It’s been a while since I have been down on the river by Red Wing, Minn. Trapping was a distraction and the cold weather was a big deterrent. I don’t seem to handle the frigid temperatures like I used to. The recent warm up was a welcome event and reason enough to head down to the river.

I met my old friend and his dog for the outing. You may remember Dave2, a high school classmate. We share many of the same interests. We even graduated from the same Hunter Safety class. You may also remember his dog Falco, the fish licking bird dog who prefers northern pike over any other fish that comes out of the river. As much as he likes to lick fish, he draws the line at suckers.  

We moved around the river, fished and talked, and enjoyed the sun-soaked afternoon. The only thing missing were the fish. We slid around to this spot and that spot; we just couldn’t seem to find the walleyes. The frustrating part was that on other outings I had caught fish in every spot we were fishing, just not on this day.  

We finally moved up on the right side of the right side. If you’ve fished Red Wing, you know what I mean and you also know where I was fishing. That’s when we finally broke the ice with a sucker, a couple of small saugers, and an undersized walleye. Even though we didn’t put any fish in the live well, it was a start and certainly better than getting skunked.

As we fished on, we caught the occasional sauger that we probably should have kept. The problem was that the fishing was so slow that every time we caught one we wondered if we would catch another. In other words, when you’re cleaning fish, you never want to clean just one.  

In between the long fishless droughts I caught, or should I say snagged, the fish of the day. I reeled in an 8-inch hackleback. I have only heard old time river rats call it that because it’s more commonly known as a sand sturgeon but more people would recognize it as a shovelnose sturgeon.  

Hackleback fun facts: the size limit in Wisconsin is 25 inches which means it’s about 10 years old. The daily bag limit is three.

I don’t know how many fish Dave2 and I caught during the course of the day, but I do know exactly how many we kept: zero. Had we kept some of the bigger saugers we would have had a limit or maybe two but some days that is just how it goes. Cleaning one fish seems to be more trouble than it’s worth but then again, after coming home empty handed, it’s better than cleaning no fish.

Didn’t get enough Dave this week? Visit “Outdoor Trails and Tales with Dave Beck” on Facebook or at  ottwithdavebeck on Instagram for photos and video of Dave’s adventures. You can share your own photos and video with him there as well, or by emailing him at dave@piercecountyjournal.news Also, check out OTT content on Instagram @thepiercecountyjournal