(00:00:01) Next Saturday believe it or not is the fishing opener already. So we thought that we'd talk about fishing today on the assumption that most of you who are fishing enthusiasts will be out on the water. Next week. Chad Myers is here. He is a longtime fishing Enthusiast. He teaches a Humanities at Metropolitan State University is an outdoor writer and has been joining us here for the past several years to talk fishing Chet. Nice to see you again. Nice to be back. Thanks. Well, it's hard to believe it Chet that we've got the fishing opener already because April was a miserable cold month. It was just cloudy cold windy the whole time and now all of a sudden its spring summer, right? What kind of an opener you think we're going to get next week? Well anybody who predicts the opener is better singer than I am. It's really difficult. I think the most important thing for for listeners to realize is that because it was so cloudy. The the Lakes haven't thought up in the in the far north and The Boundary Waters and and most Canadian Lakes are still still have ice on them. I talked to my friend John. Eric up in the Moose Bay Company just last week and he still had ice on on his Lake up there. That means that water temperatures are going to be very cold in most parts of the state and that means that the fish will be very inactive and it could be slow. It could be a slow opener for that reason particularly. I think in the central part of the states were a lot of people fish the walleyes have spawned there and they'll be the females will be recuperating. They'll be hard to catch be catching a lot of males. It might even make sense. If you have options of places to go fishing. It might even make sense to go further north that that may sound contradictory. Yeah, but the reason for that is in areas where the walleye fishing is open and summaries are off-limits now, I'm sure the DNR is probably going to make a few more off limits because they don't walleyes. They don't want the walleyes to be caught when they're spawning been in those areas where you could fish in the far north the walleyes. The male's will be really grouped up in Pre spawn and there it's a lot of fun to catch pre-spawn walleyes. So as long as it's legal and the DNR said it's okay. It might make Sense to go further north and and fish for walleyes at night probably at night really might not even take the boat out might just stand on the shore and cast from Shore in spawning areas Rocky areas. And you might do real well just just staying out at night and fishing at night. Mmm. Chad Myers is with us today as we talk about fishing. If you're a fishing enthusiasts will give a chance to visit with him and find out what some of Chet's tips are on catching fish and and enjoying yourself out there to to 76 thousand is the number of Minneapolis st. Paul elsewhere. The toll-free line is 1-800-222-8477 side the Minneapolis st. Paul area we get days like this that are just windy as the Dickens they have the lake advisories in effect. You can get out there in a boat. It's not very much fun to handle it. How did the fish respond? Well, generally when does okay for fish with wind does particularly further on you get into the summer is it it creates a lot of oxygen it the Lakes get a lot of their dissolved oxygen. When the action they get it from two sources primarily wind action and from vegetation and when you've got more oxygen in the water some species respond, very positively that walleyes love a nice Chop on the water it gets the more active. So the fish may be more active at all. So if you have a wind blowing for a number of days from the same direction, it'll actually stack the food chain up at one end of the lake so that you can predict if the winds been blowing from the north for two or three days that perhaps the south end of the lake might not be a bad place to check out I've experienced that on some of the city likes the problem is that often wins in the mid west winds blow around and they change a lot. Yeah they do but it's fine for the fish. It's just it's very frustrating for Anglers. I hate fishing in a win. I mean, I like just a nice gentle win the best kind of fishing wind which is a little stronger than that. I mean fish when I should I should distinguish between good weather when the fish are active when a little stronger wind is great for the fish and the fish activity cuts down the light penetration. The fish aren't as skittish they're more active. They're chasing food, but it's just real. Straining to handle a boat and to keep a boat position, right and to end to know where you're fishing and to keep on structure and to stay on weed lines. So Windows Windows a great frustration for a lot of Anglers 10 minutes past eleven o'clock Chet Myers with us here on Minnesota Public Radio some folks with questions about fishing today. So if we're all set, let's put you on first hole (00:04:19) there. Yes. Hello. I had a question regarding fishing for panfish from Shore. I tend to enjoy that crappies and bluegills and Sony's the question I have is when using small jigs such as mr. Twisters or jigs with feathers. Can you comment about use of different colors? I tend to use yellow and white jigs and I don't know anything about what's appropriate for what type of cloud conditions are like conditions that kind of thing. I'll hang up and listen. Thank you very much. (00:04:45) Yeah, that's a very good question. If there's a general rule of thumb with regards to Jigs and lures on sunny days versus cloudy days and the rule of thumb is on the brighterdayz use the brighter color. So when you got a good son out use a white or a yellow when you get a dark overcast day to you A brown or black not the reason for there's lots of debate about why why that makes a difference. But the reason is that it more naturally replicates what the fish are seeing in terms of their prey. In other words. If the Sun is out you get more of a glint off of your prey if the Sun is hidden or it's a cloudy day. You see the pray more as a shadow. So if you're fishing on a very overcast day and I usually stick with this rule of thumb I found it helpful a brown or black is good because it's Silhouettes better against the available light also towards evening is your fishing panfish towards evening and the crappies are particularly get active right around Sunset there one of the fish that just gets triggered by the sun going down better to start switching to a darker jig at that time because the fish will be able to silhouette it a little better than be able to see a little better as far as other colors go. I mean there's I've been on lakes. I think with some species colors really important