Big walleye makes kinship partners a memorable outing

Last year was my first involvement with Kinship Partners. It was a memorable trip. This year we did it again and had another trip that won't be forgotten.

Toby Kvalevog, Bruce Meinz and myself each had two Kinship kids. Toby also had Marcus Aulie, who is the activities coordinator with Kinship, in his boat.

Kinship Partners is a program in which adult mentors help give kids some quality time.

On this day the quality time was spent on the lake. I fished with Danny Felshim and Ricky Wirz, both 10 year old kids who live in the area. We anchored on a point and fished with slip bobbers, leeches and minnows. The action was good. Danny and Ricky caught bass, northern pike, pumpkinseeds and blue gills. They had a blast and it made me happy to see them having a chance to do something they enjoyed.

Bruce, who fished with Brittany Maske and Jersey Jarvela, used plastic worms and Toby, who had Zach Bestul and T.J. Wirz in his boat, started with a weed weasel and minnow. All of us had good fishing, but when fishing with young kids it's best to limit a trip to four hours. As 4 p.m. approached I pulled up the anchor and headed over to Trollin' Toby to let him know we were heading for the ramp.

As we got closer I saw Zach fighting a fish. I heard Toby say it was big. I pulled out my digital camera and started a video. I thought it might be a northern, but guess what? It was a 30-inch walleye! Unbelievable! That's something that doesn't happen very often. I'd say it was meant to be. Maybe next year one of the kids will catch a 31- or 32-inch fish?

If you want to make a positive impact on a child's life, go to www.kinshippartners.org and learn how you can become a kinship partner.

Q: Walleyedan, at what point in the season should I switch from rigging to vertical jigging?

A: There is no magical time when you should switch from rigs to jigs. It's done on a trial-and-error basis. If the fish aren't really going good on rigs, I'll switch to jigs. I do, however, love to jig from mid-October through ice season.

WALLEYEDAN Eigen can be reached at (218) 839-5598, walleyedan@brainerd.com or www.walleyedan.com.