[RiverRat]

Haven't been out to Heidecke as much as I would like this year, but after seeing all the reports of the walleyes hitting I had to make some time and get out to the lake. I gave JimL a call and we decided to meet up at open and fish till afternoon. Jim has been on a little bit of a roll lately at H, but I'm no slouch out there either so I was looking forward to matching up our Kung-fu. Heidecke is a lake that makes you stay on top of it, it is constantly changing even all these years after the cooler being shut down. It is not last years lake, an nothing exemplifies that more than Smallmouth being the new Yellow Bass...



The smallies had dirty bellies and looked deflated, like they just came off the spawn and were on the eat. Most of the fish were 12-15" but seemed to be everywhere. You also had your normal yellows and small stripers, we did find a nice pod of 15-17" stripers that was a lot of fun but not what we were looking for.

We kept up or drift, but the wind was brutal and it made boat control tough. I was starting to get worried because Jim had put around a half dozen walleye in the boat, some barley missing legal, while I had only one 11" to show. I felt a schooling coming on.

We moved on and found a hump holding piles of baitfish, so we decided to drift on it. On the first drift Jim pulled out this nice 19" fish.



Very healthy looking fish, had a little weight to him, not the skinny fish of last year.

A couple more passes and Jim filled out his limit with a 17" and 16" while I was pulling in yellows and stripers. Usually the walleyes are under the whites and yellows, but today they were suspended above them and I was not prepared to fish that way. I tried a couple different ways to get my bait further up in the column, but with no luck. I finally broke down and borrowed some of Jim's gear and got myself setup in the zone, and just as were pulling up to leave I was able to put a legal on the board to avoid the shutout.. never say die



Great day on the water - It is always nice to get on a pattern and figure out what the fish are doing. Should be a good summer out there.

*edit* All fish CPR

[wsj_outdoorsman]

Very nice looking fish, healthy too.

[Bearsfan]

Nice goin' guys. Thanks for the report.

My Dad (N9Phil), my buddy Joe and I were there Sunday too. We caught about a dozen small fish trolling the Jugtown roadbed. Crawler harnesses caught most of our Walleye, Striper, and Sheephead. Didn't know what to expect after the storm/tornado warning there the night before. We were there from about 7AM - Noon. All fish were caught and released. Only one 15" walleye got the catch photo release.



I was looking at that 15" walleye, thinking man, if it had been a 15" Lake Michigan perch, we'd all be high fivin' each other.

[JimL]

Nice report Riv!
Sure is good to see those wallys looking so fat and healthy.

Quote:

I was looking at that 15" walleye, thinking man, if it had been a 15" Lake Michigan perch, we'd all be high fivin' each other.

I've had that same thought.

[John Mannerino]

Just got back from the vaca with the wifey. Looks like they are still going Jimmy.

[FishinMatt]

With you two in the boat the fish stand no chance. Was very close to fishing there Sunday as I had the rare weekend day to fish. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda.....

[FrankB]

Awesome work guys! Makes me want to get out there again ASAP.

[RiverRat]

Matt - next time you are thinking about heading out there let me know.

Bearsfan - might be at the CCAC over July 4th looking for walleye out there. I never get the chance to fish that place as much as I want, but I think I'm getting close to putting together something together on that lake as far as eyes.

[Bearsfan]

RiverRat wrote:

...might be at the CCAC over July 4th looking for walleye out there. I never get the chance to fish that place as much as I want, but I think I'm getting close to putting together something together on that lake as far as eyes.

I'll shoot ya a PM and we can compare notes.

[MJAnderson]

Nice work guys. I was out there Saturday as well- fished it pretty hard but not the same results.
two small walleye 14" and a ton of yellow bass and hybrids mixed in. Trolling worm harness on north side. Wish I coudl have fished later into the afternoon before the storm hit. Still haven't figured out H yet this year- definitely not on the same patterns as last year for me. Running out of time before the shad hatch.

[RiverRat]

Welcome to the site MJA - The one thing I would say about Heidecke is to keep experiment with different things, and keep moving till you find fish. You would be surprised at how much a minor adjustment can make a huge difference. The simplest things like adjusting leader length, adding a bead, changing lure color, or changing weight can be the difference between not catching fish and catching fish. The lake can be fickle.

Good Luck

[GETDANET1]

Fickle is not the word that I would use to describe that cauldron.

[RiverRat]

Headed out after work last night for another shot. We had very limited time so it was a quick hit on a couple of the spots that produced in the past. First spot jim had a big bite that doubled over his rod - we thought it was going to be a big sow walleye because in the murky water we saw the white flash of a tail... turned out not to be the case..


Nice 6lb cat - you can see the white discoloration on the tail which got our hopes up with its flash in the water, it really got our hearts going...

Couple dink walleye, smallies and yellows so we moved on to the next spot.


We pulled a double of identical fish right after marking them on the spot. Pretty cool to mark fish and then to catch them.

We moved out to try another spot, but a strong east wind kicked up and threw off our drift, so we moved again.



Marked fish again, and this time they were stripers. Caught a couple nice 4-5lb fish that were really concentrated up. They would only hit live bait, and ignored lures. Just as we got the pattern down, the clock ran out and we had to hurry back to beat the gate closing.

Wouldn’t it be nice to fish there at night..

[JimL]

Man what a tuff day.Nothing worse than a east wind.
Those stripers were unreal,just working our way back to ramp on center of lake.Suddenly see fish all over bottom and they do look a little different than eyes on screen.As soon as I say fish WHAM!3 rods bent over like snags.Grabbed one realed, hook broke right of 8lb floro.Did get other one in.Never seen stripers grouped on bottom like that and agressive.Just ran out of time .To bad there were some huge fish there.
Still a great time on water.
I think I need to go to smile school,thats my happy face

[Murph810]

Nice job guys, did I miss water temp ?
Jiml wrote:

Quote:

I think I need to go to smile school,thats my happy face

I started working on mine about 20 minutes ago. The Lund has been stuck in the shop for about a month, they called & said it'll be ready this afternoon...........murph810

PS: How's the trestle clearance ?

[RiverRat]

I honestly did not look at the water temp either day. After it gets above 70°F I stop paying attention.

My guess is 74°F

You can drive a truck under the bridge

[John Mannerino]

Sweet!!!! Jimmy ,did those eyes come off our Mr. Magoo spot.

[JimL]

Yes they did.
78 degrees Murph