](5 11 23 LAUNCH — Postimages) ** Only a couple of boats out ahead of me, but there were about a dozen trailers in the lot when I came back in. The boats all went off in different directions. Saw a couple working the island but didn’t stay long. Musta found what I was finding…a whole lotta nuttin’. Heading north from the marina I worked big S turns from 10 FOW out to 21 FOW. It was like a big desert over most of that area. Wondered if my sonar was broke. But I did see an occasional single blip…either on the bottom or a few feet above. But I saw a lot more on TV than on my line. **I worked through bottom bouncers with crawlers, fligs with minnows, casted plastics and Gulp minnows and even tried trolling cranks. I still hadn’t had a sniff after about 2 hours of fishing. Then my rod with a new “hybrid” lure…a hot shot painted in fire tiger rigged with a 2 hook crawler rig…went bendo. Thought it might be my customary single catfish day. But 'twern’t. 'Twas a nice wiper. ** ** ** But, that was it fishwise for the day. I fished another 3 hours and had a couple of pop n drops. But no more bent rods. Alas. At least my skunkless year is still intact.Got to meet and chat with a couple of fellow BFTers at the ramp. Good to see you guys. Hope you did better out on the big lake than I did. The water is still a bit cool and stained near the south marina…with all the runoff still coming in. I suspect that once the runoff slows and the water clears and warms a bit it’s going to be better for everybody.
Glad at least a wiper decided to play, crazy the cats weren’t willing to give one of your offerings a try, especially with the water temp getting up to 58. What kind of lure was that, kind of looks like a hot-n-tot?
Well it was good to meet pat at the ramp this morning. I headed out to the Island and got 1 small walleye but then it took all day to even get a hit . Trolled all over the lake and finely got another small walleye In about the same spot as this morning long day just burning Gass to even find active fish water was still 57 to 58 inches morning but got to 60 when I left at 3pm . All were caught on #5 flicker shad going2.2 mph the color for me today was crome and green. Also seen dubob on his boat ride trying thing out for his first run of the year. Hopefully the lake settles down a little bit in the next week . Thanks Bill
Cookie says she don’t feel so bad about her skunk if the fish Gods’s have thumbed thier nose at ya twice in a row. Must mean we both got a really good trip coming soon.
Snap weights work great. We use to use the 50/50 method but the last time out we just put the weight about 5 feet from the lure, that way you don’t need to take the weight off to net the fish.
](5 11 23 LAUNCH — Postimages) ** Only a couple of boats out ahead of me, but there were about a dozen trailers in the lot when I came back in. The boats all went off in different directions. Saw a couple working the island but didn’t stay long. Musta found what I was finding…a whole lotta nuttin’. Heading north from the marina I worked big S turns from 10 FOW out to 21 FOW. It was like a big desert over most of that area. Wondered if my sonar was broke. But I did see an occasional single blip…either on the bottom or a few feet above. But I saw a lot more on TV than on my line. **I worked through bottom bouncers with crawlers, fligs with minnows, casted plastics and Gulp minnows and even tried trolling cranks. I still hadn’t had a sniff after about 2 hours of fishing. Then my rod with a new “hybrid” lure…a hot shot painted in fire tiger rigged with a 2 hook crawler rig…went bendo. Thought it might be my customary single catfish day. But 'twern’t. 'Twas a nice wiper. ** ** ** But, that was it fishwise for the day. I fished another 3 hours and had a couple of pop n drops. But no more bent rods. Alas. At least my skunkless year is still intact.Got to meet and chat with a couple of fellow BFTers at the ramp. Good to see you guys. Hope you did better out on the big lake than I did. The water is still a bit cool and stained near the south marina…with all the runoff still coming in. I suspect that once the runoff slows and the water clears and warms a bit it’s going to be better for everybody. I rigged up some large salmon size apex lures like your hybrid hot shots. Will try running them with a crawler or power worm for walleye. Will report back if they work out. [/quote]
Don’t tell anybody, but a Flatfish dressed with half a crawler on the belly treble behind a rubber-core or Lindy sinker and pulled at “bottom bouncer” speed will catch walleye, too.
Ok, thought the design looked familiar, that sounds like a great modification that you and Rocky mentioned but let me get this straight, the weight goes behind the lure, attached at the center hook or in front of the lure? Instead of using a weight do you think just using lead core line would work, with the worm attached at the center hook?
MANY ways to add weights, from split shot, rubber-core, loop knots, three-way swivels, to beaded keel weights.
The simplest way to gauge lure action versus speed is to simply drag the lure next to the boat and change speed until you find the best looking (to you, anyway) action and then let out line until you get down to the depth you want to fish. But I guess everybody already knows that.
I went out there last night (530-830). It was pretty dead. Only caught one cat near the north marina on a bottom bouncer. At least the weather was nice!
All great ideas for those that have never used any of these methods, especially with the deeper water at Willard this year. Normally we never use riggers unless the water is deeper than 20 ft, say 30 ft or deeper, we choose to instead use lead core line or snap weight to get our lures down to the depth where the fish are holding. A few years back while fishing with stan55, he showed me the beaded keel weights and how well they work for getting your lure down as deep a 40 ft. About that same time I started using snap weights and the 50/50 method but after fishing with Stan it occurred to me that instead of letting my lure out say 50 ft, then adding my snap weight and letting out another 50 ft, I could just add the snap weight about 5 ft behind the lure, that way I could lift the rod tip high enough to get the fish in the net, without removing the weight. Many times walleye are lost as you pause to remove the snap weight I found, so not having to remove a weight works well. When using a lure on lead core line, it is pretty easy to tell when it is hitting the bottom by the rod tip ticking, as it hits the bottom, so once you find the bottom you simply reel up a little until the ticking stops. It’s a little different when it comes to fishing with an inline worm harness because there is no bill on the lure that you can feel ticking the bottom, sometimes all you can see is kind of a rumble on the rod tip that you have to watch for carefully or you will miss it. This info is nothing new for those that already use these methods but for those that have never used them hopefully it will help you be more successful.
One other note: The advantage of using a three-way swivel, a weight on a loop knot, bottom bouncers, or a beaded keel weight is that they eliminate line twist. That’s the DISadvantage of using split shot or rubber-core sinkers, obviously. Worm and spinner rigs are guaranteed line twisters.
Contrary to what we all think, swivels alone do not prevent line twist because there’s nothing to hold the swivel itself from twisting.
** But, that was it fishwise for the day. I fished another 3 hours and had a couple of pop n drops. But no more bent rods. Alas. At least my skunkless year is still intact. Got to meet and chat with a couple of fellow BFTers at the ramp. Good to see you guys. Hope you did better out on the big lake than I did. The water is still a bit cool and stained near the south marina…with all the runoff still coming in. I suspect that once the runoff slows and the water clears and warms a bit it’s going to be better for everybody.