Jim K: Roosevelt - 9/27

With the possibility of timing a sunset bite along with the beginning of a cold front I took my son Seth out to try casting jerk baits for walleyes. We casted for 45 minutes before the front (rain & wind) and the fish showed up. However after catching three walleyes on three casts the lightning also decided to show up as well. We took cover for half an hour, then caught our biggest (21”) walleye on our first cast after the storm cleared.

More for SWC members:

Even with knowing the Roosevelt NRA paving project was still going on, I neglected to check the schedule of work for the Fort Spokane boat ramp. When I arrived at about 5PM, there was a barrier & signs showing the boat ramp was closed... you could see that the lines on the new boat ramp parking lot had recently been painted. My back up plan was to run to the casino, but I soon found that ramp was closed as well. Minutes later as I came back over the bridge on my way to Porcupine, there was a ranger and a member of the paving crew removing the signs blocking entrance to the Fort Spokane boat ramp! See the attached image for what it looks like to be the very first person to use this facility after the paving project was completed. I happily pulled into my favorite parking spot after launching the boat! Was a wonderful feeling to have a “private” boat ramp all to myself!

Following a pattern I’ve noted in previous reports, I was specifically targeting to be fishing from 1/2 hour before sunset until about 1/2 hour after sunset on this trip. But also after looking at the weather forecast the entire week, I was curious if I could catch this same time period with front edge of the cold front forecasted to arrive some time on Friday evening. I was curious if these two elements would be a perfect storm in a fishing sense. After driving through some scattered showers, we got the boat in the water in very comfortable dry weather. There was a brief light sprinkle as we boated to our fishing spot. Then we had good weather for about 45 minutes. Then the wind picked up, and the you could see a wall of dark rain working it’s way towards us. Rain started to gradually get heavier. I eventually noticed more activity on my depth finder as we were casting with long skinny horizontal lines appearing on the screen as we were sitting stationary…. these fish marks were not there for the first 45 minutes of our fishing, nor during my drive around with sonar before we began fishing. The fish were suspended from 10-15’ down over anywhere from 12 - 30 FOW. Seth was using a larger KVD jerk bait and I was using a smaller shadow rap shad deep. I began to get extremely light ticks on my bait, but was swinging and missing. I then stopped to help Seth downsize since he was not getting any of the similar bites on his larger lure. We both continued having light bites for the next 10 minutes or so. Finally they began taking the lure a bit more and we were able to catch three 15” walleyes in three casts. Even so, the bites were light, and fish wee hooked on the tips of their lips by the last hook on the lure. By now wind had picked up substantially, the cold downdrafts were very noticeable, and the rain had turned into a very heavy downpour. But with fish biting, we were still excited to continue fishing, after all, this bite would stop in another 45 minutes or so before we would head in.! But then a very large cloud to cloud lightning bolt streaked across the sky. We had not seen any lightning or heard any thunder from any of squalls we’ve witnessed until now. We quickly pulled onto a nearby beach next to some high cliffs to avoid being the highest object in the area. After 30 minutes the lightning had stopped, storm had moved on, and we could see the brighter post sunset sky to the east. Returning to our fishing spot, I caught a 21” walleye on my next cast. Unlike the other fish, the one hammered the bait. After this we didn’t have another bite for 15 minutes before we decided to use the last light of the evening to make our drive to the dock a bit easier. Good to be alive, but I still wonder how many fish we would have caught during those 30 minutes we spent on shore during the magic hour!

Newly painted parking lot at Ft Spokane.