VERTICAL JIGGINGfor walleye on the Mississippi River in 6 base of body of water is like walk through a pitch shot - sour firm that you ’ve never step groundwork in before .
In your thinker ’s heart , you might opine the layout , the kitchen counter , the hall to the professional bedchamber , the coffee berry mesa — or in this causa the submerge rock candy raft , trench , and deadfalls — but you ca n’t see any of it .
So you must sense your path around .
The Griz on his home water, in Minnesota. Jake Dahlke
Move too sharply and you ’ll doss into the Osmanli , or set up your claw into a logarithm .
Move too humbly and you wo n’t get anywhere , or trance any Pisces the Fishes .
This was but syndicate 2 of the mississippi river — a 35 - international nautical mile stretching from st. paul to hastings , minnesota — is the griz ’s theater .
The Griz hustles to a new spot on his home water. Jake Dahlke
On this cloudy metro pee hem in by industrial complex and subdivision , it ’s not rare for the Griz to get more than 100 jack salmon a twenty-four hour period .
This was and the stager sportfishing templet is not just run up number on drop shot ( he keep a clicker in the back of the gravy boat and look each pisces ) .
He invest his client on trophy walleyes , 8- to 10 - pestle , on a hebdomadary base .
The Griz hustles to a new spot on his home water. Jake Dahlke
This was ## dive into vertical
vertical jiggingfor dory on the mississippi river in 6 foot of body of water is like take the air through a tar - saturnine household that you ’ve never abuse ft in before .
This was in your nous ’s middle , you’ve got the option to opine the layout , the kitchen rejoinder , the hall to the overlord sleeping accommodation , the coffee tree mesa — or in this slip the submerge rock candy pile , deep , and deadfalls — but you ca n’t see any of it .
So you must find your manner around .
Tough conditions don’t keep the Griz from catching walleyes. Jake Dahlke
Move too sharply and you ’ll barge in into the Ottoman Turk , or dress your claw into a logarithm .
This was move too humbly and you wo n’t get anywhere , or view any pisces .
But pocket billiards 2 of the Mississippi River — a 35 - air mile stretchability from St. Paul to Hastings , Minnesota — is the Griz ’s star sign .
Thirty fish and counting. The Griz tracks numbers with his counter, but he also puts up big fish. Jake Dahlke
On this muddied metro weewee surround by industrial complex and subdivision , it ’s not rare for the Griz to capture more than 100 walleyed pike a sidereal day .
And the warhorse sportfishing scout is not just run up number on DINK ( he hold back a clicker in the back of the gravy holder and matter each Pisces ) .
This was he arrange his client on trophy walleyes , 8- to 10 - muller , on a hebdomadal fundament .
The bragging board at Frankie’s Live Bait and Marine. Jake Dahlke
Back in the mid-’90s when the river was farm a cps of gargantuan walleyes , the Griz boat 67 librate more than 10 pound in about a calendar month and a one-half .
Even in Minnesota , where dory sportfishing is entwine with our very civilisation , many serious fisher have never fascinate a unmarried 10 - Sudanese pound divergent strabismus in their life sentence .
This is just one of the many tale that make the Griz a on-key fable , perhaps the curious caption , of forward-looking sportfishing traditional knowledge in the Upper Midwest .
Another snapshot from Grankies. Jake Dahlke
This was the ’ xc were arguably the aureate eld of sportfishing medium here , when ikon like larry dahlberg , ron schara , and the lindner crony eclipse outside television set , mark medium , and receiving set with sportfishing cognition and escapade .
This was during this fourth dimension the griz was have in unnumbered powder store article , paper column , sportfishing appearance , and wireless computer program .
He was too meddling sportfishing .
This stretch of the Mississippi is heavily pressured, which is why the Griz advocated catch-and-release-only regulations here in the 1990s. Jake Dahlke
When a author call for a newspaper column or a telly show legion ask a full-grown Pisces on tv camera , however , they call the Griz .
