Rice Lake - 18th July - three walleye, busiest I've ever seen the lake

[bluenote]

Water temp of 77F.

About 45 minutes ago started trolling across Rice - similar track did with Shagdrrotten6969 a few weeks ago.

After a fee small hits got this walleye at 16".

Very hot - no wind and lots of waves from all the boats.

[bluenote]

2nd walleye

This one a beauty at 19".

Didn't post about the 3 sunfish caught between the two walleye . . .

Thanks

[Panasonic]

nice job!

[shagdrrotten6969]

Nice going Frank !! Just going to post about yesterdays trip, the bite is on !! Keep going !

[bluenote]

Wind has picked up - brisk from south west. Wind is helping keep me cool with the sun / humidity. I should have put up the top for some shelter . . .

I'm trolling across the wind - slowly. Easy to do when wind is on port side. However, when I turn around and try to keep the wind on the starboard side I find it difficult to control the boat - end up doing circles! So to redo the lines when getting to end of run I use main engine to go back to start position . .

I'm sure that it is something to do with the kicker motor installed on port side and (unknown) direction of prop spin . . .

This is a good area of Lake to troll - phone picks up LTE signal - excellent for data . . .

One more sunfish and lots of feeding worms . . .

Third walleye at 15".

[Dirty Rotten Baby]

Very nice...good for you .!

[bluenote]

Wind has died a lot - less waves. Hazy. Likely going to be a terrific sunset tonight.

However I'm not staying around as just lost hook to a fish! Time to head in while still light for a change!

Started this run drifting - forgot to put kicker in forward gear so engine was idling. 3rd walleye while slow drift.

I caught a catfish - slightly bigger than one caught last wednesday

Overall a good day - four species caught! Walleye, catfish, sunfish and blue gill! Fed the fish nearly 36 worms!

Still not understanding why the catfish relatively close to surface . . .

Water temp down to 75 F.

More to post later!

Thanks

[bluenote]

Just about ready to clean the fish. Going to take a fee minutes . . .

Will follow up in the morning with the pictures of the fillets.

Thanks

[bluenote]

Just finished cleaning.

Walleye fillets are the long ones on right side of plate. The left side is the sun fish. In between are the catfish fillets. Got four walleye cheeks on the plate - if look closely . . .

Now wife is removing Y bones and checking for the occasional missed bone. Then she cuts into cooking / serving size pieces . . .

[bluenote]

Into the fridge.

Can see the texture difference of the catfish.

Likely frying the fish tomorrow - the smaller pieces. Likely will freeze the larger walleye fillets.

If chance - will post the cooking results tomorrow.

Thanks

[Dbfish]

Bluenote, you rock!! Great post, keep it up my friend!

[darkhorse]

Great catch! What is your technique for filleting panfish?

Thanks

[fishmagnet]

Have not got out on rice lake this year but soon I will be headed there... Look forward to jigging and trolling for gold!!!

Nice work bluenote!!! Save some for me!!!!!

Cheers fishmagnet!!!!

[Elrik]

Nice job Frank, looks like you are getting the hang of the worm harness technique. Have you tried it with the trigger x worms yet to see how they stack up against the real thing? Maybe next time you have others in the boat with you you could do a comparison of real vs trigger x and see how it compares?

[bluenote]

Pictures of the pan fish and cat fish - soaking in egg / milk mixture for 10 plus minutes.

We decided to have the walleye fillets later.

When ready to batter we use the store bought and thin it with various ground grains -50%. Cuts back on the salt . . .