow large and stupid.