For the last decade or so, mid-October has meant heading up to Minneapolis for the annual Jamf Nation User Conference (JNUC) in Minneapolis. The last couple years, I have traveled up to Minnesota the weekend before the conference, to do some late-autumn fishing with my father-in-law.
Even though JNUC was pushed back to mid-November this year, I still made the trip up north for a couple days of fishing on the Mississippi River…and my son was able to come along as well.
As walleye aren’t super common in my local waters of northern Illinois, my best chances comes when I head up to Minnesota. Over the past few years, my first walleye has been elusive to say the least. I did manage to hook one last autumn, only to be disappointed when it threw the hook just as I was getting it to the boat. So this year, I was eager to bring my walleye drought to and end.
On day 2 of, I finally (FINALLY!) got one…a decent 19 inch, 2 pound walleye, caught on a Rattlin’ Rapala (size 7) in Bone/Orange while trolling just off the shoreline in about 15 feet of water. A short time later, I also caught my first sauger…a 16 inch, 1 lb 4oz fish…again on the Rattlin’ Rapala (size 7) in Bone/Orange. Below are a few images of those fish…
We didn’t catch much over the two days fishing, and the second day was especially difficult, as the river was incredibly rough with 20mph winds blowing out of the south, and gusting to 40mph. Even so, it was great to get that elusive walleye.
It was even better to see how excited my kids were for a walleye dinner when I brought them home.