on the Great Lakes whether it's a fluorescent green or a blue that the charter fishermen the the Anglers that run the charter boats out there there on the walkie talkies all day talking what What color because some days a certain color on a certain depth is just key trout can be very very Persnickety that way but with most panfish, I think it's a case of having their being at the right depth. First of all having the right weight jig on and then messing around with colors and find a few that you know, some of the basic colors but there are more I was talking to a friend yesterday and there are more jigs out on the market now than I think there must be 30 different varieties and there's probably 30 or 40 different colors. So you get your pick, you know find one that works for you find some that works for you, but be sure to have some light winds and some dark ones in your tackle box. And then if you want to go with the fluorescent colors in the middle, that's fine, too. What are those jig supposed to represent to the fish? I mean what what what is their natural prey heaven knows I mean, there's there's nothing in the world that looks like a purple plastic worm and yet it's probably one of the best bass floors. That's ever been concoct. I mean nothing swims that looks like a purple plastic worm. So I think for fish I mean they're they're pretty instinctive feeders. They're just looking at something that's about the right size to fit in there but fit down there gullet it could be a crayfish for smaller. Very small fish. It could be small forms of water fleas or Daphne or things of the zooplankton things of that nature, but you can have lawyers that look like anything bobbin and it doesn't make any difference. I mean I a few years ago, they came out with a with a lure that had was a Budweiser beer can Budweiser beer can separate elongated with hooks on it. I mean, you can catch fish on anything when the fish are active. It's when it's when they're not active which is most of the time that it gets Tough Solar has generally just they represent life forms in and sometimes it's important to really match those closely particularly with if you're into trout fishing things, but but for most bass walleye and Northern Zhou, Min Northerns will Hammer just about anything you throw at them. They represent life-forms. It's almost a symbolic. Yes thing again. Isn't that amazing Zen efficient? What about let me ask you about a what about earthworms and what about minnows are those as good as better than or nearly not as good as these it depends on time of year spring spring fall minnows are very good bait summertime leeches crawlers get better. You don't usually generally catch as many fish in the fall or in cold water periods on nightcrawlers as you do in the summer, but the nightcrawlers not a natural prey during a night crawlers in Lakes. They wash into legs. They washing the streams but they don't live in lakes. They live in lawns. Sure. So we don't have any we have no idea why bass catfish so many fish walleyes love nightcrawlers. They do they're just a wonderful paid. We don't have any idea at all contributes to The Lure of it though. Doesn't it? So obvious that terrible? It's 15 minutes past eleven o'clock groans heard all across the Midwest there 2276 thousand is the number in Minneapolis. St. Paul. We've got a couple lines available also toll-free outside and Minneapolis st. Paul area. For to to 828. Thanks for waiting around with Chet and where you calling from. Wow. Go ahead, please (00:09:06) River Card our pocket router National Chappaquiddick day. (00:09:13) No, no with all that's about do you think it makes sense Chet more sense to go fishing for a specific type of fish or to just go fishing generically now definitely go fishing for specific. Really, huh? Yes, the great myth is and I tell the story in my fishing classes as if you see a people out in a boat and you ask them what they're fishing for and they say whatever is biting and then you switch the switch the scenario to you see a person walking in the woods with a gun and you ask them. What are they hunting for and they say whatever moving get I see get the image when people hunt the hunt for a particular species. They know where the species lives. They know what it's habitats like the know it's habits. They know all that kind of stuff and that that's the same thing with with fish bass behave differently from walleyes behave differently from us Keys behave differently from panfish. There's some days that are great panfish days that are some days that are Great Wall I did so you really need to know a particular species and go after that Define a great walleye day for me. Oh great. Wall ID I would say would be like in late June. Well mid-june. Let's say mid-june water temperatures in the high 60s fish of recuperated. Well from spawning the females are active. It's a light Chop on the water. It's overcast windy, but not too windy for Boat Boat movement that that's that's a nice that's a good all-around fishing day for lots of different species, which is why the opener really isn't necessarily the best day of the year not fishing at all is it's just because of water temperature openers usually bad, although everybody goes practictioner. I think one-fourth of all minnesotans are on the water and opener and then incredible it is it's just a lot of people. Where are you on opening opening by the way, I usually stick still watch it right by Gladden the city likes I do most of my fishing in the city. Like do you really? Yeah. Well, we'll talk about that a little bit. Let's get some of these listener questions on too high your next (00:11:05) calling from st. Paul. I've been away from fishing for a number of Here's 10 or 12 years. I went in to buy some new equipment. I was absolutely bewildered. I left a lot buying a thing. Can you give me some advice on on a basic rod and a reel? I'm going to be fishing maybe walleyes and crappies, you know the weight and the length the whole thing is so high-tech now that it's absolutely confusing. (00:11:36) Yeah good. That's a very good question. And there's a lot of stuff on the market. I think the fishing industry is actually peaked in terms of equipment kinds of things because there's so much stuff out there and it's very confusing. I used to be able to recommend easily to students in my class or two people in my fishing clinics equipment. And unless you're on top of it all the time. It's tough. I would say stick with the brand names. I'm not going to mention them over the over the radio. I think that's probably an appropriate but there are certain brand names that that are good. You don't need to spend a lot of