WEIRD WALLEYE

I was in Iowa last week at the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers meeting at Honey Creek Resort and spent an enjoyable morning on Lake Rathbun fishing for walleyes. Weird experience!
I recently wrote a story for Indiana Outdoor News about the many ways to fish for walleyes–using anecdotes from my first experience with them in northern Wisconsin, subsequent walleye successes in Canada, Lake Erie, rivers and reservoirs–finally, ending up in an August outing on Lake Winnebago where we fished walleyes in pea-soup-green water which was almost pea-soup-warm! Fished and caught!
I thought that was the weirdest walleye fishing I’d ever do, but no! My Iowa experience outdid my Fond du Lac experience.
My fishing partner, Jim Gaston handed me a bottom-bouncer set-up, then slow trolled over a pair of 2-foot deep humps about 15 yards apart. I was incredulous.
You can catch bluegills in 24-inches of water, bass–for sure. Surely not walleyes in an Iowa reservoir with plenty of deep water nearby–especially after a cold night chilled the surface. Wrong, fish-blog-readers! And it wasn’t a fluke. The other, more conventional areas we tried produced one skimpy white bass. The fish in the picture and the rest of our morning catch came off that shallow rubble. Wow! Who’d a thunk?
The equipment Gaston used was great. The Lund boat was powered by a 150 hp Mercury engine and had a MinnKota troller on the bow. For electronics we had an X-15 Lowrance and a stand alone Lowrance GPS. I used a 6-foot, medium action, Johnny Morris rod and reel combo from Bass Pro Shops.