Best Laid Plans of Flies and Men

Often, a day of fishing just doesn't go as planned. Sometimes a whole season doesn't go as planned. That's been this walleye season for me. spring was mediocre, summer sucked, and this fall and early winter have been down right dismal. I've been doing this for three years now, and though walleye on the fly are really never a given, not here, I have learned how to pattern these fish. I knew what conditions put them into a feeding mood. In the body of water where I target them most, I knew what weed beds they'd be over or what shelf they'd be next to. I knew ho deep they'd be and what I could get them on. At least, that's what I thought. I've been skunking a lot this season, which is doubly frustrating when other days in the previous two years with similar conditions produced big yellow perch, sizable bass, and big pickerel. I've caught small pickerel, small perch, and no bass this season. And not one walleye. I really thought yesterday was going to be the day, I thought it was going to be gangbusters. Days like this, with approaching rain and increasing air temperatures just weeks after the lake turnover, were just incredible in 2015, and I had a couple good ones in 2016. But yesterday I had to be satisfied with slightly less sophisticated fish.