money on a good what you what you want is a spinning tackle equipment you want an open-faced spinning. You medium-sized spinning reel on a medium action Rod 6-foot length. And you want about you want to spools on your real? They're interchangeable. You want one with like ten pound test and one with 6-pound test so you may have to buy an extra spool, but you can buy a good rod for well. Now's not the best time to buy the best time to buy is it in the fall when they're selling stuff or later in the summer when they start to clear stuff up, but you can get a good rod and reel combination for I would say still under $60 put a rod and reel together with line and a few lawyers. You don't need a lot of fancy lures jigs. You need to learn to fish. We had a question about that earlier. Jig fishing is very important some basic minnow type lures a few spoons of you Spinners, but don't let it can don't let it overwhelm you I mean, I know it can what I would do would be to find a friend who fishes and I would get them to go along as an advisor and just help you pick it up, but get a good medium action Rod 6-foot length and a medium sized spinning reel open-faced. Real and two spools of line 110 pound test 16 pain test so you can switch around now, why would you want that? I mean if you can catch a fish on on 6-pound you should be able catching on tension. Yeah. Well because on some some conditions he said he likes to fish for walleyes and for crappies and if you're going to fish for crappies, you're going to be casting lighter lures. So you need to have six or maybe even four pound test eight to ten pound test is fine for walleyes bass Northerns, you can go lighter than that. But but again, if you've got the lighter the line the smaller the lure you can you cast and generally when you're fishing for crappies, you're fishing very small jigs. Now when they when they give you these figures of certain pound test, does that mean that it will definitely hold up under that much weight, but if you go a pound over it might break or what does that mean? It's generally the tensile strength where they have a spring and they crank it up and see it. What at what point it breaks when they exert so much pressure on you hardly ever exert that much pressure on it. You can catch in fact, I No stories of people who've caught hundred-pound Tarpon on 10-pound tester for pound test even really so if you've got open water and you've got and you've got all day to fight the fish. I mean, I've landed fairly nice sized muskies on Lake Calhoun for pain test with an ultra light Rod. I never would have fish for them with that. I was fishing for walleyes, but I just backed my boat over 90 feet of water. And as long as the fish is hooked in the corner of its mouth. I'm not going to lose that fish. I just it's just a question of wearing it down. What you don't want to do is grab the line at the boat and lift efficient, you know, clean Jerk it over the side, but that's when it you and we're usually breaks is at the not not the line. Oh the knots the not strength gets weakened every time you cast with with the lore. And so you have to retie your lawyers and jigs on every once in a while people always say G. It broke 10 pound test. Well, I've seen some of my fish that broke 10 pound test as they swim away and they're like one pound fish, you know, so not the bits the not the brewery 21 minutes past eleven o'clock fishing enthusiasts Chad Myers is with us today on Minnesota Public Radio. And let's take your question next to low (00:15:12) high jet always appreciate your Lucid comments, but could you tell us about Twin Cities lakes on the opener within the first few weeks of the (00:15:19) opener? It probably would be a good place to start. I mean it's the water temperature. I haven't taken the water temperature recently in in the city Lakes. But I imagine it's in the in the fifties now up lower 50s and there isn't a lot of natural spawning of all eyes and City legs because they're stocked but I think you probably got you've probably got a fair chance are you probably have a better chance in the city lakes or the far north lakes and you would right in the middle of the state right now. Also there's a lot of milfoil in in the city Lakes which makes fishing really really messy and right now it's not up quite I mean it hasn't it'll it'll be covering the shallows in the lakes in another month or so, but right now the weeds are not quite up. So what I would do would be to get get out on the city Lakes on a day when it's not a day like today when there's a wind advisory and I would go with live bait. I would take some leeches crawlers and minnows at have everything just everything I could possibly use. I would work the outside edge of the weed lines for walleyes. There's a lots of nice walleyes in. My one like carry it for example Nokomis is a good early season while I like now the later on in the year gets pretty murky and it's not a real Pleasant Lake to fish because it gets a big algae bloom but every year people seem to catch walleyes fishing from Shore from Lake Nokomis our Calhoun and Calhoun's great Calhoun's good Isles is his so inundated with milfoil now that it's just in there aren't that many walleyes in Isles. So I also is pretty much a Bass Lake but you can't even fish for bass. I can't I live about two blocks off of like the house and I can't even paddle my canoe through parts of Lake of the Isles because of the milfoil there, but there are lots of other good city likes, I mean in st. Paul White Bear Lake Minnetonka courses is probably one of the best fishing lakes in the state for just about anything but I would say, you know, it's not going to be it ain't going to be great for anywhere. I think in this part of the state, but I think you might do you might do as well on City. Because you would up in the in the Brainerd area, for example, because the water temperature should be a little warmer. I take a thermometer long find out what the water temperatures. What's your moving off of fishing just for a second here, but you brought up the milfoil problem. What's your assessment of what our is it? Totally out of control? Are we getting some handle on it? We're what's the future? I really haven't studied it. But I know that it grows very very fast. And that the DNR it's hard to even keep up harvesting it. I've heard stories that are grows as much as 6 inches a day or something like that and not that I don't know that can't vouch for the the scientific that might be a fish story. There might be a weed story but it has its it's an exotic that is it's not native to this part of the world. It probably came in through somebody's somebody dumped their