Author Topic: Fishing Season Is Here!  (Read 4497 times)

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Offline ChrisOlson

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Fishing Season Is Here!
« on: May 05, 2012, 11:35:00 am »
The 2012 gamefish season is open today for us.

For a final test of our 8 year old boat batteries I left them sit in the boat without the onboard charger hooked up and self-discharge for two weeks.  Then I unhooked them and hooked one at a time up to the power bus in the boat and ran deck, cabin, running and anchor lights for 12 hours (about 6.5 amp load).  If the battery will crank and start the outboard after the 12 hour load test with 78 amp-hours pulled out of a 95ah battery, it's still good.  They both passed with flying colors.

Kristin and I went and bought our 2012 husband/wife season fishing license yesterday.  We're going out walleye huntin' tonight on the lake that the boater was lost in a couple or three weeks back.  It's raining here on and off today and supposed to get worse tonight.  Nothing worse than being caught on a big, cold lake at midnight in the wind and rain with dead batteries and an outboard that won't start.

The water is really cold for this time of year - only 47 degrees.  The walleyes will be in the shallows on the submerged islands out in the middle of the lake.  They've already moved off the spawning beds.  We talked to some people who went out walleye huntin' this morning and they had no luck.  There was 2-3 foot swells with whitecaps on the lake, and they got cold and wet and gave up.  Most people don't know how to fish walleyes.  They go out and fish a few "known good hotspots" and if the fish don't bite they give up.

You look for the baitfish "clouds" on the sonar.  We'll go out a couple hours before sundown and just drive around on the lake mapping out where the baitfish are hanging out.  Where the baitfish are, the walleyes aren't too far away.  They keep a close eye on their food supply, and when they move in to feed you have to be there to take advantage of the feeding frenzy that usually lasts about two to three hours.  My gut instinct, and lots of experience, tells me the baitfish will be up in the warmer water during the day and the walleyes don't like to expend the energy to catch 'em because the baitfish can see and they just scatter.  The walleyes will wait until just around dark when they have the advantage because they can see and the baitfish are blind in the low light, and don't know what hit 'em.   :)
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Chris