I have been fishing for Walleyes for over 30 years. I am a US Coast Guard Licensed 50 Ton Masters Charter Captain and Tournament Angler from Mequon WI. You have to have confidence in the baits you use! Now I start playing with colors! At the end I will be running all my baits in the same spectrum of colors. I prefer a high quality blade that has a great spin and keeps a good shine I use Bugsy's Bait Blades, Purples, chartreuse, whites, and blues, if you have your favorites, definitely use them. When I start I generally put out a selection that has worked well for me in the past. I'll start to vary my others by about 2ft to 3ft. I generally won't set everything exactly to the depth I caught my fish. Start moving the rest of your baits into that zone. The next thing, as you start catching fish, you can now start to hone in on their active feeding depth. I add a way point to my Humminbird 1197C every time I catch a fish. (24ft to 25ft) I'm looking for active fish! When I find a depth that the fish are active in, I work that depth of water. The next thing I do is start trolling into more shallow water (Maybe 16ft or 17ft). If I'm running too deep it's easy to change quickly. Outside boards, one at 20ft and one at 25ft back, middle boards 30ft and the inside boards 35ft back. For example this is how I set-up in 20ft of water. How do I know at what depth the fish are feeding? Now remember walleyes feed upward in the open water, so if you're running your baits too deep, you'll be under the active fish. It's not an exact science, but it gets me in the ballpark. That would put my bait at approximately 12 ft of depth. At 1.2mph I let out 30ft of line, Figuring 15ft of depth minus 20% (3ft). So for example: I let out 30ft of 12lb Triline XT my bait will run at approximately 15ft of depth. For every 2ft of line you drop back, your bait will drop approximately 1 ft. I almost pulled the gunwale of my 12 ft.Walleye fishermen are questioning, How far back do you run your harnesses with in-line weights? How can I determine how deep my baits are running? Here are a few rules of thumb that I go by. ago in the spring, and got snagged badly with a bouncer. You will cut your fingers and hands if you try that. Don't try to use your hands to break it loose. Helps to get the bouncer out of serious snags, and if its really, really snagged, wrap the power pro around a stick(I have a section of a hockey stick cut to 18.1" long, used as a fish club, and a measuring stick) and pull really hard. For my main line to the bouncer, I am running 20 lb. I have noticed a definate durability of the harnesses with regards to pike hitting them. range, but I switched to flourocarbon a few years ago. As Rob(Kickingfrog, said above) I used to just use plain mono in the 10 lb. The floats on the harness will keep them up off bottom from getting snagged up usually, but not always.Īs for tying off the lead of the harness, as stated above, a simple fisherman's loop or surgeons knot is all that is needed.īTW, I tie my harnesses with 10 lb. The bouncer may get occasionally snagged, but they usually can be un-snagged by backing up. In the rocky lakes, I like to use floats on the worm harnesses, keeps them up off bottom. Sometimes that's necessary, other times not. It all depends on the depth, as we up here catch them in sometimes 6 ft. Sometimes I have two 18" leaders in behind the bouncer and the harness, which makes for a 48" length behind the bouncer. Other lakes with sand/mud bottom, its better to have a longer presentation behind the bouncer. Some of the lakes I fish are rocky, its best to keep the worm harness close to the bottom bouncer to avoid snags. And if I require more length behind the bottom bouncer, I have 18" leaders made up with a swivel on one end, and a snap swivel on the other end. I like to tie my worm harnesses at 18" lengths, easier to store in small ziplock bags that I get from work and can be carried in CD cases. I like to keep the two hooks about 3" apart. I can't tie two snells to the proper length I like, I snell the first hook, but I use a clinch knot for the last hook. Dara, that's almost exclusively how I fish for walleye in summer up here.
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