aquarium and Lake somewhere. It probably came is a tropical plant from from another country and it's like some of the other Exotics which we have now the zebra zebra mussel and others that just they fill an ecological niche. What it does is it chokes out the good weeds and by good It's I mean the fish probably don't care that much what the milfoil is a very difficult week to fish in because your Cook gets snagged on it. There are other ways that you can fish in and through with spoons or jigs, but milfoil just you got a glob at that on your line and it's just you know, you gotta clear it off. So I don't know what can be done. I know that some of the I think the local city likes I think some people around aisles or even talked about purchasing a harvester through the that Association Home Association so that they can least Harvest channel so that you can paddle through it but I think the only way that we know presently to take care of it as to poison it out and that means poisoning all the weeds out and then there's no guarantee. It won't come back. So I think I think people should be especially careful if they fish in lakes with milfoil to make sure they clean their Motors off. I mean really flush their Motors off really good before they go anywhere else. And in fact, they're checking it at Lake Minnetonka now because it's in many of the city like sand. That's that's real important to be ecologically mindful of what you're doing and to not transport that weed into any other Lake if at all possible twenty-five minutes past eleven o'clock check Myers with us today. And your question is next high. (00:19:31) Well, good morning subject to talked about kicked up a few questions. How do you define a jig? (00:19:41) Well, a jig is a is a hook with a piece of lead on the end. And that's about a simple a definition as I can give that it's the one lure that the Navy includes an all of its survival kit. So the Navy thinks very highly of it, but the difficulty is that there are now so many different jig head types. There used to be just around piece of lead on the end of the of the end of a hook and then feathers were added and the heads were painted different colors and then plastic bodies were at it and then they started fooling around with head shape. So they've got diamond shapes. They've got horse. I mean, they've got fulcrum type Shape so that you can fish them in rivers and they flip over the Rocks instead of getting snag there the last time I looked through one of the catalogs or catalogs, I counted at least 15 different styles of big hit that's just different shapes not with the different accouterments of whether it's got feathers or rubber whatever but basically a jig is a hook with a piece of lead on him to get you down to the bottom where the fish are most of the time and it's a very very efficient way of fishing and most people don't fish Jigs and if you're going to you know, if I was to recommend people what they should focus on in order to catch a wide variety of species would be learn how to jig fish. All right, you said it you said you had a couple of questions. We'll take one more at (00:21:00) least one is about bait on one occasion when we were up in Canada, we fished for Grayling trout and these were places. They dammed up between The mountains and it will fairly good-sized lead weight and on two sides were hooks where you put salmon eggs and we got such a cat's we took it back into balance and the same Chinese restaurant where we had lunch cleaned and prepared and served our fish to us and wonderful hunt in southern Minnesota. I was stream fishing for trout and very clear water and we were waiting around and you could see the trout in some of the pools and they wouldn't take anything that you dropped in front of them and they just weren't eating I guess at that hour of that day. (00:22:07) So what do you do in a situation like that? Then chat. Just move on somewhere. Well, yeah. One stream conditions are clear stream Fish can be very very difficult to catch. They know you're there and that's the problem if the fish are alert and know that you're there that they won't leave a pool necessarily but you won't catch them and I've experienced that often in stream fishing for trout particularly in the in the late summer when sometimes when the water gets real low and fish are stacked up and pools. So there's not much you can do. I mean, once the fish knows you're there your chances of catching it go downhill really really rapidly. The best thing to do is actually to to be very very cautious in Pro tching a situation like that walking very very slowly toe to heel so that you're not making a lot of vibrations and things and actually sit down and wait before you start to fish let things settle down and then I would use a very very small angle worm and a small hook without any weight on it and just float it out of the fish and see if see if they'll take it. But sometimes it means just sitting there for 15-20 minutes and waiting until the fish get you know, Used to you not thinking you're not there. What do you think the fish know? How do they how do you think I mean that they recognize you there? Is it that they do they see you do they smell you do they send probably hear you hear we hear you before anything. Yeah, they get the vibrations particularly when your stream fishing you're coming along any you can I've walked trout streams in Southeastern Minnesota and taking a step and sea trout spook as far away as oh 30 40 yards. So it's the vibrations they pick up on the vibrations. Also Shadows towards the end of day. If you cast a shadow so shadows and sound probably more than anything if you're fishing in a lake then I would think that the sound of the motor would be a deterrent in shallow water. It is in shallow water alerts fish over deep water. The distinction I make is 10 feet or shallower shallow and 10 feet Morris deeper, but over deep water over 20, 30, 15, 20, 30, 40 feet. The motor doesn't seem to actually bother fish. In fact, you can hover over them and catch walleyes just rocking back. And forth doing some back trolling and you backed roll right over the fish and catch and but in shallow water because fish feel just a little more skittish I think and they're liable to clear out. So you need to be you need to be quieter in shallow water. Of course anywhere you're fishing you want to be quiet. I always tell people if they want to know how noisy it is in a boat the next time you're up at your Lake cabin where people often, you know, spend parts of the summer bring your boat into the dock and get into your swimming suit. It's a great experiment right and just hold your nose and go underwater and