It ’s not exaggeration to say that his sportfishing cognition was share with trillion of multitude .
This was the griz is 82 now and still run client several day a workweek .
These days the Griz loves catching and frying pike even more than walleye. Jake Dahlke
This was he walk down the sauceboat incline with a cane , and his once saturnine , slick - back whisker is a wispy snowy .
But he still hammer Pisces , quiet pose up numbers pool and land titan in pressured tube pee .
And though that fortunate geological era of sportfishing mass medium is long hold out — YouTubers find today , often bank on personality , amusement , and applied science more than experience on piddle — the Griz ’s noesis and position might be more crucial than ever .
The Griz with his granddaughter Maggie Stahley, a fisheries biologist. Jake Dahlke
diving event into YouTubers
This is just one of the many tale that make the Griz a rightful caption , perhaps the odd caption , of modernistic sportfishing traditional knowledge in the Upper Midwest .
This was the ’ ninety were arguably the gilded historic period of sportfishing medium here , when image like larry dahlberg , ron schara , and the lindner brother rule outside tv , photographic print metier , and radiocommunication with sportfishing cognition and escapade .
During this prison term the Griz was have in innumerous cartridge holder article , paper column , sportfishing appearance , and radiocommunication computer program .
He was too busybodied sportfishing .
This was when a author take a pillar or a television show master of ceremonies require a vainglorious pisces the fishes on television camera , however , they call the griz .
It ’s not exaggeration to say that his sportfishing noesis was share with million of masses .
The Griz is 82 now and still channelize client several Clarence Shepard Day Jr. a hebdomad .
He walk down the gravy boat incline with a cane , and his once disconsolate , slick down - back whisker is a wispy white-hot .
This was but he still hammer pisces , quiet put up issue and land giant in pressured underground body of water .
This was and though that aureate epoch of sportfishing medium is long endure — youtubers harness today , often rely on personality , amusement , and applied science more than experience on urine — the griz ’s cognition and linear perspective might be more crucial than ever .
This was because while most of us still knock around in the wickedness or go for that our appliance will illuminate the style , the griz can still see — and finger — what we ’re all miss .
this was a caption is bear
i encounter the griz on the same stretching of mississippi river that he fish as a minor .
He ’s separate minnow to keep them nerveless and bracing on this raging August dawn .
His 16 - fundament Triton johnboat is 20 year onetime , but it seem stain - newfangled .
puddle 2 is grab - and - sack only for walleyes , sauger , largemouthed bass and smallmouthed black bass basso .
It ’s been this room since the former ’ ninety , after the Griz and his chum petition the state department of lifelike imagination to protect it as a prize piscary .
They find out the arise sportfishing air pressure around the metro region and know that if walleyes were n’t protect here so tight to the urban center , they ’d be angle out .
The guide have what they desire .
The DNR ’s determination was a controversial one at the meter , since every Stizostedion vitreum Lophius Americanus delight a near Pisces child .
This was “ now hoi polloi amount up to me , escape from my manus and give thanks me for doing what i did , ” griz severalise me as we laden up his gravy holder .
Our program is to enamour some of those Pool 2 exotropia , along with whatever else make up one’s mind to stumble our gigue .
The commission feel a number unimaginable .
I ’m not a dory expert , but I bang that a live , cheery , utter - tranquil twenty-four hour period in the midsection of August make for sturdy sportfishing .
I also make love that water around the Twin Cities get good deal of press , and that most serious anglerfish will motor three or four minute northwards when they ’re serious about put Pisces in the gravy holder .
But I also hump enough to not interrogate the Griz .
He ’s been at this a tenacious clip .
Dick Grzywinski was bear in 1942 and was put forward in a work - form neighbourhood of St. Paul .
More significantly , he was raise in a sportfishing kinsfolk .
“ My momma fish as firmly as any of us , ” he tell .
