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My wife (and navigator) and I spent Thursday and Friday (Sept 4th and 5th) on Roosevelt headquartering out of Two Rivers Marina. The targets were walleye and rainbow depending on the location and time of day. The weather couldn't have been better at 75 degrees mid day and perfectly sunny. Water temps at mid channel were 71 degrees at the surface with the temp dropping off to 58 at 10' below the surface. They've dropped the level of the lake down about 6 to 8' since we were there last so that altered our plan somewhat. Originally, I had wanted to head up to marker 12 just north of Abraham Cove, but the water depth was too shallow. We ran in and took a look on the sonar but marked very few fish and mostly small stuff.

Having noted Hewesfisher's posts and having had a couple PMs with him, I decided to head a bit north of the confluence and troll up around split rock aka castle rock. Great call and thanks Phil! We had four rods out with two rigged with orange kekedas on lead lines, 1 with a blue double whammy, and 1 chartreuse double whammy on mono and all tipped with a bit of worm. Various other patterns that we tried didn't produce so those were the patterns of choice. Even with our late start, we managed to boat and release 10 bows in 2 hours each day. (wives have a tough time rolling out of the rack anything earlier than 8AM!) Having technically limited, we switched over to a walleye focus and dropped down and fished the 50' shelf that lies about 300' feet offshore of split rock. The fish were congregating just above the drop off and if you look at a chart, you will see the shelf very clearly. We boated and released 8 or 10 walleye each day with the largest being 22" (photo attached).

All of the 'bows were fat yearlings with the largest being 16" with an average of 14". Nothing historic, just all around good fishing.

On side note: Friday's day started with me dropping a rod out of rod holder and jamming a VERY sharp kekeda treble hook into my thumb clear up to the shank! Well, I couldn't get the hook out and so off to Davenport I went to have the ER doctor load my thumb full of ladacaine and yard the hook out. Dave Browning, if you're there, I want you to know that the doctor asked me if I wanted to save the hook at the expense of a bit more discomfort, or push the hook all the way through and cut off the barb. Well, I told him I was down to my last orange pattern so I girded my loins took the pain and saved the fly! (photo attached) That whole exercise cost me 2 hours fishing time, 50 miles of driving and a painful tetness shot.

mtngrizz

9/7/2014 4:30:00 PM

It hurts just looking at the photo. Otherwise a couple of fine days on the water. Using jigs and crawlers on the Walleye? Thanks, mtngrizz

SnoKing

9/7/2014 4:43:00 PM

Mtngrizz,
No, I ended up using the same chartreuse double whammies with a crawler strung through both hooks. I normally leave the trailer bare when I'm targeting 'Bows but use both hooks when I'm after walleye. It seems to work better. A couple guys I ran into said that up at the eastern end of Porcupine Bay right by the narrows was producing some nice walleye on chartreuse jigs. I just didn't have time to get up there. I'll be back up there again in ten days and intend to spend some time up there.

hewesfisher

9/7/2014 4:43:00 PM

Nice report SnoKing and happy to hear Dave's flies worked well for you, maybe a little too well. I got bit by a treble for the first time ever this year on 4th of July weekend. Sunk an Owner treble up to the shank in the web between my left thumb and index finger. Couldn't work it out, so whipped my Leatherman out, grabbed the hook shank, and snapped it out. Almost no blood and amazingly painless. Glad you had a great time despite the unscheduled trip to Davenport. :-)

nvan

9/8/2014 7:41:00 AM

Maybe there is a place for barbless hooks. :)

SnoKing

9/8/2014 3:22:00 PM

Hewesfisher, I forgot to mention that the lead line was back 5 colors with the line counter on the reel reading 160' so you were dead on with your suggestion. Best luck for the rainbows was right in that area. The double whammies were weighted with 2oz banana weights about 4' forward of the spinners with roughly 150' of mono out. Trolling at 1.5 to 2.4mph with a zig zag course set up in the auto pilot.

Kekedatackleco

9/8/2014 5:48:00 PM

Oh man! You're supposed to catch fish with the flies I send you, not your hand. You can imagine while I'm tying some of those I get stuck sometimes but NEVER that bad. That has to be worth a few flies coming your way. I wouldn't want you to have to go through that again to keep one of my flies. I appreciate your love for the fly though. Great job on the fishing, great report. -Dave

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