have someone just stand up in the boat. Don't kick over Tackle Box just stand up in the boat and grind a little bit of sand in the bottom of that aluminum boat. If you don't have a rug or something, it's amazing the amount of noise sound travels so fast underwater and that I think the reason a lot of people don't catch fish in Shallow Waters because of too noisy. Does that mean shut up to you? Don't talk to you don't you don't have the radio? Oh, that's a good excuse but that I think 99% of that stuff bounces off the water, but I see if you want to If you got a knowledgeable person you can probably work that as an excuse the first couple times a day. It's 29 minutes before twelve o'clock fishing our topic today on Minnesota Public Radio. The opener in Minnesota is next week. And Chad Myers is with us a couple of phone lines available again in the Twin Cities at 2276 thousand 2276 thousand in the Twin Cities your next thanks for waiting. Where you calling from (00:25:31) calling from Glen Paul, Minnesota. Yes, sir. I'd like to know Lake that you think would be productive for wall eye opener and Southern Minnesota, (00:25:41) you know, I'm afraid I can't help you there. I just don't know southern Minnesota lakes that well, I really don't I mean if Southern you mean south of the city's I just I really can't answer that. I'm just that not that knowledgeable. They can take a field trip down there sometime and check them out. Well, there aren't that many natural lakes really in the southern part of the state. There's there's it's Prairie country and there's a lot of shallow Lakes down there. I suppose if you went West to lock key. All that which is a Wildlife Management Area over there Minnesota river forms the big Basin over there that might not be a bad place to check out because it's shallow and it's murky and that water warms up. So if you get some sunny days that water would warm up very very quickly and that might not be a bad a bad place to try but I just don't know the southern Minnesota lakes that much. Okay, let's take your call next you're calling from where (00:26:34) I'm calling from Breezy Point. Yes. I have a couple quick questions. First of all, why is the walleye season so early this year? (00:26:42) Okay. And what's your next (00:26:43) one? Next one is when I was a kid growing up bass these new Suk used to open up the middle of June and I thought that was great because the best be spawning now if your kitchen opening best day, they're full of eggs. It seems (00:26:57) like Okay, usually wall eye opener is scheduled for the second weekend in May and often that falls around the 12th 13th 14th or something. I get I think the night the eighth is obviously the earliest that could possibly happen, but that's just I don't know why it set that way because the DNR assumes given our climatological averages that the walleyes will have spawned in most areas of the state by that time now, I noticed in the regulations this year that they've set off a number of areas in the far north that are now closed to fishing during the opener. There's a few areas that just very very heavy concentrations of walleyes get into but the general assumption and the the choosing of when Seasons at are opened or closed are based on when fish are vulnerable or when they're not going to be vulnerable to fishing pressure and usually by this time the walleyes have safely spawned and things are done with regards to Bass Fishing usually bass season opens two weeks after While eye-opener now the bass the wall. I spawn when the water temperature is about 44 46 48 degrees the bass don't spawn until it gets up into the 60s and low 60s. So usually by bass opener in most parts of the state the bass are done spawning and but this year it's a three-week difference. I noticed that this year bass season doesn't open until May 30th. So those people who are used to going up to their cabin two weeks after wall eye opener for bass should know that the bass aren't going to be open until May 30th this week and I suppose that that's partly because the wall eye opener came so early I think so. Yeah. I think that that's a reason. All right, we can talk about regulations little bit to hear but tell us gets more listener questions and your next hi. (00:28:42) Hi. I'm calling for a friend of mine who's sitting on a horse right now doing a judging a dog field competition, but he'll be taking your course this summer at Metropolitan and he's a fairly knowledgeable. The kidded fishermen will read will he be getting anything out of your course? (00:29:05) Well, I think the course that I teach there has people who've never fished before and I've had professional guides in there and I assume that he will but usually what a lot of people don't know who come to fishing clinics who have been fishing for years and years and years. I mean 20 30 40 years is people don't have a lot of knowledge about fish biology and we've discovered a lot about fish biology in the last 10 years. I would say 20 years ago fishing wasn't really a science. We didn't have many studies of fish. We hadn't really done a lot of radio telemetry studies where we followed fish around so that we knew their habits of them how they behave so that we know when they fed what they fed on there's just been a lot of work done on fish in particular that was not known 20 years ago and most Anglers still don't know a lot of that stuff like how sensitive officious or how Keen of fishes sense of smell is hearing sight sound how those variables in terms. Mike with different bodies of water the food chain and different bodies of water the more the better fisherman. Let me put it this way as you become a better fisherman you focus Less on the pray that you're going after and more on what that fish is feeding on so you start paying attention to crayfish to minnow types you start paying attention to the food that your fish feeds on and we're just beginning to discover things about about those little critters too. So I think what most knowledgeable angers don't know that they get that they might get out of a fishing class would be something about fish biology and how things that they do really stack the odds against them in terms of just dumb things that we do in terms of noises. We make or odors that we carry around on our hands or or the wrong presentation that we're using at the wrong time of year. Also finding fish locating fish the studies that have been done with radio telemetry Studies have been done on muskies and bass and walleye are very interesting because they blow away some of the Gary types that we have about fish being these very simple creatures there seems to be variation in fish species. Some