Inaccurate Technology: Captain’s Column (6.26.14)
By angelamontana

Posted: June 26, 2014

Sometimes I wish the technology that we have today wasn’t available. Computers, smart phones, tablets, all of then give you instant information. Sometimes instant information isn’t all the great or accurate.

Last week, I was planning to spend most of the week fishing over at Canyon Ferry for walleye. That was the plan until I started to go to weather.com on my computer and on the app I have on my iPhone. It kept forecasting rain, wind and cold weather for most of the week. So I kept delaying my departure, because I figured the fishing wouldn’t be very good as the forecast called for a classic cold front that most always shuts down walleye fishing.  So, I spent Monday and Tuesday catching up with things I had put off doing that needed to be done. I also had a couple of great days with my son William as we bowled and played basketball each day. By Wednesday, however, I made the decision to ignore the weather forecasters and pack everything up and head east over McDonald Pass to the south end of Canyon Ferry.

I was joined by my buddy Allan Tabish. We arrived on Canyon Ferry late Wednesday to wind and heavy rain. . We decided not to go out fishing that evening because after all walleyes don’t bite during a cold front. Thursday morning greeted us with overcast skies with no rain and a slight breeze. We were anxious to get out on the water and decided because of the recent fishing reports that pulling crank baits would be the best way to start fishing.

We boated over to Pond One on the east side of the lake and set-up our rods with four of the best crank baits that might work best under the current conditions. No sooner did we get the lures in the water and the boat headed south along the east shore about 3 miles per hour that we had a hookup. It was a trout not a walleye. That was fine as far as we were concerned it was only a matter of time before we hooked a walleye.

Three hours went by and four other trout were caught but not one walleye. We decided to head north to a spot that I have had luck catching walleyes in past years. It was deeper there and with the water temperature only 55 degrees we figured the walleyes might be a little deeper. We changed our method of fishing to bottom bouncers and night crawler harnesses and the strategy worked. We started fishing in 25 feet of water instead of the 12-15 feet we were fishing before and found the walleyes were in fact in the deeper water.

We ended up catching 12 walleyes in four hours, the action was not hot and heavy by any means, but better than we expected the way our day started. The day ended up being nice with no wind, rain and the walleyes were biting. So much for believing the weather forecast and the theory that walleyes don’t bite during a cold front.

(Written by the Captain)

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