Greg K: Rufus Woods - 5/12

I was still recovering from night shifts, so I didn't get on the road very early on Friday. I didn't get the boat on the water until 1130 AM. I fished until about 7 PM. I got 5 walleyes, 2 trout, and 3 pike minnows. The walleyes were 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21.5 inches. There were only 5 other boats at the Seaton's Grove launch, about half of the number I saw a couple of weeks ago. The current remains strong about 5 mph in the channel by the launch. Water temperature is only 47 degrees.

More info for club members: I wanted to try something new, so I boated a good 15 miles below Seaton's Grove. I passed all three sets of net pens to water I had never seen before. I found a nice flat near a yellow catwalk structure and caught two nice walleyes within the first hour. I got another walleye in a larger bay a mile below the catwalk. I moved back upriver and found another good walleye near pump 8 (clearly labeled). There was another long flat just below the 3rd set of net pens. I hooked a good fish there, but it shook off. I tried a few smaller eddies and pools behind several points, but got nothing. I picked up my last walleye across from Buckley Bar. I got no walleyes at the rest of my familiar spots close to Seaton's Grove.

My intention was to fish jigs for most of the day, but ended up trolling a bouncer with a smile blade in the rod holder and working a blade bait quite a bit of the day. The flats below the net pens were too big to fish slow, so I trolled about 1 mph ripping the blade bait and watching the rod with the bouncer. Blade bait: 2 walleyes and 1 trout (foul hooked in the butt). Bouncer and Smile Blade: 2 walleyes and 1 pikeminnow. Jig: 1 walleye, 2 pikeminnows, and 1 trout.