fish are loners some Fisher School fish before we always had these generalizations we could make about fish but they study bass and some bass just don't hang out in schools at all other bass hang out in school, whether it's fish school or not depends on the habitat in Lake of the Isles. You don't find schools of bass. Well, maybe once or twice a year you will because just the construction of the lake and the habitat you find lots of single fish you move over to Calhoun which is connected to that same like you find schools a bass why well the habitats different so that's generally what people find out is. They understand they learn a little more about the creature itself and how sophisticated the creature is really and the differences within differences within the species and and how those pray interact with their natural environment and the little life forms that they're feeding on so that's what folks don't know. All right. Well, when is this class and how can people find out more about this? It's Summer course it's offered at Metropolitan State University and it begins the first week in July and it's a night course it runs 11 weeks. Hmm. Okay, so call Metro State find out about it. I presume that there's still some seats available or don't try it fills up pretty quick. So you know how many how many folks in the class? I think there's 30 2013. Yeah, Chad Myers is with us today. I'm going to sort of public radio take advantage of his fishing expertise. If you like in the Twin Cities, the number to call is two two seven six thousand the toll-free line outside. The metro area is available 1-800 to for 22828 with fishing opener coming up next week. Hi your next Church listing for you. Go ahead. (00:32:37) Hi cat I took your class in 89 response in response to the previous caller and I considered myself a Pretty good fisherman before that and I consider myself a better one now since I've taken (00:32:52) it. So there you have a very nice and it's complement unsolicited testimonial, right? All right. Go ahead, please. What's your (00:33:00) question? Okay. My question was I always kind of wondered when alright wall. I will spawn at 45 46 degrees from the time. They start spawning when will the females Start actively feeding again, like what kind of time period we couple weeks you think (00:33:19) again? I think it depends on the on the on how how the water temperature how cold the water temperature stays and and also the developing food chain. Usually the spawning behaviour for walleyes is something like this the males move in a week or even a week and a half before the female. So the males are in the shallows probably very soon after ice out and that's when they're very catchable. That's the situation you're going to find in northern Minnesota. I think for open you're going to find a lot of males and females won't even be in the spawning. You're a Jedi don't think particularly in those areas where the ice has just gone up but you'll find lots of males in those areas and they'll be very catchable at night with with shallow minnow type lures when the water temperature gets up into the into the mid 40s and and the higher 40s, which doesn't take that long. You've got a few sunny days. Then the females come in there therefore o a week maybe again. It depends on how Quickly the water continues to warm spawning can you know take more or less time depending on water temperature? And then after that point the females generally drop back into the nearest deep water. So if you're prospecting for females, what you do is you back you find the spawning grounds and you can generally talk to people and know where the wall I spawn you back off from there and look for deep water you look for if there's vegetation nearby you look for developing vegetation. I would say generally it takes I'd say a couple of weeks at least a couple of weeks before the females really really start and actually things don't really get going like on Mille Lacs. I fished with Gerry Anderson or thinks one of the best walleye fisherman in the state, undoubtedly, and he says that people always think about the opener but but the best fishing in Malak sometimes isn't until mid-june. So, you know, it's a question of water temperature and developing food chain, the higher the water temperature gets the more active the fishes because of the fishes activity level. It's a cold-blooded creature. It's increases if there's no not much food. On and the fish is real active. Then the odds are better for the angler. As long as the water is cold and the fish is metabolic rate is slow. It doesn't have to eat as much it's not feeding as often. So it's tougher for the anger to catch fish. So I you know warm water is the key and once it gets up one surface temps get in the in the mid-60s. It's generally when things start cranking for walleyes. You talked about the different techniques to use if you're trying to catch female walleyes versus male. Is there any particular reason why you'd want to catch one version or the other? Well, the males are smaller fish. They are ya you seldom see a male walleye. I mean if you got a most male walleyes ER or under 2 pounds, if you got a four pound male ball like that would be a very big meal fish. So if you see a great big walleye the can't honors the 8/10 the ones that are hanging on the wall are almost all females and that's that holds true for I believe for most species of Minnesota game Fish. I know it does for Northerns for 44 bass 44 muskies. I'm not sure about panfish but I believe it's true for bluegills to so it's 18 minutes before twelve o'clock Chet Myers with this on Minnesota Public Radio today and another question or waiting. Hi, you're (00:36:21) on thank you. I fish for walleye is on Lake of the Woods almost exclusively now, I don't fish out in the Middle with downriggers, but I fish around the rock piles and on the sandbanks earlier in the year and up there. I always have everybody has success fishing with an ounce and a half away torso right down on the bottom. I don't mean three inches off the bottom. I mean on the bottom and everybody that goes up there that hasn't fished up there. They want to fish Lindy's with, you know, half an ounce and you know a foot off the bottom and they don't start catching fish until I get down on the bottom conversely you go anywhere else. You can't catch fish like you do sure can do you know why that (00:37:05) is? Well, it would have to have something to do with the food chain. I mean whenever people ask questions about why fish behave the way they do it The dancer generally relates to food chain. I remember fishing in Lake Erie a few years ago and the lower that they use in