Hey guys, I’ve been lurkin around for a while but I decided I would finally post. I have never tried fishing for walleye and after reading all the posts and seeing all the success people have been having lately I figured I’d try to catch some. I just got a boat a few weeks ago and was anxious to take it out so last sunday I took it to Willard and tried trolling for walleye but only caught one catfish, then I took it up again monday and still had no luck. I’ve noticed a lot of people saying they’ve had good luck fishing from the shore so I decided to go up for a little while and try it again tonight. Me and a friend got up to the south dike at about 8:00 and just stopped at the first little pull off spot. I tied on a 3" curly tail grub and got a fish on my first cast! It wasn’t the biggest fish ever but I was excited to get my first walleye. We didn’t stay long because it was getting pretty windy and cold but my friend ended up getting two more that were just a little bigger than my first one.
Congrats on the eyes! They are delish!
Welcome to bft buddy
Welcome to BFT. Glad you decided to start posting.
Those eyes are very nice, and the channel cats here at willard some of the finest eating catfish in Utah.
Good luck in your future trips, you are already off to a good start!
Congrats, I decided not to go out thinking that the weather shut them down. Guess I should have went anyway. Once you catch one you will be hooked and now you are on your way. The trolling for them will pick up as the season grows and the weather stabalizes. [fishin]
Very nice eye’s I think it’s going to be another walleye year at the bay! Thanks for the report and welcome to the site.
fnf
Nice. How did you like the way they tasted?
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!
Fishjon, I didn’t get home until about midnight last night and had to be to work at 7:00 this morning so I haven’t gotten a chance to try them yet, but I plan on cooking them up for dinner tonight!
So I have a dumb question for you walleye guys. I know everyone always says how light walleyes bite, so what is the best way to tell the difference between a bite and the jig dragging over rocks? I felt like I missed a million bites last night but the majority of the time I would try to set the hook and end up snagged.
Nice eyes, welcome to BFT, now you have caught the walleye bug!
Detecting that little tick fishing with plastics for walleye will come with more & more experience. I have been catching eyes this way for years and still hook plenty of rocks. Welcome to walleye fishing and good luck on your future trips.[fishin]
is this the Jordan i ran into while i was fly fishing off the dike, that happened to nail a few wipers and walleyes while we were chit chatting last summer?
Nope! I wish haha. I haven’t caught any wiper yet and this was my first walleye.
nothing will help more than experience. Other than that a higher end rod will really help. I use a cabelas xlmti and absolutely love it. Their new one that just came out a few weeks ago seems pretty amazing. I’m going to get one sooner or later.
fishjon is on point. Experience is huge but so is a quality rod and light line. You will be amazed what you can feel. I have a Fenwick elite that I like alot with a pfleuger supreme, my brother prefers his GLoomis walleye series rods. Usually 4-6 lb sensation line… It is a tough pill to swallow when you look at the price tags but it is just like anything else, sometimes you have to pay for performance.
Good luck
Hmm I’ll have to look into that. I used a pretty light rod and light line and I could feel a lot I was just having a hard time telling which taps were fish and which were rocks. Even the one I hooked just felt kind of like a rock. But like you guys said maybe I’ll learn to feel the difference with more practice.
Try fishing two jigs tandem. Maybe 1ft a part or 2 ft. Up to you.
And when you are retrieving after a cast… try to reel it in just fast enough so that the bottom jig only ticks a few times. You want the bottom jig just hovering right off the bottom hopefully. Might take some time to get the speed and rod tip height to get the “perfect retrieve”.
Thats a good idea, I’ll have to try that. Thanks for the advice!
One thing to remember is that if your not getting snagged up once in awhile you are normally not in the zone for most walleye. This includes bottom bouncing. [fishin]
Nice work. Good on ya getting an eye from shore on your first cast. It took me a bit longer. [;)] Keep the successful posts coming.
That’s true. I checked out those xlmti rods today at cabelas, they look awesome and aren’t as expensive as I expected, maybe I will have to get myself an early birthday present [;)]
Oh and I finally cooked the walleye last night, I don’t know how I’ll ever eat trout again!
Oh and I finally cooked the walleye last night, I don’t know how I’ll ever eat trout again!
I’d recommend SMOKED!
[left]Just curious - how’d you prep the eye? I’d expect a fish that light - less is more. Good job.
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