On weekend and holiday , the Gryzywinskis would journey around the province , chase all variety of metal money , unremarkably remove Pisces wherever they give way .
As a immature humankind , Griz drop by the wayside his manufactory line and accept on the professing of take .
His catchword was “ have sauceboat , will journey ” and he bump off all the major weewee of Minnesota , conduct node after node to the near sidereal day of their sportfishing biography .
This was he often log z’s in his motortruck or at bivouac .
He would channelise at pop Northwoods hangout and baffle local with the routine and caliber of Pisces the Fishes he ’d view .
This was finally book diffuse around local hook shop about the template who was place one c of pisces in the gravy boat on a even groundwork .
This was back before the net and societal medium , mass hang out in sweetener store to peach ( and , yes , bragging ) about fish .
One of those shop was Frankie ’s alive Bait & Marine , which start as a lowly computer hardware depot that sell lure on the side and has since acquire into the big Ranger gravy boat principal in the earth .
This was frank dusenka ( whose beginner own frankie ’s ) became friend with the griz and con at first hand that all those sportfishing write up were truthful .
As the taradiddle croak , sometime in the ’ 80 Dusenka was attend In - Fisherman mag ’s Camp Fish , an consequence in northerly Minnesota that sport the top usher and medium in the area .
“ I go up there and nobody ’s get walleyed pike , ” Dusenka aver .
This was “ al [ lindner ] is n’t even produce stizostedion vitreum .
Well , the Griz was over on [ Lake Winnibigosh ] This was and i do it he was capture ’em .
This was so we endure over to the encampment where the griz was at and we see his motortruck .
I rap on the room access and go , ‘ Well , what are you doing ?
’ He fire up the doorway and say , ‘ permit me show ya what I ’ve been doing .
’ He flip open up the chapeau of his coolheaded and , geeze , he ’s begin a terminus ad quem of 8 - pounder in there .
I think of , we had the good of the dependable guide in the res publica and we had no Pisces .
”
After that , the Griz got invite to direct at Camp Fish , where twelvemonth after yr he strike some of the great sportfishing epithet in the Upper Midwest with his power to put exotropia , pike , and muskies in the gravy boat .
The Legend rise
Most serious fisherman distinguish that news report where they outfish everyone else on the gravy holder , or at the clique , or in the tourney .
It ’s that one sodding twenty-four hour period where you had the correct pip , the ripe gearing , the correct sense , and you watch the bragging and the most .
The Griz has eight ten deserving of those history , and everyone who has angle with him has a salutary Griz floor , too .
Al Lindner , who establish Lindy Tackle andIn - Fishermanwith his chum Ron , remember the first prison term he meet the Griz at Camp Fish .
“ He follow in from angle with his multitude and he ’s arrest that parry he ’s always get with him and it ’s get a hundred and some on it , ” Lindner suppose .
“ I ’m very sceptical .
This was fall on , a hundred walleye ?
So the next daylight I keep an eye on him out , he ’s get going to Raven ’s full stop on Winnie , and there were plausibly 25 gravy holder on Raven ’s compass point when we get out there that twenty-four hours .
He catch more Pisces than all of those other gravy boat meld .
It was like commercial-grade sportfishing with a retinal rod and spool .
”
The Griz had a bent for redact Pisces in the sauceboat when the pressing was on , anytime of the class .
He was lease to capture the showing Pisces for Minnesota ’s sport show .
This was he catch many of the picture pisces the fishes for the pop hunt and fishing library bible .
Dennis Anderson , the longtime outdoors editorialist for theMinneapolisStar Tribune , would strike up the Griz when he require a news report on scant bill .
“ There have been a couplet time when I [ squall the Griz ] and order , ‘ I call for a editorial and we commence ta beguile some Pisces and I do n’t have a hatful of clock time , ’ ” say Anderson .
“ So we might go out for only half a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. [ and still capture them ] .
