By Harold Brutlag
My brother Charles, Ottertail, was concerned about the hot weather last week when he and three other anglers from Henning, and east Leaf Lake decided to try North Dakota for walleye. He said the hot weather accompanied by a strong wind did a number on the walleye bite and he couldn’t get a fish to bite, or even a nibble the first two days. He said they tried Dry Lake the next day and he caught three. He said the problem there was a fresh May fly hatch and the walleyes preferred them to the bait he was using. Anyone fishing when the May flies are hatching knows what I mean.. The only answer then is to fish deep and hope to get some fish.
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Daryl Hennen and five other anglers, Tim Risbrudt, James Goelz, David Goelz, David Gries and Adam Hennen made their annual trip to Ear Falls in Canada and also ran into hot weather, in the 90s, for three days. He said the lake was down about 1 & 1/2 feet, before it rained three inches. He felt the low water, not only presented a problem with rocks, it also changed the habits of the Walleyes and they weren’t in the same spots they were other years. He said they had to do some hunting, but when they did they all filled out their limits of 18 inchers. He said most of the fish caught were too large to measure into that slot. They caught some Northerns too with Gries having the largest, over 30 inches. Risbrudt hauled in a 32 inch Lake Trout which he threw back after it had put up a good fight. If there was anything Daryl didn’t like about the trip was the 7 1/2 hour drive and the hour and a half fly-in plane ride to Showalters resort, but as you can see, it provided great fishing which makes the trip more tolerable. When they got near Grand Rapids they had to stop on the highway to let a fawn cross ahead of then. Hennen said it was wobbly and only a day or so old.