ETT how is the prespawn bite for big females??

[JamesMN]

Hi Jim, hope your recovery is still going well. I will be back out there next week for another run at my new favorite spring fishing spot. Have most of the females spawned yet or do you think it will be with next weeks full moon?

General question for you - on an avearge year how is the prespawn bite for large females? Are they catachable with pattern and consistency? What is the best technique to take them. I really like pulling sticks, but will they take them and are they suspended around the reef complex? We never keep any fish anyway so I though it might be kinda fun to try a prespawn trip sometime. If they do take sticks at what time frame or water temp does it typically start to get consistent?

Thanks
James

[ETT]

James,
The full moon of April will be the heaviest spawning period. Right now probably 25 - 30 percent are spawned out...after the full moon it will likely be 66 - 75 percent.
They will take cranks deep and shallow Huskies, deep and shallow Rouges, Reef Runners & Rip Sticks are my go to lures. Run them high over 22 - 28 feet of water off the reefs to the north or east (possibly as far as 2 miles).
Freebyrd & I fished together in a tournament last weekend. The winners had over 42 pounds for 5 fish. Big fish was 12 pounds. They were 5 - 7 feet down over 24' of water. We missed the bite totally, and never touched a fish. We're still in shock.
Consistantcy is a matter of good weather. When things are right we've handled 20 plus fish a day, but 6 to 8 is more typical. There were some fish caught on spinners as well, so bring them if you like to play with worms.

Good luck and I hope my knowledge does you more good than it did me on Sunday.

Oh yea.. my recovery is going quite well. If you overlook the zero.

[one who knows]

walleye fishing can be very humbling even for an expert like ETT

[FreeByrd]

I can assure you Sunday was a VERY humbling experience. Have to say I'm more surprised than anything at not getting a single bite all day on Sunday. I fished for about 3 hours on Thurs afternoon - had 5 bites trolling. 3 hours on Fri morning and another five bites trolling. We didn't get out on Sat but had plenty of confidence on Sunday for the tournament. We did try a few things different as far as location (but had at least as good of marks if not better than Thurs / Fri). Turns out we were fishing too deep - although there were teams that caught fish running virtually the same program we did. Crazy thing is I bet if I searched the archives for posts by myself and Jim about spring fishing it would be even more humbling reading how many times we have said FISH UP HIGH in the spring - we were but not high enough. Got suckered into fishing for the marks at 12-15 feet down when we should have been in the top 8 feet... LESSON LEARNED.

Again - CONGRATS to Tom & Tommy Sibert, Dan Gies & Buck, and the other teams that did good on Sunday.

Steve Carlson

[JamesMN]

Thanks for the insight. It would not be much of an adventure if you two always got it right...right :)

[ETT]

In all seriousness...I truely believe that if we had the exact same situation, that being the most active fish at 6 - 8', while we were running the programs that we ran Sunday, we could fish 100 times and not get skunked again. It was just one of those days... and I'm glad to have it over with.

[bob oh]

I know exactly what you're talking about Steve. Wish I had a nickle for everytime I've deviated from what I believe or know (usually because I've heard something) and paid the price!!! You've told me a 1,000 times to have baits above 8' and higher in the spring and when I tired it last year -- I fished deeper cause the marks were there. I got one fish for my effort and a buddy (who took the advice you gave me) took 10! Oh well :-)

rod bender bob

[Raybob]

Bob ~ those deep Eyez on the recorder probably blew the Ouga-horn "dive-dive" when they seen your 30'er bearin' down on them!!! :)

[bob oh]

could be LOL

rod bender bob