Last year I fished the Opener for a half-day, without my main man Yami Master. That is like a Rocky movie without Sly, or a Terminator movie without Arnold (CGI does not count) When we started taking these trips Yami had a young family with two kids, and a stressful job. I did not have any kids, and had a relatively stress free job, and was quickly moving up the corporate chain. As time went on Yami had another kid, and I ended up with two. I also took a big career gamble and left my cozy job and entered a career world of high stress and mayhem. With that said, things will never be the same. I used to meticulously plan every detail of our trip and have things laid out to perfection weeks in advance. Now I am stuck organizing tackle late at night while the kids are asleep and struggling to find time to get out of the house for a ˝ hour to pick up supplies. Yami had to go so far to bring his plastics bag to work and organize it in his work cubicle. For me, I was nowhere ready until the night before, and it was a mad rush to pack once I put the kids to bed. BUT, we still march on. Through all the craziness, fishing provides an outlet. We both know that our work does not go away while we fish. In fact, it multiplies and leaves us with more fires to put out when we get back. With that said, we get to forget about all that, even for only three days. There is a certain perfection in the trip that can’t be properly portrayed with mere words.
The plan was for me to drop the truck and boat off at Yami’s house right before work on Friday. Luckily I work only about 4 or 5 blocks away. When Yami got home he packed his gear in the truck and picked me up. We were off a little after 6P, right in the heart of rush hour. Typically we do some scouting the night before, but it became quickly apparent our window for that would either be short or non-existant.
We settled on throwing some crappie jigs off shore for about 15 minutes, but unlike Delavan V, the crappies were playing hard to get. We still got the strings pulled in an appetizer of what was to come.
A constant on the Delavan Tour is Chiles. Fajitas and margaritas always hit the spot
Getting ready for battle
Day 1
Cold and wind was the story of day 1. We never saw the sun, which never showed itself the whole weekend. The bite was decent, but we really had to grind on them.
Double Hawgs skipping docks
Our one and only Alabama Rig Fish!
After an afternoon break, we headed out for the evening bite.
The next day started off with more wind, but not as cold
Double chatterbait fish
The best action I have had in a year
We found an area in about 4 feet of water that leveled off to an even shallower spawning flat. The wind was ripping in there at 20+mph and the skies were about to open up.
A Rapala Clackin Minnow did the trick. These fish were inhaling the bait.
The downpour started with the fish still biting, and we were forced to leave the boat on the trailer until the evening.
After a long lunch at Chile’s watching the Bulls game, I took a hike around Lakelawn to see if the previous windblown spot was accessible from the shoreline.
It was.
Wake up, it is time to fish!
10-4
We decided to sleep In Monday morning, but we snuck in a few hours before heading home.
This one nipped at Bens Dinger multiple times before I flipped a jig at her.
One last fish before pulling out the boat. Yeah, I'm a dork.
This year we spent more time off the water then on. Lake Lawn Resort has some nice amenities and taking breaks and being able to get out of the elements is a plus.
Water temps varied anywhere from 54 to 65. The main lake was mostly in the upper 50’s. A variety of baits caught fish: chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, jerk baits, finesse jigs, swim jigs, and plastics. Bite windows seemed to be key, as we would load up for the 10-15 minutes and then have to grind for awhile before getting back on a bite.
The surprise fish of the trip for us was the walleyes. We did not take many pictures, but ended up with around 15 total for the trip. They were anywhere from aquarium size fish up to about 18’’.
Next week Coyote and I will be up there for a couple days, so hopefully the sun will shine and continue to warm that water up.
Matt and Yami out
-Thanks Ed for getting me set back up
Delavan Opener VII Reunion Tour
As always Matt you da man. Nice job out there bud.
