# CJ Brown Walleye



## Creek Warrior (Sep 8, 2021)

Went out last night and walked/climed the RipRap areas and was able to build quite the variety of CJ Brown fish sampler pack. Was mainly targeting Walleye to begin with the ol trusty 1/8 oz jig and twister tail and got nothing. Decided to apply what I learned from years past and down size to a 1/16oz jig, that move got the party started. Allowed me to fish a bit slower and closer to the bank without getting snagged in the rocks. Several white bass at first but eventually got some decent crappie and a random perch. As the pan fish bite slowed down, the walleye picked up, first was a 18” male hanging real close to the bank followed by 5 other sub 15” fish. Wish I could have stayed longer as unlocking the daily CJ Brown walleye secret is not very common, but happy with what I was able to get.


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

Went out this morning for my first serious walleye expedition of the year. Was kind of breezy first thing and I almost left. Was so busy trying to control the boat I wasn't paying enough attention to my pole and couldn't feel bites very well. But the wind finally laid down some by late morning. Tried my usual jig and worm and caught several fish but no eyes and nothing over 6 inches except a white bass. Also tried casting and jigging spoons with only a bluegill and a white bass. Switched to a shiver minnow and caught 3 eyes and a largemouth. The eyes were 14, 15 and 22. Was fishing 9 to 13 fow. Water temp was just over 66 in the morning and just under 67 when I left around 1:30.


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

Had a busy morning. We caught 5 eyes on jig and worm early. 2 keepers and one was really nice. Then the wind kicked up and could not feel the jig anymore so switched to casting shiver minnows. Caught 9 more, only one a keeper. Fish early morning came from 5' to 8' of water. Late morning-mid day fish were in 10' to 14'.The white bass were really hungry today also, a few with some size. It's been a few years since I've caught so many white bass at CJ. Also caught a 4" perch, my second one in 4 trips. The population must be on the mend.


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

Was a good morning, caught a nice limit (16.3lbs) and 7 shorts. About a third on jig and worm, the rest on shiver minnow in 11 to 13 fow. Did not have the usual variety today, only 1 gill, 4 cats and 4 real nice crappie. Fish seemed to like the light breeze today. When it either picked up or died off my bite stopped. Water temp was around 75. Fished from about 6am till 12:10 when I picked up number 6. Lost six fish on the shiver minnow. Don't know what that was about, used to lose fish jigging spoons but hardly ever lose them on the shiver minnow.


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## Creek Warrior (Sep 8, 2021)

Troy Dave said:


> Was a good morning, caught a nice limit (16.3lbs) and 7 shorts. About a third on jig and worm, the rest on shiver minnow in 11 to 13 fow. Did not have the usual variety today, only 1 gill, 4 cats and 4 real nice crappie. Fish seemed to like the light breeze today. When it either picked up or died off my bite stopped. Water temp was around 75. Fished from about 6am till 12:10 when I picked up number 6. Lost six fish on the shiver minnow. Don't know what that was about, used to lose fish jigging spoons but hardly ever lose them on the shiver minnow.


Great update! I have been busy working on a project Jon boat past few weeks and have not got out much. When I finish this up, I think my first trip in it will be out at CJ, I have been hearing great reports on crappie this year!


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## crappietime (Sep 20, 2014)

Troy Dave said:


> Was a good morning, caught a nice limit (16.3lbs) and 7 shorts. About a third on jig and worm, the rest on shiver minnow in 11 to 13 fow. Did not have the usual variety today, only 1 gill, 4 cats and 4 real nice crappie. Fish seemed to like the light breeze today. When it either picked up or died off my bite stopped. Water temp was around 75. Fished from about 6am till 12:10 when I picked up number 6. Lost six fish on the shiver minnow. Don't know what that was about, used to lose fish jigging spoons but hardly ever lose them on the shiver minnow.


Shiver minnow looks alot like a jigging rapala which I use at caesar creek.I like em cause they catch a variety,crappie ,white bass,saugeye and even catfish while vertical jigging.Is that how you use the shiver minnow?


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

I cast out and hop them back with a snap jigging action. I have never vertical jigged them. I used to vertical jig spoons a lot and caught a lot of eye's but as the population dropped my catch rate fell way off. When I started using shiver minnows the population was so low I figured casting would cover more ground and potentially contact more fish. Same with jig and worm, I always cast or do a slow drift. Never stay in one spot anymore. If I'm drifting a ridge or a flat I will fish the jig on the drift down and throw the shiver minnow while using the trolling motor to slowly move back to the top of the drift. Kind of makes a change of pace during the day.


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## BlueBoat98 (Nov 5, 2004)

In case you guys didn't figure it out from Dave's posts, CJ is pretty much ON FIRE right now. Lots of Walleyes being caught jigging and trolling. I've caught over 60 between 13" and 22" in the past 4 trips. That includes getting skunked on Walleyes on Father's Day when Dave did so well! If you've been wanting to use your jigging skills this is the time. Even if you catch a bunch of 14" fish they are still a blast and SO encouraging for the future years.

See you out there.

