Day of Practice: Dustin Kjelden on the Mississippi River

It was a transitory time of the year when the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour made its second stop of the season on the Mississippi River out of Red Wing, Minn., in late April. Trees were about three-fourths of the way into their full foliage, nesting pairs of waterfowl could be seen most everywhere, and from time to time, a turkey would gobble on one of the many wooded hillsides along the river. Air temperatures varied from the mid-40s early in the morning to the high 60s during the day.

Water temperatures in Pools 3, 4 and 5 of the Mississippi, which include such famous walleye holes as Lake Peppin, Buffalo Slough and the Vermillion River, were in the low to mid-50s, and walleyes were just completing their romantic chores for the year and beginning their migrations toward summer haunts. Air temps that day started at 50 and hit 70 by midafternoon. A high pressure sat over the region (for the first three days of the event, the temperature slowly fell until day three saw highs of 54 degrees).

I joined pro Dustin Kjelden of Brookings, S.D., on the Tuesday before the event began as he began to hone his practice strategy along with his teammates, Nick Johnson and Rock McGillivary.

Kjelden is a pro who’s proven his prowess in the professional walleye scene over the past couple of seasons, having finished fourth in the FLW Walleye Tour standings in 2005 thanks in large part to his win on Devils Lake. Kjelden also finished a very respectable 18th at the 2006 season-opening event on the Detroit River.

Launching into Lake Peppin early that morning, Kjelden made me swear to secrecy, at least until after the tournament was over, about the techniques he was about to reveal. Evidently, practice had been going fairly well for this group of anglers.

Lake Peppin’s surface was like glass that morning and registered 56 degrees, just a degree more than the air temperature. After a short run downriver, we pulled up to a breakline with a rocky shore.

Heavy rains most every day for a week prior to the event had caused the river levels to rise each day, and more high water was expected. This is one of the reasons Kjelden and crew were concentrating so heavily on Lake Peppin, with its calmer currents than the main river channel.

“These lake fish are awesome with rising water,” Kjelden said. “They won’t be affected nearly as much as river fish.”

The breakline was around 11 feet deep and adjacent to much deeper water. Kjelden and crew had been catching several fish off it on previous practice days. Honing their presentations to have backup strategies with changing conditions was now the order of the day.

“There are fish suspended out in deeper water, and there’re moving up to this breakline to feed,” Kjelden said. “Lead-core trolling seems to be the best here, but I want to try something a little different today.”

With that, we rigged up three-way rigs with bottom bouncers and orange Rapala Floating Minnows. “I’m wanting to see how much these bottom bouncers can be dragged without snagging up,” Kjelden said.

Kjelden used his kicker motor to ease down the breakline as we worked the three-way rigs. It was tough to feel the subtle wobble of those Rapalas, so frequent checks were needed to see if the hooks had become fouled with debris. More often than not, a cleaning session was in order before the baits could be tossed back out. Eventually, Kjelden asked me to shorten my leader to see if that made any difference. Apparently, if the fish did take to whacking the Rapalas on three-way rigs, short leaders would be the way to go.

Unfortunately, picking up a fish proved to be somewhat of a problem that day. After more than an hour of carefully working the breakline without a strike, we picked up and motored across the lake to troll a shallower flat. Kjelden soon hooked into a small white bass but no walleyes.

After a short time, we picked up and set out for a longer run before settling into another trolling run on Young’s-Wisconsin Channel. Running around 80 feet of leadcore line with orange Rapalas, I stuck another white bass. After unhooking it and tossing it back, Kjelden calmly pulled a 15-inch sauger into the boat so subtly that I barely noticed it.

After two or three more trolling passes without another taker, we moved on to spot troll several different areas. All proved to be fruitless, however. Later in the afternoon, Kjelden decided to motor back to the breakline where we’d pulled the three-way rigs.

Anticipation was high as Kjelden worked his bow mount and we tossed a variety of crankbaits, mostly orange-colored offerings such as Grabbler Shads, to the bank and retrieved them back over the rocks. I had one fierce strike that instantly severed my line. My crankbait surfaced just a few minutes later.

“That could have been a big northern. And it easily could have been a big walleye. They’ll sit up there and rip the rod out of your hands when they hit a crankbait,” Kjelden said.

After covering the breakline, Kjelden again pulled three-way rigs back up it but still to no avail. Several phone conversations revealed similar practice success that day for Johnson and McGillivary, although Johnson did manage to boat a few keepers.

We headed to the boat ramp a little later in the afternoon. Despite some intense fishing throughout the day, a single sauger was the only targeted fish landed while I was in the boat. But as it often happens, Kjelden informed me the next day that he had “stuck a pig” shortly after dropping me off.

Tale of the tape

Kjelden pointed out to me several times during each day’s weigh-in that we’d been a terrible source of bad luck for him. He was able to land a few walleyes on days one and two, but they weren’t of any size, especially considering the massive limits brought in by pros atop the leaderboard, such as the ultimate winner, Jeff Ryan of Lake View, Iowa. Kjelden weighed in five walleyes total on days one and two weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces.

He rebounded somewhat on day three and caught a nice limit weighing 10 pounds, 9 ounces, but by then, it was too late to get into the running. Kjelden finished in 108th place with a three-day weight of 17 pounds, 12 ounces.

That’s not to say the practice was for nothing, however. Johnson was able to dial into his fish, and ended up posting a four-day total of 14 walleyes weighing 60 pounds, 9 ounces to finish in fifth place and earn $13,000.