Lake Erie is called an e-reader a it's a it's a weight forward spinner with a big huge hook on it. I mean, it's something that most Minnesota walleye Anglers would just be shocked to think could catch walleyes because it doesn't have that little teeny subtle hook. It's got a huge hook on it and you put a glob of night crawlers on it you throw it out there and you just drift over fish and you're not on the bottom if you get down on the bottom on Lake, Erie all you catch your sheep it and I know people who've gone there and said I if they're really catching them on this way told week. Why do we try a Lindy rig which is the thing that minnesotans usually Fisher while ice would teach them on the bottom. So it depends on on the fish in Lake Erie are suspended. I would imagine that the the fish where you're fishing Lake of the Woods, I believe you said are just really tightly oriented to the bottom probably because of a food supply that they're feeding on right on the bottom. So it depends again on the type of Lake you can take the same walleye and you could throw that walleye from Lake of the Woods. In Lake Erie, and it would be suspended it would be up suspended off the bottom, you know in a week or so so it did it really depends a lot on the food chain and wear that what the fish are feeding on in a given Lake as to how they behave but you can take a large mouth bass from which is probably one of the most widespread game fish in the country and put it in a California Reservoir and it might hang out at 50 60 feet. You could put it in Lake Okeechobee and Florida and would hang out in two or three feet because it's like doesn't have 50 60 feet of water and you could put it in a in a Reservoir in North Dakota take the same fish and put it in six different bodies of water and would behave differently the same fish because so it's really has to adapt to the habitat. Yeah. It's really the water that has to be fished more than the fish itself in a way. Well the food chain in the water. Yeah exactly the body of water. Yeah. All right. Next question. You're on with Chad Myers at all. (00:39:04) Where are you calling from? I'm calling from st. Claude. Okay, and I wanted to know if Chet had any information about rock bass. I've caught these things. Spinner baits and Daredevil's and I've seen him when I was swimming and so forth and everyone tells me he can't eat them. (00:39:22) I think that's a myth if you can't eat fish out of the Mississippi River and calling from st. Cloud. I assume that that may be where you're fishing. There are fish advisories with regards to the to the Mississippi River, but that pertains to most all fish of a certain size. The reason that people typically think they can't eat rock bass is because rock bass are species that is vulnerable to a particular type of parasite. I'm not enough of a biologist to know the name of the parasite, but I know what it looks like it's a little black dot looks like a little teeny were may also get a little white worm in them and people will pick up a fish they'll clean it. It's actually in the flesh of the fish. It's on the skin, but it's also in the flesh and they'll say oh the fish has worms or the fish. You can't eat it. Well, that's not true. If you cook it. The cooking kills it and I've eaten fish with a little black dots in them and I'm still alive. Maybe I'm a little maybe more my brain cells have died. It's not a pollutant. It's a natural parasite that lives within the fish. And as long as you cook the fish wheel, you can eat them and rock bass are fun to catch their some people consider them a nuisance because they're when you're fishing for small mouth are walleyes are always glomming on to your to your bait but they're a great little fighter and I think they're finding I would just check the Minnesota a health Advisory board has a booklet out. I didn't bring it this year, but it lists all the different areas and how many meals you should eat from the different areas and and what fish have pcbs and mercury in them in particular and pregnant women are particularly should be careful of eating fish of that of that nature, but get ahold of that booklet and you can find out what safety but parasites don't worry about those, you know, the ones that are in the flesh to as long as you cook the fish. Well, you're fine. Do they have any adverse impact on the taste of the fish? No, not that I know of okay on to our next caller, it's your turn. Hello. Chad Myers is listening. (00:41:06) Hi Chad. I was wondering if you could explain a phenomena that I've seen on Deer Lake in, Wisconsin. And also in Square Lake Minnesota, and that's when the bath a school of bass sometimes 50 or 60 of them move across the top of the lake the water is always calm when I see that happening and I don't notice any mayflies or other food on the surface. I wonder if you explain about that (00:41:32) boy. I don't think I can be much help fish seen it yourself. No, but I but a friend of mine L lender who writes a magazine and works out of Brainerd Minnesota did some scuba diving in some strip mining pits up in northern Minnesota, which are very very deep and very very very clear and they bass in them and he reported on a couple occasions seeing Bass Just tracking right across the middle of the lake not very far down not related to bottom structure not related to anything just moving and I mean it would be it would be nice if we could give a reason for every behavior that we observed in fish, but I think there's some things we will never understand about fish. Bass in those Lakes are obviously behaving in as a school and their leaders their leader bass just like their leader geese in flocks of geese. There's a pecking order and if the leader takes off for a couple fish take off and the others follow heaven knows what they're doing. Maybe they just like the chicken to just cross the you want to get the other side of the road. Maybe they're just moving off somewhere else. Why does a cat want to go out then? It wants to come back in C, but I don't want to make light of the question of the listeners question. It's my answer is that we just don't know there's lots of stuff. We just don't know about fish and I don't think we ever will there's so many variables. I don't think we will ever understand fish Behavior. We don't understand human behavior. How can we can we can we can talk to each other. How can we expect understand everything we can about fish? And I think that's what makes fishing exciting is that there's lots of things I've seen fish do really really strange things. I've caught fish in situations. I remember taking a person fishing and saying boy, the one thing I know is that this is