North Platte WU
Newsletter Editors
on July 30
We are having a club family outing at Pathfinder on the 30th of July.
We will have regular meetings again starting Wed, August 3rd at Game and Fish Building.
Our club family outing at Glendo Reservoir outing was fun, it was a beautiful day on the water, fishing was great but the catching suffered a bit as only seven fish were brought in. A few fish were taken in 20' water but later reports suggested the fish were much deeper than would be typical for this time of year. Some fish reportedly were found and caught at 35 ft in the early afternoon. Rachel Nichols and Rosetta Bushong tied in the longest walleye caught, both were 22.5 " long and both will receive plaques. Pictures of our outing will be available soon on our new website: www.npwalleyes.com
As these things go, I didn't know most of the people attending and failed to get a list of those members who did so much to make the outing the success it was. So instead of individual acknow-ledgments I'd just like to give thanks to all who contributed to that outing with the good food, fish cleaning and cooking and cleanup. Thanks all, we appreciate your efforts.
Our planned "Kids Outing" has been postponed until a later date. It is a major undertaking and it just wasn't in the cards to get all the work done that needed done in time. We will regroup and go again in the near future. As these things go, we could use more help in the organizing of this effort.
There were some fishing tournaments that were of interest to some of our members that occurred in June. One being the Wyoming Walleye Circuit at Glendo June 4-5 with members Dino Conley and Bill Jensen finishing third and members Tom Brown and David Jensen finishing seventh of the top ten. At the WWC tournament at Boysen June 18-19 members John Green and son Brandon finished eighth.
The Lowrance Pro Team tournament at Boysen June 23-25 had members Rick Walters/Dan Wood/ Bruce Brugger finishing third and John Green and Joe Johnson ending up fifth of the top 10.
Rumor has it that the Wyoming Walleye Circuit is up for sale. For $75,000 you get the name, mailing list and probably a clipboard. A high quality clipboard I've been told.
We have our second family outing this month at Pathfinder Reservoir on July 30th which is the last Saturday of the month. Cookout will begin at 3:00pm and a plaque for longest fish will be handed out. The club will provide pop, condiments, cooking oil and onion rings. Bring a side dish if you can and cutlery, plates and glasses.
Our regular club meetings at the Game and Fish Building will begin again with meetings the first Wed of the month, in Aug. We have booked the Game and Fish building through December. We invite all our recent members to come and join in.
"The fish in this lake are easy to catch --- they bite twice every day -- first, before you get here --- and again, after you leave."
Stock up and save. Limit: one.
"It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon playing golf." Henry Aaron.
Fishing Reports-Tips-& tricks
A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch.
"I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret for a long happy life?"
"I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise." "That's amazing," the woman said. "How old are you?'
"Twenty-six," he said.
Baked Walleye Fillets
o 1/4 lb. mushrooms, sliced (1 cup)
o 1 tsp. salt
o 1/4 tsp. fresh ground white pepper
o 1 tsp. leaf marjoram, crumbled
o 2 Tbsp. dry white wine
o 2 tsp. lemon juice
o 1/4 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese or mild Cheddar
o 1/4 c. fresh bread crumbs
o 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
o 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Butter a baking dish, large enough so fish just slightly overlaps. Preheat oven to 400¡F. Spread green onions and mushrooms over the bottom of the dish and place fish over top. Season with salt, pepper and marjoram. Sprinkle with wine, lemon juice, cheese and bread crumbs. Drizzle melted butter over the crumbs. Bake for 4 minutes, then loosely place foil over fillets; do not seal the edges. Bake an additional 7 minutes or until fish is done.
While looking for newsletter stuff, I found some interesting solutions to electric bow trolling motor caused interference to bow mounted fish finders. The links to this information is available at http://perchjerker0.tripod.com/depth_finder.doc and http://perchjerker0.tripod.com/motorguide.pdf. If you do not have internet access and have this problem, contact me and I'll send you a printed copy.
Glendo is fishing good the past week or so. Elkhorn seems the place to be according to the reports. Jigs and leech work well, but any technique will probably have results.
