Marble-eye meltdown: Advancing storm system triggers Walleye rampage

by Lowell Washburn

“Man, you should have been here yesterday!”

Sooner or later, every angler will become acquainted with that sad statement.  You know the story.  You’ve just arrived at your favorite fishing water where everyone in the bait shop is absolutely raving about the vicious, no holds barred walleye feeding frenzy that occurred in this very spot - - - yesterday.

Today will prove to be an entirely different story, of course.   Following three solid hours of frothing the water with everything your tackle box has to offer; you finally surrender and head for the nearest hamburger stand – humbled, defeated and empty handed.

But there are those rare – and I do mean rare -- occasions where you do manage to find yourself in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.  That’s the precise circumstance I found myself in on Clear Lake last Wednesday.

By the time daybreak arrived, Doppler radar was showing a significant low pressure system rapidly marching its way toward Cerro Gordo county.  The radar map displayed a dazzling array of green and yellow, further illustrating the system’s weather changing potential.  It didn’t take a professional fishing guide or trained meteorologist to determine that a ‘Perfect Storm’ was brewing or that a major barometric change was about to send Clear Lake walleye populations into a serious feeding binge.

Grabbing an ultralight fishing rod and a couple dozen minnows,