probably the worst fishing day of the year and let's just go out and Have fun. We kill them. Huh? We just got him out. And he looked at me and I said, well, you know, I should have known better than to open my mouth. So fish do strange things. Okay, we've got about six minutes left to talk fishing with Chad Myers today on Minnesota Public Radio. And it's your turn. (00:43:27) Hello. I've got a comment and a question. I believe you had an earlier person asked about the opener didn't the legislature passed a resolution in a couple of years ago indicating that the opener would be two weeks prior to the three-day weekend in order to help out. The Resort's that the reason for our opener is being early this (00:43:48) year that maybe I don't know. I really don't know. I haven't (00:43:51) checked that. I think they passed a resolution. I think it has to be two weeks early so that the resort owners get too big weekends out of the first three (00:43:57) weeks that that could be a possibility. There's a lot of political ramifications and fishing regulations and your question sir. (00:44:03) My question pertains to the mayfly hatch if you have found it in I mean, obviously there's more more bait in the water makes it tougher during the patch but Have you ever found a successful method of trying to catch walleyes that are us suspended eating off the (00:44:19) mayflies? No, but I'm going to this year. I'm going to be I'm gonna try I'm taking my fly rod up I go to a Basswood Lake In The Boundary Waters last three years and and it's a good dissection we go to his got a lot of walleye in and I think we'll have some mayfly hatch is up there. I have seen walleyes on the surface slurping down mayflies just like trout and I'm going to take some wet flies along and I'm going to take some mayfly imitation some floating mayfly imitations for flies. Now, I'm not a great fly fisherman. That's why I usually don't take questions on fly fishing, but I'm going to try I don't know. I think it's real difficult when fish are gorging like they are on that. I mean, there's so many nymphs are coming up off the bottom and the fish are usually hitting the names before they hit the surface to get your one little Nymph in there and to make a difference is you know, your odds are pretty pretty slim so I would try I've never done it before but I Try a couple things one. I would try a fly and try moving it along. I would also try throwing something else in there completely different. I'd throw in a Shad rap or a minnow diving lore and and move that minnow through there and see if that might not also trigger response. Generally if there's a lot of mayflies and a lot of walleyes you might be able to trigger one or two fish and that's probably all you want to do but it's a good question and interesting that that he asked that because I just talked to a friend today and was thinking about that and there was an article I just read recently in a magazine about walleyes on on on mayflies. So if you want to check out the last issue of the in fisherman magazine, I think I think it was at issue that had a special on walleyes and mayflies. Okay. Good tip. Let's take this next question. Where are you calling from? (00:45:58) I'm calling you from Whipple, Minnesota next to Leech Lake Minister Leech Lake. (00:46:02) All right terrific. (00:46:03) I was wondering if the gentleman could give me an answer about crappie will go back to copy here again do the larger and the 324 pound or two pounds. crappie still School (00:46:16) Yeah, I'm not a crappie expert. Okay, so take this with a grain of salt but there has been a one of the things we discovered in studying fish underwater observations of fish and also in radio telemetry studies is that there was a myth that big fish are loners. Okay that the 22 pain crappies or the 3040 pain muskies or the 67 pound bass are loners and we know that that's not true. Not that's not to say there aren't loner fish somewhere but big fish school as well as small fish. Generally the larger crop is the reason people generally don't catch a lot of large crappies is that they don't fish deep enough. I mean most people think of crappies and fishing 123453 water Run Sunset, but the people that I know that are really good crappie fisherman and I do not number myself innate in that group are fishing 20 30 feet of water off of rock piles, but I would say yeah, if you I know people who've gotten into schools of I was on Lakeview, In a few years ago, when a friend of mine not got into a school not quite that big but the crappies were all well over a pound and their school fish. So I would I would say they're probably just aren't as many to pain crappies in a school of to Pine crappies would be a small school of fish, but I would expect them to school. They will not school near the Saint the smaller fish. I mean, it'd probably be a little deeper than the smaller fish. So if you're catching small crappies and drop down for five feet deeper, if you can't you might get into some bigger ones, but I would I haven't seen any studies on that but my instinct would remind my intuition would be that the big due to pain crappies are in schools. We got about a minute left here. Let's see if we can slip in this last person who's waiting on the phone. Go ahead, please you're on with Jack Myers. Yes. Hello. Let's try to switch that other line there. All right, very quickly. Can we have your question? (00:48:04) Please given that the Northern Lakes are frozen and that the walleyes probably won't be ready to spawn by the opener since they might the Lakes might not even be thawed yet. Could you just give sort of a rundown of what happens time sequences and water temperatures from one the ice goes out to when the male fish become hungry and then the spawn (00:48:28) etcetera. Yeah. I mentioned that a little before it right after I sought the male's will be in the spawning grounds because they have iced out. The water temperature is 39 degrees and it only takes a day or two if it's sunny to get that water temperature in the shadows up to 40 41 42 43 degrees. So and and the walleyes are also spawning in reaction to the Sun to the amount of the light the light amount that comes in the light impact a lot on on fishby very quickly. When do the female start to feed after spawning a couple weeks again, I would say two to three weeks, but it depends on water temperature if the water. Your stays real cool and the food chain isn't developing. It may be a little more than that. Jet. Thanks a million. Have a great opener. Thank you. We'll see you next time. Good fishing enthusiasts Chad Myers here on Minnesota Public Radio. It's five minutes before twelve o'clock.