For some reason this spring the winter weather just doesn’t want to give up her bounty.  I’ve fished everyday day this week except for Friday when we got 3 inches of snow and bitterly cold weather.  

So what’s happening out on the river?  It’s been a much different spring on the river for sure.  Lots of fish and a lot of nice fish!  Not as many mega giants as springs past however.  Not saying there isn’t any out there because there always is.  Just definitely a decline.  

Another thing that has started which is early this spring is the spawn.  Our water temps hit the upper 40’s prior to the snow on Friday and lots of the males were milking and I even caught a couple females that had for sure spawned. 

I’m not 100 percent sure, but I still believe a bunch of really big walleyes slipped past us while the main river was froze.  We also had the Heart River, Apple Creek, and the Knife River open prior to the main river opening.  The last time this happened we experienced a similar spring. 

The one thing I will say with my almost 50 years of experience on the Mighty Mo, is we will see 3 different waves of the spawn.  The first wave is here now.  The main wave will happen towards the end of April.  The last wave always seems to happen right around that first week of May.  

Water temps took a hard hit with Fridays snow and our cold weather.  It was 36.6 yesterday (Saturday) down from 47 last Thursday.  With our warmer temps and low water conditions it should heat back up extremely fast.

I would anticipate the fish to really get into the bite mode with our warm up coming.  Like I said earlier we are catching lots of fish and in my opinion they are the perfect guide fish.  Just hoping with the next push of the spawn we see some more of those picture fish!