St. Louis River & Hayward, Wisconsin Fishing Report 7-2-14

The past three days was spent filming with my old friends from Babe Winkelman Productions.  If you’re into flying kites, we’ve got some great footage for you…  This trip was scheduled last winter while hoping to capitalize on the outstanding walleye fishing in the St. Louis River Harbor.  Mother Nature didn’t read the script and provided some extremely challenging conditions for us.  Nate Berg and I battled through some incredible winds with gusts up to 40 mph on Monday to put together one heck of a day considering what we had to deal with.  We put several nice fish in the boat up to 25″ while trolling crankbaits in 5′ – 7′ of water.  Boat control was interesting to say the least, but the results were worth the effort.  Water temps warmed to 64 degrees with sunny skies throughout the day.  We may be considered crazy for even attempting it, but I’m proud of Nate and the crew for all they did.  Needless to say…  We were all a little wobbly when we made it back to shore!!!

Day #2 of our filming brought 20 – 25 mph NW winds.  Talk about not catching a break…  The water in the harbor is as turbid and murky as I’ve seen it since the flood, and the fishing was a struggle.  We did manage several nice fish up to 19″ on a variety of presentations from trolling crankbaits to crawler harnesses in 5′ – 10′ of water with water temps holding steady around 65 degrees.  There wasn’t any solid pattern we could put together, and every fish was well earned as we moved from spot to spot.  It was a grind it out kind of day.  When the camera crew finally gave us the thumbs up, Nate and I reluctantly waived the white flag.  After two days of battling unreasonable conditions, we were more than satisfied with what we put in the boat.  All things considered, I think we were very fortunate to catch what we did.  Nobody ever promised that it would be easy, and that’s why fishing is so great.  It’s not easy!!!

With enough walleye footage in the can to satisfy the crew, we decided to go with a change of pace.  Crappie time!  Whenever Nate is in town, I know he’ll roll with whatever I throw at him.  Once he found out we’ve been on a good crappie bite, there was no holding him back.  We moved inland and found fish in 9′ – 11′ of water and caught them on jig and plastic combinations as well as jigs with plastics under slip bobbers.  We had a bit of a slow start with high skies and north winds, but after moving around a bit, we located a bunch of biters that included fish up to 14″.  What a way to end our trip!  Water temps hit 70 degrees by the time we were done, and I’m hopeful that this ugly stretch of  weather we’ve had to start the week is on it’s way out of town.  Thank you to Nate Berg, James Cordell, and Joe Marshall for all of your hard work and efforts over the past three days.  I had a blast, and you’re the best!