Greg K and Tom F: Rufus Woods - 4/19

Tom and I got to Rufus a little before 11 AM and fished until 630 PM. By noon, we had 3 walleyes in the boat. We moved several times before we found a couple more fish by mid afternoon. The late afternoon and evening was slow.Tom caught 3 trout and I picked up a walleye at the very end of the day. Our total was 7 walleyes -- 15", 16", 18", 20", 20", 21"(released), 22"(released) and 3 trout (released).  All walleyes were males.

The current was noticeably lighter during the afternoon, and the water level at the launch dropped 2-3 feet while we were fishing. The weather was perfect with less than 5 mph wind and bright sunshine for most of the day. Water temp was 42 degrees. Water clarity was several feet.

More info for SWC members: We caught our fish drifting current seams and back eddies in 15 to 25 feet of water. Every walleye and trout was caught on a 3 to 4 inch dark green or olive curl tail grub tipped with a crawler. Brown, grey, purple, and root beer grubs caught nothing. We used heavy jigs 3/8 ounce to maintain bottom contact. The best spot was about 100 to 200 yards below the Seatons Grove launch. Two of our largest fish were caught just below the 3rd set of net pens (so we boated past 3 sets of pens to get there). 

Tom lost about 3 pounds of lead on the rock/rubble bottom, and practiced his knot tying skills frequently. My tackle box is only a half pound lighter because chartreuse jig heads evidently snag less than the ones that aren't painted chartreuse.