One Walleye to Start

I made some casts the other night in my home lake. It's nearing the second walleye season. At least, that's how look at it: for a fly rodder in CT, the two walleye seasons run from March through June and October through the end of December. You can catch them at any time throughout the year, but those are the times that I actually specifically target them to the best success. Right now with water temperatures just starting to drop, a few walleyes have started to push up shallow where they can be targeted.

Now I wasn't actually specifically targeting walleye this evening but I certainly wasn't ruling them out. I fished a couple spots without takers, then worked over a trap rock bar that was really productive for eyes this spring. The fly was a conehead olive sparkle bugger. The retrieve, a slow figure eight. I missed two takes almost immediately upon arrival. It really just felt like the fly was lightly ticking bottom, but I knew it wasn't deep enough for that. When I set on both and got nothing I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were walleyes. The next time I got that sensation I just sped up the retrieve until there was real weight, then I set the hook. Authoritative head shakes and one short, hard run told me this was a good fish, and indeed it was. The first walleye of the fall season. Ah, that feels good!