Dan is a versatile multi-species angler, who specializes in esox species-and is a regular contributor to Esox Angler/The Next Bite magazine. He has lived and fished in the Walker, MN area all of his life, and offers guide service there. There are countless waters in the area to choose from, and depending on the species and conditions, the appropriate lakes to fish are chosen accordingly. To reach Dan for guiding in the area, call 218-547-2869.

Actually, "pattern" is the perfect description of what this show - and the fishing -- was all about. When we talk about patterns and patterning … it can be pretty confusing. Some folk’s description of a pattern is something that has been figured out: fish location, and what the presentation is - that makes ‘em bite. Some times it does work that way - and that is the end goal. The key to remember is that it’s ever-changing, and an on-going process … get too comfortable with your pattern, and your pattern stifles you.

Every day is a new day. Every extended period of no activity is a new start. Boy, we sure had quite a few starts in this 2 ½ day trip. Structurally, there are tons of options to consider, especially in an area of many different lakes. We discussed on the show, the general approaches, the general areas and the lures (tools) to use. I mentioned that the plan is to concentrate on deeper water, sharper breaks, main-lake access, but I stressed that while those are the general considerations, we just have to keep trying different things to try to figure it out (pattern it).

Well, it was certainly an exercise in patterning, and "patterning" is the right word (especially on this trip) as it’s always changing. Of course, at times, the weather tells you what you can or can’t do. Day one, it decided our options should be very limited. We woke to a brisk northwester, steady wisps (hardly) of wind in the 30 to 40 mph range, with the occasional, friendly 50 + "hat-taker-offer" gusts. In near freezing temps, not fun. It also very much limited where we could fish.

So, I picked a lake with the right stuff on the western shores; one with high western shores that blocked the wind, but were also steep below water level too. Sharp-breaking shoreline structure, most with hard-bottom, some points and turns, and nearly-linked rock bars that were too far from shore (so we could still fish ‘em). I explained to the Pitts boys, that it really offered everything we need (or best could hope for), and that I hope they like it, since until the wind slows it’s where we’ll be.

On this short trip, we had basically all the weather you could imagine (except real warm), and caught fish in several different locations on several different lakes. In every case we were always concentrating on main-lake areas with the deep access, but we caught fish vertically jigging Fuzzy Duzzit lures deep, on secondary breaks. (And, it truly was the pattern for a while on that first, miserable day. We were literally doing everything imaginable, and getting lures in the same zone by using deep diving lures and allowing soft plastics to go down. We tried deep, shallow and in-between. Then I dropped the Fuzzy down. And we caught three fish in less than an hour.)

But, as things settled a bit, we had fish going on different patterns and different places. We were constantly adjusting. It seemed like the big Jake was a good pattern in lure type, but location was ever-changing. We fished 3 different bodies of water, and at one point made a lake change simply due to visibility being greatly reduced by sediment stirred by the huge winds.

Besides vertical presentations in deep water, we caught one night fish on a sharp-breaking shoreline: dead weeds, right on the break, Jake got clobbered. One fish came from a deeper bar, with weeds that were still green. Others came on rock bar edges, medium depth and one on a deeper rock saddle. We never got bored. We were constantly patterning … and we had a great time!