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Chatfield - Sunday 10/02

630 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Rip Lip 
#1 ·
CWA tourney - Weather was perfect, but fishing was tough. Only 15 teams (either most are out hunting or most know to stay away from Chatfield with all the pleasure boaters). Only 3 fish were weighed from two separate teams. Winning Weight was 4.60 lbs with big fish of the day being 2.38 lbs. Spoke to a few other competitors and some caught fish, but they were all under the 18" limit to weigh. We pre fished on Sat and caught a 22" and lost another decent fish at the boat, but Sunday was tough.

The DOW rears Walleye at Chatfield so you know there are good numbers of Eyes and good quality as well. I'm assuming that due to the extreme boat traffic that those fish are hugging tight to bottom in the deepest areas of the lake and don't feed until lower light periods of day and thrughout the night. There is a lot of great structure in Chatfield and many different areas look productive for Walleyes.

The boat traffic was bad, as usual I'm sure. It was my first time ever fishing Chatfield and I could not believe the Chaos. There is a sail boat with some nice jewelry hanging off his outboard after running over our rigs. I'm surprised people don't get killed every weekend at Chatfield. It was just fun to be out on the water fishing.

If you are headin to Chatfield for Eyes, go at night or early, early in the morning.
 
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#2 ·
Actually this time of year the traffic at Chatfield is pretty light compared to summer. This weekend looked a bit heavier than normal for the first weekend in October. But then the weather has been spectacular too. One we really get few cold days or some snow a lot more of the pleasure boaters will be off the water.

As for catching walleye yes they are there and any advice on how to boat one would be appreciated. Last year at this time we were boating fish left and right. I think part of the problem is there is still so much shad in lake, last year they mostly disappeared by mid-sept.

Hopefully lots of shad will make lots of fat, long fish next spring!

Dan
 
#3 ·
Dan - I saw your report for 10/3. We caught a few trout on the day as well and one small smallie. The day before we picked up a one or two walleye up off the swim beach trolling rigs with big minnows. The problem for us was most of our mins died overnight so we only had a few lively ones on Sunday. I know you fish Chatfiel a lot and know the lake well. I'm sure the shad situation has something to do with the walleye bite. They have so much to eat right now. The decent walleye we caught on Saturday had nothing in its stomach so it was hungry. I think you are right that once the shad diminish the walleye fishing should get better.

It was a beautiful weekend and I don't blame everyone for trying to get in another weekend on the lake. We managed to fish around people, but it sucks when people, not knowing, run over your rigs.

We will be back, but will wait for conditions to change a little bit.
 
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