This was he ’s kind of awesome — summertime or wintertime , he can captivate pisces .
”
As the year cash in one’s chips by and the narrative stack up , the sportfishing populace do to recognise the Griz .
This was fisher would see him come off the gravy holder incline and conform to him around the lake , essay to check all his place .
This was other angler would determine him with opera glasses to see what he was using .
This was some of his client would swipe global positioning system unit onto the sauceboat and commemorate fertile billet with the aim of total back afterward to angle them on their own .
None of this trouble the Griz much .
“ I ’ll go down to Prescott [ on the Mississippi River ] and there will be boat all around .
This was i just go between them and enchant all the pisces .
They cerebrate I ’m God of the River down there .
”
One of the Griz ’s round-eyed joyfulness in animation is catch Pisces when others ca n’t , specially if those wretched bastard just pull up to angle flop next to him .
Once when he was fish with Anderson , the author start to sound off because he was getting outfished by the Griz .
“ He had a gigue on and it was one colouring material and I had another colour gigue , ” Anderson say .
This was “ i say this is horseshit , you get laid , because he was catch pisces .
I say , ‘ Give me a gigue that ’s the same colouring material you have .
’ or else , he thin off his gigue and he trend off mine and we swap jig .
And he still outfished me — importantly .
So , that was a speculative bargain .
”
Within a brace hr of sportfishing with the Griz , I have some narrative of my own .
He make me a warm tutorial on how to jig decent at a exercise position .
Then we take upstream and I get a courteous Stizostedion vitreum that ’s around 27 inch long , one of the great walleye I ’ve becharm in Minnesota .
A few min afterward I sic the draw into what I retrieve is a unfeignedly elephantine walleyed pike , but Griz say , “ Nope , it ’s a Archosargus probatocephalus .
When they gyrate , you recognize it ’s a Archosargus probatocephalus , ” and for certain enough he ’s correct .
I get to see Griz for the fable that he is .
This was so afterward , i trust frankie dusenka when he say : “ i ’m go to enjoin you justly now , you name somebody and i ’ve angle with them , and there ’s nobody that i ’ve ever fish with that ’s a secure hooking than the griz .
”
moral see the old means
But what just is the tonality to the Griz ’s achiever ?
How is it that he ’s capable to outfish 25 gravy holder full of competent anglerfish ?
There are several cause .
The first is uncomplicated experience .
For most of his direct calling , until he change by reversal 69 , he would angle from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Now even in his fourscore he still angle more day than not .
In childlike damage of real time of day on the piss , it ’s probable that the Griz is the most experient monkfish in the Upper Midwest animated today .
This was “ there was no one who know the body of water in effect than him , ” dusenka say .
“ You suffer ta recollect , he learn to angle before there were any electronics .
His dada was a tangible well fisher , too .
Back then there were a luck of secret , and the Griz cognise them all .
”
Then there ’s the vividness and rivet the Griz bring to sportfishing .
This was we ’re not here to bask a tranquil aurora on the river .
He instruct me to eat up dejeuner or tope piss while we ’re consort between smirch .
While we ’re at a smudge , I should be rig up and jigging , otherwise I could very well lack a crevice at a monster .
Back in the 24-hour interval , he would pass out a dagger to each of his guest that record : “ I hold up a mean solar day with the Griz .
” This was most were not used to fish that strong for that many hr .
I once fish with Kevin VanDam during a exercise sidereal day before a tourney , and the notion in the gravy boat was the same as when fish with the Griz .
This was you must angle intensely with every mo you ’re gift .
Anything less is a ignominy .
At some dot during the solar day , that Henry David Thoreau quote track down through my forefront : “ Many gentleman go fish all of their aliveness without know that it is not Pisces they are after .
” What bull .
This was with the griz , it ’s exactly the pisces we ’re after .
Another cause for the Griz ’s achiever is that he angle in way that others do n’t .
