LAKE CITY — As Jeremy and Kerri Reese boated out of the Lake City Marina early Saturday as my guides for the 2024 Governor’s Fishing Opener on Lake Pepin, I pounded this into my head: “No more jinx, no more jinx, no more jinx.”
In the past 40 or so years, I’ve fished maybe a dozen governor’s fishing openers across the state from Grand Rapids to Fairmont, have fished in snow, pounding winds, rain, flat calm and 95-degree heat. I’ve fished with good guides and poor guides. And I have yet to have a really good day on the water. And I have yet to land a 28-inch walleye on Lake Pepin.
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Double jinx.
Well, I’m happy to say at least the first jinx is dead, kaput, finished, over. The Reese husband-wife combo guided me to a great fishing morning. We landed walleye after walleye and Jeremy tantalized me with a 26-incher. We suffered no horrendous weather or bizarre happenings to write about, just a good, gentle morning on the water. I liked that. We even saw Gov. Tim Walz and others in his fishing party land some nice walleye because in some openers, both the governor at the time and fish were missing.
The evening before at first elated me, then shattered hope with a brutal wind. The two Reeses fished the day before — Pepin, which is a large natural Mississippi River reservoir and the river where it’s the boundary with Wisconsin is open to nearly all fishing year-round — and texted photos of Kerri with a 29-incher and Jeremy with a 26.
The jinx began to melt. I texted back: “I hate to say it but I’m a known jinx. I can turn off a whole river. Let’s break the jinx.”
Suddenly, wind screamed to life, turning Pepin into white-capped fury, forcing the cancellation of a waterski show and making it hard to hear the speakers and band at the community celebration.
The jinx reared up with the wind.
I went to bed with mixed feelings about the next day and a bad feeling about sleeping because I ate a beef supreme burrito for supper. Good food, bad idea.
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Around 5:30 a.m. I saw Pepin was friendly ripples.
Promising.
We met at the marina, along with scores of other anglers in the opener, and were soon heading up the lake to Methodist Point just below Frontenac State Park. Others had the same idea but there was room to slowly troll three-ways with floating jigs and small leeches. Small is critical, Jeremy said. For some reason, jumbos that rule some northern lakes are anathema to Pepin walleye and sauger.
Being by a point was also critical, he said. Pepin has little current, but “the little current there is, is going around the point (so it’s moving faster) and the fish are hanging in there for the food source,” he said. That will last until current dies down more (the river and lake are still up a few dirty feet), he said. Then they will move more toward Wabasha and wingdams. “But if water stays up they will stay there,” he said.
That made sense to me and to the walleye.
We started farther out. “If we get one out here, it’s going to be a giant,” he said. Giants would be good.
In shallower water, Kerri struck first from her perch in the bow. A 19-inch walleye, a perfect eater. Twenty minutes later I added a 16-incher (river walleye need to be a minimum 15 inches; the limit is four with only one longer than 20 inches). Then we were off, each of us catching fish. Happily, nearly all were upper-teen eaters. Some told us they were there when rods bend back and stayed back. But my second walleye hit with a bang.
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We trolled more.
“Honey, I’ve got a fish,” Kerri said. He netted it.
By 8 a.m., we had been fishing an hour and had several keepers in the live well. “Now that we have some legals, let’s get a giant,” Jeremy said.
Giants eluded me but I soon had a third or fourth eater. I also added a foul-hooked sheephead and later caught a small catfish. Our boat also landed a few small sauger and a clam that clung to the sinker. On Pepin, you never really know what you’re going to get.
Jeremy found the giant around 9 a.m. A healthy 26-incher. “That’s what we’re after for walleye,” he said. Oddly, he didn’t think it was that big because it didn’t seem to be aggressive. I did a little happy dance because of the big one that followed several prime eaters.
“Just have to come out in the Reese boat,” Jeremy said.
Around 9 a.m., I caught another good one and Jeremy moved my other rod out of the way (two rods are legal). I predicted it was a big one but was wrong — another good eater. When he handed me my other rod, I had on another fish. This time, I tried reverse psychology and predicted it was just a tiny little sauger. Wrong again — an 18.5-incher.
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Around 9:30 a.m., boats holding the governor and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, came up, along with a few media boats. That made about a dozen on that point, too many. We watched both the Walz and Flanagan boats catch fish and even Walz caught one.
It was too crowded and we went down the lake to Long Point (also known as Sand Point). “This spot could produce big fish too,” Jeremy said.
“Could or will?” I asked.
Okay, no promises, he said.
I caught an upper-teen but threw it back - we had 11 in the live well and would have had to quit fishing when we limited. We held out hopes for more another giant - or two.
We never caught another giant nor another keeper before heading back for shore lunch.
At the dock, Kerri was happy. “It was fun,” she said. “It was fun catching a lot of fish that we could keep, right under where they’re supposed to be and caught a big one on top of it all.” Well spoken.
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Her husband was equally effusive. “Today was great,” he said. “I think we had a good day fishing, we had a lot of fish, we got a fish for you right away.” It’s the May bite and it can be phenomenal and it’s starting to really turn on. It could run for a few more months, depending on the river.
I went home with three pounds of fillets and feeling lighter with one jinx off my back.
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