[PECo]

I met TurtleKiss (aka Kira) and her friend, Steve, at Batterson Park Pond this morning. They had already been on the water for a while when I launched in The Other Woman at 8:00 am. The air temperature was cool, the sky was overcast and there was a slight south breeze. The water was only slightly murky: I could see my lure down three or four feet. The water temperature was 60 degrees, however, the water level was at least a couple of feet lower than normal. The rock walls on the west shore were above the water and the spillway in the northeast corner was completely dry. I headed up the west shore. I had only two setups with me. One had a White Pearl 2-1/2 inch Gulp! Minnow on a 1/16 ounce jighead and the other had a Baby Bass Strike King KVD Caffeine Shad on a Number 4 EWG Offset Shank Worm hook. The minnow jig got me the first fish within 10 minutes, which was a short largemouth bass:



A few minutes later, the minnow jig also got me a keeper white perch:




Five minutes after that, the minnow jig got me another short largemouth bass:



And then five minutes after that, the minnow jig got me a sunny:



I love the minnow jig! By that time, I was halfway up the west shore to the beach, and I saw Kira and Steve heading from the beach to the submerged island, so I headed out to the middle of the lake, too. Kira was in Dinghbat and Steve paddled a kayak. While I was talking with Kira, I threw the Caffeine Shad. When I felt a thump, I set the hook on another short largemouth bass:



Here are Kira and Steve at the island:



There were a couple of other boats near the island, so I decided to check out the beach. I swapped out the Caffeine Shad for a white spinnerbait and dragged it over the weeds in the shallows. On the outside weedline in front of the beach, I ran into Dick, The Pike Guy. I met Dick at Batterson a couple of years ago and hadn't seen him since. While we caught up, he told me that the walleye in Batterson like perch patterned or firetiger lures more than any other. As we talked, the sun came out from behind the clouds and the wind rose out of the south. Unfortunately, when the sun and wind showed up, the bite left. I pedaled back down the west shore, across to the east shore and up to the dam. I had a short largemouth bass jump off of the spinnerbait along the east shore. When I got to the dam, the wind had risen to 20+ miles per hour. I picked up a 16 inch, two pound largemouth bass by the spillway and a short largemouth bass along the dam wall. It took a lot of effort to stay off of the dam wall in the pitching waves, so I got only a photo of the short:



By the time I made it back down the northwest shore to the beach, Kira and Steve were taking a break on the shore, so I suggested that we go out for a late lunch. It took us a while to get back to the boat launch ramp against the wind. I got off of the water at 2:00 pm, but we hit rush hour at the ramp, so it took a while to get Kira and Steve out of there. We probably left Batterson at 2:30 pm.

After lunch, I headed back to Batterson. I'm not sure when I got back on the water, but it was probably around 4:30 pm. I continued to throw the minnow jig and the spinnerbait, but couldn't get a bite. I had a short largemouth bass jump off of the spinnerbait at the island, but that was it. When I finally decided that I was going to head off of the water, I decided to troll around the lake, first. I swapped out both lures for Rapalas; a Perch Shallow Shad Rap SSR7 and a Silver Shad Rap SR7. I have to give credit where credit is due. I tied on the Perch Rapala because Dick had told me that Batterson walleye like perch patterned lures the best and he was right:




In Chinese, that's called a Wah Li. I tried to troll outside the heavy weed cover in six to eight feet of water at between one and two miles per hour. That's when a fish finder with GPS really comes in handy:



Although the water temperature dropped back down to 63 degrees at the end of the day, it had hit 65 degrees during the afternoon. The Silver Rapala also produced a sunny:




But the Perch Rapala came through, again, with a small keeper largemouth bass:



I got off of the water just before dark, at 7:45 pm. Tomorrow will probably be a washout for me, but Opening Day sure was a lot of fun.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Elixir]

Awesome report as always. Glad you had an awesome opening day! The sunny face is priceless !

[DirtyDawg10]

Nice job out there!

[PECo]

I hate treble hooks, Elixir, and I hate them even more when a small fish like a sunny manages to get all three hooks in its mouth.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Michael]

Perch SSR7 has always been my best freshwater lure! More largemouths on that than any other lure! One of them was my PB 8 pounder!

Using a SSR7 as a topwater is very productive too!

[Elixir]

Lol yeah takes forever to get it out but thats how fishing gets ya!

[bowhunter095]

hey PECo! Do you have any idea how big the walleye have to be to keep in Batterson? And do you think they would be safe to eat out of there?

[PECo]

Keeper walleye are 18 inches minimum. I wasn't kidding when I said I was kidding about not trusting the water at Batterson. In addition to the one largemouth, I've also eaten the only keeper walleye that I've caught there. It was the best tasting fish that I've caught so far.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[bowhunter095]

Ha alright thank you! I live a few minutes down the road from Batterson but ive only fished it once before with only a few white perch to show for it. I've had this itch for the past three years to catch a keeper walleye and try it because ive heard so many good things about how it tastes. I'm planning on taking a trip over there really soon just to try for walleye. Do you have any tips for me?

[NWDarkcloud]

ya im only 5 minutes off the lanch here so anyone want to hook up few times a week here im in. also ive got a extra seat so if your comeing straight from work i can meet ya on the launch so all you need to bring is your rods and box so just into my boat and away we go..... pm me and we can trade phone numbers for those ..O'Man it looks sweet out there day hook ups