Windy Wet Walleye Outing, Surprise bycatch

Got out for the day Saturday looking to find some post-spawn walleye. Nick (mykola) devised a game plan for us, we worked our way up and back down a river connected to the lake. Eventually drifted down to the river mouth and fished that area as well, mostly around 5'-20'. Leeches on a slip float, jerkbaits and soft plastic minnows rigged on a ned.



A strong northwest wind started to pick up as the day went on with a few short heavy downpours mixed in with breaks of sun. The weather was unpredictable and so seemed the walleye.

I decided to focus on the ned rig with a 3.75" yellow/purple Keitech minnow. Slowly working it back to the boat, making contact with bottom, pausing on the fall.

First fish landed was a decent OOS smallmouth, broke the skunk, quickly released. A few minutes later, as I was slowly reeling my jig from bottom near the boat to re-cast (~18' casting towards a sandbar) I felt a light tap. Violent head shakes, I see the profile of the fish, looks like a decent walleye if it is, hold on- drag peel.

After several minutes of tiring out this fish on my medium-light rod, we land the fish, a nice stocked lake trout (just over 25").



We didn't end up catching any walleye but the surprise lake trout saved the day.

Lake trout filleted:



Put a good bend on the hook:

Back at the launch, looked like someone else was at least able to find the walleye.

Sure, blame me when you can’t find the walleye! Lol
Beautiful trout. That’s a dandy of a by-catch.

Sure, blame me when you can’t find the walleye! Lol
Beautiful trout. That’s a dandy of a by-catch.

Low hanging fruit! I blame the weather (as all fishermen do). But I think our inexperience with walleye was the main culprit. Either way, time on the water.

Right on, at least you went home with something. I always thought the stronger the wind, the better the walleye fishing

I actually think the wind level was right, definite “walleye chop” out there. I’ve heard south winds are best. I went from boiling hot in my waders to really glad I had them during the downpours. Weird weather.

That’s how I feel about spring whitefish, keeps em off the surface.

Nice looking trout and report.

Beautiful coloured fillets.....looks yummy to me.

Arnie

Like that picture with the trout coming out of the water, very nice fish.

a good outing with a friend.hard to beat.....bonus nice fillets

Nice report Mike!

That is a beauty of a laker! Congrats.

Interestingly, I seem to catch walleye when I fish for bass (and on bass lures), but when I try to specifically target them, they have lock jaw. LOL

Often seems to be the case, doesn’t it? Try for one, end up with another in a place you wouldn’t expect to get them.