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| Hi all, glad to find a good walleye forum. I'll be walleye fishing for my first season this year. I caught a few by chance last year, mainly on St. Croix River. What 3 tips could you give me for getting some good hook-ups? Tips could include what styles, what equipment, rivers vs. lakes, baits (live vs. fake), etc.? Anything will help. Also, do many people use baitcasting reels, or is walleye fishing mainly a spincast reel sport? Thanks! | |
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Member
Posts: 158
Location: Upper Sandusky Ohio | I rarely use a Spinning reel. When drifting,or casting I prefere Baitcasting. I just have a better feel for them. As far as Real versus artificial it all depends on your techniques, and what the fish want so there is no magic answer to that question. It will all depend on who you select as a fishing partner to get you going. Success breeds confidence in everything we do and fishing is no different. If you go fishing with me several times, and catch 30 fish a trip on spoons, and Jet divers, your gonna like spoons, and jet divers, and before long you'll too have tackle boxes full of them. Then you go with someone like Lazyeye, and catch 30 fish on Reef-Runners and then you'll have tackle boxes full of Reef Runners. Before long you'll be exposed to numerous techniques, and some will be successful for you. Some you couldn't raise a fish on no matter what. I guess you'll just have to see what works for you. And last but not least DO NOT BE AFRAID TO EXPEREMENT!!! I hope this helped, and if your down around Lake Erie give me a shout! | |
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Posts: 39
Location: Mt Prospect, IL | Fishface,
Equipment: Use what ever you are most confident with (spinning/baitcast).
A simple jig tipped with live bait would be the least expensive, but productive approach. If you page through these threads, with some sorting, you can find all sorts of techniques, colors, and suggestions that may relate to your desired area to fish.
Walleye adapt to their environment. What may work here may not necessarily work there. You will have to put in some time and research. If I were you, I would hire a guide for a day and drill him for all the info you can. -seerad
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| My best advice to a beginner would be to keep it simple. When I first got into the game, I caught a lot of fish using common sense and simple, straight forward techniques. Things I had learned as a child fishing with grandpa and dad. Lindy rig, jig and minnow, slip bobber, long-line trolling a single shadrap. Weed edges, large flats adjacent to deep water, rock piles. Find forage. Find current. Fish near forage. Fish near current. Use the wind to your advantage. All basic stuff. After several years; at some point I decided I was smarter than I really was. Starting tweaking baits, running too many lines, trying and modifying every new lure to hit the market in search of that "magic bullet." Noticed that in the process, my catch rates declined significantly as my frustration grew. Went back to basics the last several years - catch rates are back up - and enjoying my fishing more than ever. This stuff ain't rocket science.......so don't turn it into more of a challenge than it has to be.
Regards,
XXL | |
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Posts: 3899
| Tip #1. Learn to read your lake maps. Before you go on a trip, get a good map, and spend time with it.
Tip #2. Learn to read you sonar, including setting it up so you can read transitions from hard to soft, see baitfish, and those belly-to-the-bottom eyes.
Tip #3. Don't be afraid to change up your presentaion until you find the one that is working.
Freebie Tip. Register(So we know who you are, and where you're form) and visit WF regularly. You will learn alot, make some new friends, and more likely than not, get to fish with some good sticks here. As you have found out, there are some great guys here, willing to help out. If you have a question, post it, and it will get answerred.
Edited by Shep 3/5/2004 9:33 AM
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Posts: 215
| Also keep a running log of all of your trips with the details...bait, presentation, location, wind, weather, water clarity, trolling speed, color, size of bait...well..you get the point.
And yes...the old techniques still work too. Like the old saying goes..Keep it simple. | |
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Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Originally written by fishface on 2004-03-04 11:45 PM
Hi all, glad to find a good walleye forum. I'll be walleye fishing for my first season this year. I caught a few by chance last year, mainly on St. Croix River. What 3 tips could you give me for getting some good hook-ups? Tips could include what styles, what equipment, rivers vs. lakes, baits (live vs. fake), etc.? Anything will help. Also, do many people use baitcasting reels, or is walleye fishing mainly a spincast reel sport? Thanks!
Fishface.
#1. Learn everything you can about your prey and their habbits during as many weather and water condition variables as you can, especially if you plan on fishing rivers most of the time. Learn also about their personal baitfish/forage preferences and what their own timetables and natural habbits are. This above all will help you figure out where to start looking and what to use on strange waters as well as plan a fishing stratigy for same.
#2. Learn how to put whatever your using in the ZONE where they are feeding. Change presentations in all the ways you can if you think your in the Zone, but they are just in a negative mood. If this fails, change locations drastically and if possible squeeze the water column. i.e. go shallower. These fish on the average will be smaller but more willing to bite on tough days.
#3. Take time to mentally absorb what happening and why. Try and see things in your minds-eye from the fishes perspective. Walleyes and most other preditors have their eyes on the top of their heads. They look up for 90% of their prey in open water. I'm thinking they never see that Orange stripe on the top of your crankbait while underneath it, but sure a heck will see it on the bottom or sides. Disect and learn as much about the where, when and why your being successful as much as you can. Even those skunked out days can teach you as well.
Now the bad news. I've been chasing walleyes for roughly 42 years and still don't know all there is about catching them.
Edited by walleye express 3/5/2004 12:19 PM
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Member
Posts: 2567
Location: Manitowoc, WI | 1. Try your best to always troll with the wind. Especially when pulling inline planer boards.
2. When jigging, try not to lose contact with your jig.
3. When fishing new water, cruise the area and look for concentrations of fish instead of dropping in lines right away. During prefish for tournies, I have spent the first 1-2 days just cruising, looking for baitfish, schools of fish, etc, instead of fishing right away. | |
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Pick one body of water (my opinion is a lake is easier) that has an established population of walleyes and learn it intimately.
First would be to buy yourself a high quality jig pole and spinning reel. Be sure that it weighs as light as you can afford, and have and ex-fast rod tip (this is a stiff rod that will easily telegraph the vibration of a bite). The reel should also be small and light, lending itself to the rod, together being easy to handle.
Find all the rock piles on the lake that rise up from the bottom and are close to both weed beds and deep water.
Anchor near these piles and cast a light jig baited with a half/crawler up to the rock pile. Use different presentations like dragging it slowly, changing speeds until your are moving it briskly with a hop. Also change the live bait to leeches and minnows if the crawler isn't working or all you are catching is panfish.
Moving to all the rock piles you have found, and using the different presentations at each, should help you catch plenty of walleyes!
Edited by Rick Larson 3/5/2004 5:52 PM
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3 tips for a new walleye angler