DENTRY: It wasn't the wipers that were intermittent

By Ed Dentry, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 22, 2008 at 11:25 p.m.

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Photo by Photos By Ed Dentry / The Rocky

Steve Montague stretches with a net to gather in a wiper for his son, Josh, on a windy evening at Lake McConaughy in Nebraska.

Years of experience at the lake drew Steve Montague and his Colorado crew to a windy shore where fat wipers were feeding.

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Ogallala, Neb. -- What to do when the north wind wails and cautious sailors stay in port? Grin and bear it.

"You take the wind with a grain of salt up here," said Denver-area angler Steve Montague, who banked on 32 years of fishing experience at Lake McConaughy to show him a sign.

Refusing to be discouraged by whitecaps and unseasonably cold water, Montague led a ragtag crew to the south shore, precisely into the saber teeth of the gale.

"Bring your chest waders," he had recommended.

Nebraska's largest reservoir has not been immune to the cruelties of this long, cold transition to spring. A boater who surrendered after one hour in rough seas Saturday reported 51-degree surface water and sulky walleyes.

"We got blown off the lake," he said. For entertainment, he drove around to the south shore to watch surf fishermen wading in the slop.

Wet to their waists, the undaunted were making a spectacle of winching in wipers 25 to 27 inches long and some dandy smallmouth bass.

At work was the theory of windy shores, a good one to remember when times get tough. "When the wind blows baitfish into this bay, it fills up with fish," Montague said. The bend in his rod gave testimony.

Shallow bays also warm faster than the rest of the lake. This one registered 56 degrees.

One stubborn wader tried casting crankbaits and tube jigs at 6- to 10-pound wipers everyone else was hooking in the shallows. No dice.

It was a day for bait -- mainly nightcrawlers slung long from Lindy rigs and slithering along the bottom. So the guy experimenting with sportier hardware converted to the obvious.

"Well, when they're hitting bait, you've got to use bait," Montague observed.

Meanwhile, far out on Big Mac, 180 anglers in 90 boats were getting whipped by wind and walleyes at the main event, McConaughy's Shut Up and Fish Tournament.

Mostly, the walleyes took charge of shutting up during the two-day contest. More than two-thirds of the competitors were shut out. As in skunked.

It seems cool nights and wind had combined with rising water flowing in from the North Platte River to baffle the blend.

The water-level climb is a good thing. Rising water already has put the "big" back in Big Mac, which suffered eight years of drought and shriveled to 20 percent of capacity in 2006.

"It's been a very tough eight years, but the fishing held up here. It's amazing," said Bob Roche, who sits in the catbird seat at Samuelson's Eagle's Nest Resort, at Lemoyne, on McConaughy's north shore (1-308-355-2321).

In the course of renting cabins and selling licenses, tackle and provisions, Roche talks with a lot of fishermen. Lately, they've been in a slump over the pokey warm-up. Roche figures spring is running about two weeks behind normal, fishwise.

"The white bass and wipers started just like clockwork up in these creek heads," Roche said. "But they haven't found the walleyes yet."

Give it a while longer. With all that new structure, plenty of freshly flooded brush and cold water, the post-spawn walleyes are dithering over where they'll be going.

Back in the windy bay, nearly everyone caught grand wipers, keeping their limit of one per day over 18 inches, then wishing (not too hard) to catch smaller fish.

The good news is, if you weren't there, you haven't missed the walleye bite. Eventually, the water will warm. Spring will come, even if it takes all summer.

Walleyes will feed. The wind might even die down before Labor Day.

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