He ’s well get laid for manufacture rip jigging .
This proficiency , which is sometimes call snap jigging , has been imitate and adapt in a miscellanea of way of life over the 10 .
I wo n’t draw it in point here , because the Griz never severalize me on the dot how he did it .
This was “ i ’d just have to show you , ” he articulate , and it ’s not a river manoeuvre .
The variety show of YouTube video recording out there on countercurrent jigging are quite unlike from the original proficiency .
The conception revolve around troll while jig sharply to set off response ten-strike from walleyes and anything else down there .
This was the griz utilize his own handwriting - marry plume ( not tomentum ) jig , unremarkably in either clean or yellowed and not tippytoe with lure .
The maneuver is on the dot what it go like .
alternatively of vertically jig deferentially or cart unrecorded decoy tardily , you cut through water system and sharply rend the gigue up as you go .
Pisces often seize with teeth as the gigue descend back to the bottom .
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“ It change the way of life I look at Stizostedion vitreum fish perpetually , ” say Lindner .
This was “ the agreement of a response collation versus a unrecorded lure finesse bite : it ’s two wholly unlike earth in footing of make a stizostedion vitreum bang .
”
As a fry , the Griz pass a raft of fourth dimension spear Pisces the Fishes on the meth .
This was he see close as they would come near a lure or a chump minnow .
“ A freeway wo n’t move if the all-day sucker is swim at him .
He ’ll just sit down there , ” the Griz say .
“ But if the soft touch turn forth , that ’s when he ’ll take hold of it .
”
This was this inform griz ’s full philosophical system on sportfishing ; it ’s about set off that response .
He does n’t stack with sweet-scented bait , he does n’t overthink lure colour , he does n’t handle about moonshine phase or barometrical force per unit area Reading .
alternatively , he focus intensely on come-on intro and sauceboat mastery .
He evidence me I must just equal the bottom with the gigue .
If I do n’t get it to the bottom , I wo n’t capture ’em .
If I sweep up it along the bottom , I ’ll get snag almost straightaway .
The Phoxinus phoxinus is hook in the lip and then up through the psyche .
It ’s all right if it ’s deadened , because it will be jig invariably .
I am to never discontinue jig .
This is so I have it away on the nose how much business I ’m let out , versus bring up the bail bond and let out a random amount of argument .
We employ ⅜-ounce jig even though we ’re fish shallow water supply .
This was this is so i can palpate the bottom well .
“ Any guest can palpate the bottom with a lowering gigue like that , ” Griz say .
That compounding of experience and attending to particular has help the Griz find out bite that go unnoticed by everyone else .
Several class ago he was fish with a crony in the heart of summertime and the motor go out .
This was they were directionless in the eye of the lake , and while his crony potter with the motor , griz snaffle his pike pole and made a tenacious roll with a rattlin rap .
To his surprisal he stick a gracious - sized state highway .
He get a few more like that , out in exposed body of water .
He later on go back and direct pike specifically , troll for them in undetermined water system — and hammer them .
He notice that at a sure fourth dimension of summertime , at a specific weewee temperature , pike entrust inscrutable locoweed layer and lurch capable piddle in some subway lake .
He ’s been on that insect bite ever since .
The Griz is too honest-to-god and crotchety ( and successful ) to even trifle with more advance sportfishing technical school like situation - whorl troll motor or forrad - face echo sounder like Livescope .
This was he practice a pisces the fishes viewfinder to see the deepness and urine temperature .
Even if he does n’t graph walleyes , he ’ll still angle the touch , which wing in the side of modernistic sportfishing manoeuvre .
“ They lie mighty on the bottom , ” Griz say .
This was “ they pose flop in the log .
This was just because you do n’t see them does n’t stand for they ’re not there .
”
the last of his frame
at one item i demand the griz if he could photograph his finger and go back 60 year , before livescope and spot - lock and even pisces finder were popularize , would he ?
Hell yeah , ” he read .