Boysen is fishing well, with all tecniques working. If they can't be found shallow, try moving deeper as the cold fronts have caused some disruption in normal feeding patterns.
If you are looking for that special color jig and can't find it in the size necessary, try painting your own with nail polish. "Come Hither" and "Seduction" are my favorites. Cheap and works well. Just don't let anybody see you.
One piece of "don't leave the dock without it" gear is a hook sharpener. The best and easiest to use types seem to be the small pocket diamond coated pen like sharpeners.
One online site with a comprehensive explanation of the ways of the bottom bouncer is found at this website: http://www.justfishontario.com/bottom_bouncing_a_to_z.htm. Again for those who do not have internet access let me know and I will send you a printed copy.
In restaurant: "Open seven days a week and weekends."
Nothing impacts walleye location and behavior more than weather. Fortunately, the fish usually behave in a predictable manner.
During stable weather, walleyes usually move into shallow water and tend to frequent flats and other slow tapering types of structure. And, they scatter widely across such structure. Usually, under stable weather conditions, they'll respond best to fast moving presentations that enable an angler to cover lots of water quickly.
Conclusion: During stable weather, tie on a crankbait or bottom bouncer with a spinner and live bait and cover water. The more you cover, the higher the odds you'll run into catchable walleyes. Speed often triggers these aggressive fish. So will a change in speed. Try pumping your rod and letting it fall back when trolling. The sudden increase in speed followed by a slow down, sometimes triggers a strike.
When a cold front passes through, fish usually drop into deeper water and will tend to school more tightly. They become less aggressive and won't travel far to take a bait. The most difficult part of catching fish after the front is finding them. Walleyes will typically school tightly along a sharp-breaking drop or drop to the bottom in a main lake basin area.
Locating them is the first task. Rely on your sonar. Look for suspended schools of baitfish, realizing there's a high liklihood walleyes are located directly below them. Fish slowly and vertically. It's hard to beat a live bait-tipped jig for this kind of presentation. A Lindy Rig fished very slowly, will also work.
The live bait rig tends to work better on the second and third day following the front if only because the fish are coming our of their funk and will chase a bit. The live bait rig enables you to cover more water than a jig but it should still be fished more vertically than horizontally.
My Top Ten Undeniable Fishing Truths:
1.) The intesity of the bite is in direct proportion to the length of the honey-do list.
2.) Fish don't bite on clearance-rack tackle.
3.) Fish activity always peaks yesterday (or tomorrow).
4.) Only cheap, non fish-catching lures are 100% snagless.
5.) The only sure-fire color pattern is the one I don't have.
6.) "Enough Tackle" is a myth.
7.) Cameras in boats, spook trophy fish.
8.) $200 rods are magnetically drawn to closing car doors.
9.) Tackle boxes shrink with age.
10.) The first nice day that follows three days of cold and rain, is always called "Monday".
Current Lake levels
Glendo rose 4 ft for the month of June but is starting to drop with the current level down 2 ft from its monthly high. The fish will move to deeper water when the water is dropping. Glendo is currently at 94% full with the inflow 2679 cubic feet per second and the outflow 4295 CFS.
Boysen is 99.4% full and rose 2 ft in the month of June. It is starting to drop with inflow 4118 CFS and the outflow is 4806 CFS
. Seminoe rose yet another 13 ft for a two month total of 25 ft. Seminoe is 63.6% full and the inflow is 3532 CFS, the outflow is 2709 CFS.
And then there is Pathfinder, the forgotten puddle of the North Platte system. The lake is 22.7% full with an inflow of 3037 CFS and the outflow 2504 CFS. The lake did rise 3 ft for the month of June and hopefully will stabilize at the current levels or perhaps rise a bit further.
Because I've been trying to concentrate on becoming a better walleye fisherman, I've decided to get rid of all my trout gear. So if anyone would like my bottle of marshmallows, let me know.
"In Russia, if a male athelete loses he becomes a female athelete." -- Yakov Smirnoff.
wyowalleyenewsletter@hotmail.com
Tight Lines -- Woody and Bruce