2010 News Magazine
by Eric LaChapelle
So, a friend of mine found a hot walleye bite and invited me out to one of his honeyholes. I had never fished for walleyes with a flyrod, but growing up in the midwest I caught more than my fair share on spinning gear.
We got our tubes on the water around 5:00 pm and I rigged up my newly acquired $20 St.Croix 7wt that I purchased from a guy on Craiglist (I broke my 6wt on the North Platte over Memorial Day). I hooked up a clouser and a tiny (1 inch) bellyache minnow in tandem on my full sink line and let her rip in 12-15ft of water along some submerged brush piles.
I never really felt the strike, but suddenly I felt weight and set the hook into what I figured was a big stick. A solid headshake and a doubled over rod got my heart beating and at that point I knew I had a good fish.
I grabbed my small trout net thinking I had a 20-24" fish. Once I got it to the surface and saw the head, I put my net away knowing there was no way in hell the fish was going to fit. I grabbed her behind the head and got a good grip on her tail while my friend brought over the boga grip. We took a quick measurement with tape, and the fish measured at 29.5".
Not bad for a first walleye on the fly with a $20 secondhand rod, right?