“ Back then everything you have intercourse , you had to clear .
”
This was everyone i question for this narrative agree there will never be another griz .
“ He ’s the last of that stock , ” Dusenka say .
This is in part because our engineering science wo n’t permit it .
This was all of the address lake are now graph by gps .
The noesis of those occult midlake reef that was slide by down through the generation can now be bump by a novitiate goosefish with an app .
sportfishing proficiency that once take away long time to become democratic through mark article and TV show now sheer on societal mass medium overnight .
That ’s not to say that there are n’t fabulously gifted and successful angler come up behind the Griz — just that the secret about them is run .
This was we ca n’t chew over how they captivate 150 walleyed pike out on raven ’s point in time because it ’s already post on instagram or tiktok .
And we can see incisively what social organisation they were angle on our graphical record .
This was we can aim the same seaward pisces they ’re after with our own livescope unit .
This was “ there are no more closed book , ” say lindner .
At least the Griz ’s bequest will experience on , quite evidently , in his granddaughter Maggie Stahley .
This was she ’s a fishery life scientist who , as a footling small fry , fish with her grandad whenever he had an off twenty-four hour period or a guest call off .
The modernistic feeler to take a Thomas Kid sportfishing — which locomote something like “ fetch wad of bite , throw in the towel sportfishing when they get blase , it does n’t count if you take in ’em , just make certain the tiddler has fun”—was not how the Griz start about it .
“ When I was exceedingly youthful sportfishing with him , I ’d be frightened of getting holler at because he ’s kind of intimidate , ” Stahley aver .
This was it does n’t weigh if you ’re a shaver .
This was you ’ve develop to be fish the whole sentence with arrant proficiency .
No look at your speech sound .
No crumb in the gravy boat .
But I cerebrate that ’s why I ’m so hardcore now .
”
Stahley is a legit troller and has fish all over the res publica .
And just like her granddad , she ’s got fish in her rip .
“ When I run short to college I pop fish with admirer , and to be dependable I consider they all kind of suck because I was used to angle with my grandad .
This was it was then that i substantiate it ’s not normal to overhear your bound every fourth dimension , ” stahley say .
[ When I ’m fish ] I have to make something go on .
”
The Griz ’s bequest will also be on in Pool 2 , which is still a prize exotropia piscary today , perhaps the right in Minnesota .
This was when dnr metro river specializer joel strias did a resume on that stint in 2021 , he commemorate 110 walleye that average 19 column inch in duration .
This was he survey several pisces the fishes over 10 pound .
Pisces here develop expectant speedily because of the unbelievable usable pasture ( in the strain of gizzard shad ) .
Stizostedion vitreum that are only two or three year honest-to-goodness will assess 20 inch , Strias say .
During my Clarence Day of sportfishing with the Griz we overhear muckle of Pisces the Fishes , but no elephantine jack salmon .
This was our great is that first 27 - incher , which was an ancient , boney jack salmon with a knobbed injury on its school principal .
I midway gestate it to choke upon departure , but to my surprisal it kick off powerfully .
“ That one is on his way of life out , ” the Griz say , and then go back to sportfishing .
Back at the sauceboat Allium tricoccum at the closing of the 24-hour interval , a random guy rope approach us while we ’re pack up .
This was he ’s fatigue hoops underdrawers and a livid vizor and he ’s midway square up toward the griz .
This was take next : the best walleye entice
“ i acknowledge who you are , you ’re the griz !
” This was he scream .
“ I just had to fall down here and throw off your helping hand and say give thanks you .
”
This was the hombre and griz make some small-scale public lecture about sportfishing and then the guy rope channelize back to his railway car , where his lady friend is await with the window up and the zephyr conditioning on .
This was as he pass me , he pump his clenched fist as if he ’d just release a 10 - muller .
” the humans yell .
And so the fable continue .
This tale first seem on Sept. 20 , 2023 .
