I debated if I should even post a report on our success (or lack there of) But after looking back I decided You cant have the good days without the skunks. And that realization made today much less skunky.

It was BEAUTIFUL!! absolutely wondrous out today.

I hit a few local rivers With Gary and Eric Glazewski today.
We started off at our buffalo spot. After hearing reports of shallow clear water and schools of Buffalo and Carp I was a little fired up.

Well nothing is as planned. We got to the river to find the lake upstream had opened up and the water was cold a ripping!
but we fished it anyway.
We first spotted a nice school of carp hiding along the banks, but they were not interested and soon kids showed up to torment them.
So we left that spot and moved down stream. After hearing storys of active feeding buffalo early in the year I decided to drift a half of a crawler on a slinkie rig.
After 3 casts I hooked up, I had a beautiful Bigmouth buffalo on only to loose him at the bank. But this was encouraging.
Soon we realized how the fish were relating to the riprap along the shore. Packed in a tight school running the length of the pool. Many clear hits and many many more line strikes.
Soon Gary hooked up with a Buff, but alas it was not meant to be. Foul hooked :( but still beautiful :)
The snag fest continued for a while with several carp getting caught in the fin..........
They were packed so tight it was nearly impossible to not hook them this way, it grew frustrating. Soon the current died down and the fish dispersed.
We had several clear hits, but now realize many were walleye. Soon we started to see walleye caught, nothing big but hey its a fish.

Then it happened. The event of legend revolving the springtime buffalo. A person next to us hooked into something nice, A BUFF! as he brought it in we realized he was using orange rapala. Once the fish was on shore you could see the rapala deep in the fishes mouth! No way was this a snag. The fish hammered it.
WHY????
This has been talked about by walleye fishermen along this river and several others. Buffalo in the spring time actively striking minnow shaped baits. If he didnt need a pliers to remove his Rap from the buffalos throat I wouldnt have believed it.

Soon after this we decided to explore and hit a few other spots hoping for a fish.
Nothing. We did however see a white sucker jet black with a dark band in the rapids near by. A spawner!!!
Spring it here!!

Some people look for the return of the robins some the peeping of frogs, but to me its the first white sucker darting in the rapids!

I was really hoping to get a fish today to dedicate this spring fishing season to one of our own who sadly left us this week, That sucker will have to do.

Everyone enjoy the day tomorrow. Take a moment to take a deep breath, listen to the birds and the wind or the trickle of the river and enjoy it.
Life is beautiful, we are lucky to get to experience it.

This season is for you Paula.

Even though your day didn't meet your expectations, it looks like you made some cool observations:

1. You at least had action even though it is frustrating to lose a fish.
2. You were an eyewitness to a hungry Rapala eating Buffalo.
3. You recognized the shortness of this life and enjoyed it in honor of our friend Paula.

I'm sure there is something I'm missing but it seems that your day wasn't a total failure. I wonder if Paula gets to read Roughfish.com posts from heaven. If so, this season is for you Paula. We all miss you.

Sweet report josh, it gives me hope in these dreary days before spring wins the battle against winter for the year. It also has inspired me to throw a couple rapalas back in my box. The bigmouth buffalo is my no. 1 target this year and this info helps ALOT. Thanks again for another helpful report.

It's awesome to see an open water report from you Jknuth! Even if the fish didn't cooperate you guys still popped the cork on a new season and had some good times. Just think - fishing is only going to get better and better...........

Thanks for sharing.

It was a great time. Even though he was foul-hooked in the fin, it was still nice to be able to handle a large, beautiful bigmouth buff again... He was very dark with nice orange markings. It will be nice a few weeks from now when it warms up and we can catch them by drifting waxies over them at the surface again. Seeing that buffalo with the rapala in his mouth was really interesting. Do you think they strike it out of aggression? If so, I wonder if there are other species that usually don't strike crankbaits that could be angered into lashing out at them in the spring?

~G

That is how it goes where I find my bigmouths too. I have heard that a twister and a jig works well. But where I am fishing the warden would think I am trying for walleye out of season. So I use a jig head with a crawler threaded on. I admit I too foul hook some. But my ratio to fair in the mouth use a finger to get the hook out is on a good day 1:2 on a bad day 2:1. So until I figure out a better way, I too am stuck.

Nice report.

Down here (Texas) I see reports often by fisherman slabbing for whites and hybrids and hooking up, one after another, with smallmouth buffs. Buffs will eat shad when available; no reason why you couldn't catch one on a rapala.