Starting Friday 3/31/23, DePere got hit with rain, snow, and Saturday with 35+ mph north winds which got the river flowing backwards. It muddied up the water to the point where the second you dropped your bait into the water it would disappear instantly. Sunday wasn’t much better with a couple inches of clarity but the hope was that the south winds would help push out that muddy water. The bite wasn’t hot and heavy by any means, but we managed to put over a dozen walleyes in the boat in just about a half day. Water temperature had dropped from about 42 degrees a few days ago to 37 degrees this morning.
The program that worked for us was hair jigs, fishing painfully slow and pretty much dragging our jigs along the bottom. A stinger hook was definitely a must. If you went too aggressive with your cadence, you weren’t getting bit. Yes, there were some accidentally snagged fish but plenty in the mouth. What happens is they try and pin the baits to the bottom or they take a swipe at it and miss or sometimes they just don’t see the bait at all and your bait happens to snag them. I’m not going to pretend like it doesn’t happen because it does, no avoiding it especially this time of year. Overall a successful outing with great company, good weather, and of course, tight lines!
Mike Steinke
LineCutterz Pro Staff
www.linecutterz.com