Jeff Byrd

I absolutely hammered walleye the week of the 4th. They were slamming a Berkley Flicker shad, but the jointed one worked much better than the plain stick. I caught 25 over a 4 day period. Most of these were 14 or 15, so I threw them back. But I caught several 20+ walleye. Smallies also attacked this flicker shad. They bent my hooks, they broke one hook off the treble, I caught several in the face, the eye, the body--the action is so crazy that several fish got away just because they didn't get it in their mouth. I fished in Barnes Bay one night til 5am on a full moon. That's just how magnetic this bite was. Didn't say much about it until I left. I can't get back for at least a couple of weeks. There were no other boats out there. I prefer the night bite, but I would suspect the early bite is good too. I got out there about 1 hour prior to sunset in my pontoon boat, with closed-face Zebco 33s and caught one on ever troll around the island of trees in Barnes Bay. I think that may be Ozark Isle. A serious fisherman would limit out in a couple of hours. I'm only fishing if I'm catching, which for me usually means catfish. I've caught a few decent walleye here and there, almost always trolling. But I've never hammered walleye like this before. Wouldn't be saying anything about it if i was still there myself today. But I had to leave, and I can't make it back next weekend. Figure it'll cool off by the time I get back...so maybe somebody can try it?