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Saginaw River .....a lot of firsts.
All week long I debated where and how to go Walleye fishing, trolling for them at Erie, or jigging a river?
I’m pretty comfortable doing the trolling program but have never been the guy on the TM vertical jigging, so that program was one of anxiety.
Waited until Friday night to make the decision and Saginaw River jigging was the choice. My friends told me Saginaw is a good river to learn on and I knew in my mind I needed to learn it.....so suck it up buttercup and do it!
My son Chris, his friend Mike and I left here at 4:30 with temps at 17 degrees, weatherman predicted sun and 46.....it had a ways to go before warming up so we headed up to Franks Great Outdoors. Mike has never been there and it was a good place to hole up and wait for the temps to rise a bit.....and for Chris to add more bandits to his growing supply.
We launched at Zilwaukee and motored downriver to begin our drift.
First time on the TM and neither remote worked....well what the heck! Now what? I remembered I had a foot pedal, never used it but as long as I’m learning, why not?
I found a place outside the pack and began my learning experience, in about 30 minutes I had the general idea and felt comfortable the more the day went on, in fact joined right up with the middle of the pack with no issues! I didn’t use the foot pedal with my feet, instead I remember how Sparty does it and placed it up on the flat bow area next to the TM and used my free hand to work the controls.....funny story about this and my ignorance on buttons I won’t text it here but happy to tell you in person if you need a chuckle!
It never did warm up much and I was glad I brought my ice fishing suit.
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About the second drift Chris caught the first Walleye, a 18.5” eater, so we knew we wouldn’t be skunked. Then there was a sheepshead, SM Bass, couple branches and first time to Walleye fishing Mike caught his first Eye, a 13 1/2” throwback.....but his first!
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Another couple undersized eyes and Mike caught a nice Catfish he released after a nice tug on the rod.
The last fish of the day was a Personal Best for Chris, a 25.5” Eye.
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So we had a cold but good time on the water filled with accomplishments!
No we didn’t come anywhere near a limit, but really isn’t the catch just icing on the cake when you can take away a new skill learned, a first ever Walleye for a new guy and a PB for your son?
In my opinion, you can’t beat a day on the water like that......
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