Stone Cold Huron Walleye

Just returned from yet another successful road trip fishing-filming shows for Season 10, which by the way is into week #5 already on WFNHD & WFN across N. America.

Got a heads up from my buddy Todd Steele who lives in Port Huron MI, that the deep water walleyes we`re stacking up in good numbers and size`s along one of his favorite locations outside the St.Clair River in Lake Huron.
We`ll, it didn`t take me long to push some other business related items to the back and get on the highway 401 west to Michigan with cameraman in tow.

Despite the early morning, sub-freezing temps and frost covering everything in sight, the rising sun made it feel a whole lot warmer than the thermo was reading when we headed to the boat ramp to start our day.
With a slight southwind at our backs, we made our way to the mouth of the river and didn`t waste any time in tying up some of todd`s favorite "pill shaped: 5/8 oz jigs with shad like plastic imitations and headed to the first drift of the day in approx. 35+ feet of H20.
As is usually the case when fishing with Todd, his first drift, first 5 minutes, produces fish #1 of the day, a nice 2+ pound walleye with the jig stuck in the upper jaw.

Took me approx 15 minutes of trial and error to get dialed into the correct cadence and mental focus to constantly drop line to keep the jig off bottom while we drifted from 30+ feet down to 70+ feet of H20. But, once I did, the morning was filled with mega bites, hits, misses and dipping the lucky strike basket net into the lake Huron water to boat yet another chunk walleye for the cameras.

It amazes me how deep these fish are, yet with the good St.Croix`s and low stretch fluorocarbon line, you could feel every soft bite and leaf-life sensation signalling a bite. I rigged up a bunch of St.Croix Legend Xtreme spinning outfits from 6' 6" to 7' medium action with Ardent S2000 & S2500 Fishouflage reels & some casting outfits ranging from 6'6" to 7" with Ardent Fishouflage reels loaded with fluorocarbon in the 12- 17 lbs class for the soft shad baits and spoons.

It was imperative to keep our baits directly vertical below the boat, which is not an easy task when your down 30-70+ feet with a 4+ mph drift, but when you get dialed into the exact feel and focus, you can feel every slight bump and bite from these walleyes.

We continued the same pattern over and again, using the gps unit to repeat exact trail paths for the small pods of active fish we found, then would move slightly deeper or further away from the rivermouth when the bite slowed down, and that helped us locate more and bigger walleye on this trip.

Todd also used a jigging spoon on every other drift which produced a huge channel cat and some of the bigger walleye of our day.
All in all, it yet another fun experience sharing the boat with Todd, releasing the bigger gals and boating a bunch of tasty walleyes that fed the family this past weekend.
Looking forward to the early spring run of walleyes and dodging ice flows come next spring on the St.Clair river.