MC


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

For some reason today seemed tough even though we caught some fish. Started out the first hour or so hunting for musky and then switched back to eyes. Drifted the rr bed from about 5ft depth out to the trestle. It was like the dead sea, caught 1 short eye and 1 bluegill the whole drift. Hit it a couple weeks ago and caught 2 eyes and lots of crappie, gills and cats. Around 10:00 we moved on down the lake to another short ridge and worked it until noon when we quit. We caught two eyes around 18" and six shorts, a few gills, real small crappie and some cats. The larger cats, 1-2lbs, were all at the south end of the ridge and the small ones all to the north end.


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## BlueBoat98 (Nov 5, 2004)

I was out by 6:00, Dave. Guess I didn't see you if you were along the shore or up north. That flat calm and the bright sun made it tough for a jig bite! I also got 6 shorties, 4 of them after the wind picked up just a little. Then finally got a 21 and a 17. Pulled up at 10:30 because the sun was so bright that my eyes were burning and watering. 

I heard second hand of TWO 28" fish caught trolling plus other big fish and a boat that limited in 35 minutes! The fish are still there and active, they just didn't like what I was serving today.
Back on Sunday weather permitting.
See you out there.
MC


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## MagicMarker (Mar 19, 2017)

Fished 6-10 am this morning trolling. 6 walleye 4 legal 2 shorts, dozen crappie, 4 white bass 4 catfish and a Muskie. Got 30 in tape measure on side of boat and it was 5-6 inches longer than it. Fun morning


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

What a difference a day or two makes. Went back on Sat. by myself and caught 20, only 4 keepers, in little over 6 hours. First time in a few years I caught that many in one morning. This morning went back with my fishing partner and he caught 2 nice keepers and I got 2 shorts. No crappie or white bass, 3 cats and about 10 gills. Not a lot for 5 hours. Sat. two thirds were caught on shiver minnow and rest on jig/worm. Today all on jig/worm. Water temp was only down 1 or 2 degrees from Sat. and breeze was about the same. Going to try again tomorrow, see if a little warming helps some.


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## NightcrawlerNick (Jun 7, 2019)

MagicMarker said:


> Fished 6-10 am this morning trolling. 6 walleye 4 legal 2 shorts, dozen crappie, 4 white bass 4 catfish and a Muskie. Got 30 in tape measure on side of boat and it was 5-6 inches longer than it. Fun morning
> View attachment 490556
> View attachment 490557


Nicely done! If you don't mind me asking, what lures were you trolling?


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## MagicMarker (Mar 19, 2017)

Jointed shad raps


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

After a great Saturday, I blamed Tuesdays poor outing on the Sunday night, Monday morning cold front and a drop in water temps. So Wednesday I invite a friend who fishes with me once or twice a season thinking another day away from the front and a little warmer water will improve things. And it did, quite a bit, we caught between 15 and 20 eyes in six hours on a mixture of worms, vibe, shiver minnow, jigging rap and maybe a spoon. Water temp was up about a degree. So I'm thinking today should be even better like 15 to 30. Weather is stable and water temp. should be up another degree or so. I invite my neighbor who I would really like to see get into a good bite. The result was a total of 4 shorts. So the moral of the past six days is, "What I thought I knew I don't and any fish I catch is dumb luck". Tomorrow morning my neighbor and I will try casting for some musky which will be good because my expectations of catching any are usually on the moderate to low side and therefore it's much harder to be disappointed.


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

Great morning, my neighbor caught two musky, missed one on the eight and had a follow. I caught one and lost two. He was using a spinner bait and I got mine on a bucktail. I tried a swimbait and a couple of different crankbaits but no takers. Plan to get back to walleye after the 4th for at least a couple more weeks. It is more relaxing, even pumping a shiver minnow is more relaxing than cranking a musky bait.


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## tinguppy (Oct 21, 2021)

Troy Dave said:


> Great morning, my neighbor caught two musky, missed one on the eight and had a follow. I caught one and lost two. He was using a spinner bait and I got mine on a bucktail. I tried a swimbait and a couple of different crankbaits but no takers. Plan to get back to walleye after the 4th for at least a couple more weeks. It is more relaxing, even pumping a shiver minnow is more relaxing than cranking a musky bait.


I still have not got a musky at Cj ,but I have only been once this year.


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## tinguppy (Oct 21, 2021)

Hey Dave did you do anything today? We seen you twice while we were fishing for Catfish, we got 4 biggest 6#.


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## Troy Dave (Jan 26, 2007)

tinguppy said:


> Hey Dave did you do anything today? We seen you twice while we were fishing for Catfish, we got 4 biggest 6#.


Six pound is nice. Caught one 18" eye, 3 crappie, 1 gill and 6 small cats. I was there to use up the last of my crawlers but left before the storm. Wanted to get the boat back in the garage before it got full of water and I just made it by 30 seconds. If the fishing was better I wouldn't mind but 1 eye is not worth having to vacuum water out of the carpet and storage compartments especially since I wasn't keeping any. Tossed the rest of the crawlers in a flower bed by the back door and was lucky enough to see a garter snake that lives there slurp one up. Took him about 2 minuets to swallow it. Must have filled him up because he left the other 4 alone.


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## tinguppy (Oct 21, 2021)

We got to the ramp just as the storm hit, got soaked getting the truck.


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