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| I am for the most part a jigger and rigger. But tournys when the mud bite is hot, its where ya gotta be..
How do you pick a spot to troll in the mud? are some areas better then others?
Do fish ever come off the bottom??? |
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Posts: 1656
| the bulk of the fish in the mud are suspended. Try fishing high inthe water column. |
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Posts: 625
Location: LaCrosse, WI | There is definately more to trolling the mud then just trolling in 18-20' of water. There are some very hard to see details that can increase or decrease your success. It seems like everybody goes about it a bit different. Some people like to troll the mud transition near the rock humps or reefs.
Some look for the slight change in depth, I find that 1' can make a ton of difference out there. I don't know how many times moving from 18' to 19' or vice versa has made all the difference in the world. The other thing is, that you really need to watch your electronics. Typically, if I don't mark much, I don't catch much.
Remember, you probably won't ever mark those really high riding fish (5' and less) so you almost always have to run at least one high line (on an outside board). As for your other question, yes fish can be caught off the bottom, but I've personally never found a great enough concentration in one particular small spot on the mud to justify spending the time trying to jig it. I know there are folks who do though.
Some of my better fish on Bago have come right off the bottom while trolling, but I tend to try to strain the water column as much as possible. Even on the Mississippi, we catch more fish on the bottom jigging when they're on a specific structure. I think that translates to most lakes as well, including Bago. There are a lot of excellent trollers on this site who would be glad to answer any specific questions you may have (most with more Bago experience than me).
I would suggest checking out some of the lesser known rock humps/reefs during a decent wind if you really want to jig up some eyes.
Good Luck |
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Location: Orland Park, IL | Yep, reefs and wind = fish. Depending on wind though. Lake and land wind has a lot, in my opinion, to do with it.
And you gotta mark some fish. Dont even stop if you dont mark fish. Plus like GNWC said, that 1 foot break is a big difference in many cases.
I firmly believe some bigger fish are near bottom in the mud. Run a deep crank. It wont get hit often, but when it does, its a decent one.
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| There is no method to this madness just ask Rich! Go out in the middle and motor around until fish apear on your locator. Whitebass sheeps and Walleyes travel around this lake in schools. I handline a rod out the side at 3mph till I pick up a whitebass mark it on the gps (be sure to coorolate your numbering system to the date as these spots are very similar year after year). and get set your rods up and troll through it a time or 2 underneath the whities with bigger baits. If you don't get a fish in 20-30 minutes start over.....Move 1/2 mile at a time until you find the fish your looking for. you can cover 1/2 the lake that way in a weekend and should have no problem getting a limit everytime out. Think of it like ice fishing............move, move and move some more until you find what your lookin' for.
Good Luck
Tyee |
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| Yup, drive out in the middle of the lake. Set out 3 lines a side at different depths. Drive your boat around and eat a sandwich. You might even want to turn the radio on. Man that sounds like fun;)
Seriously though, mud trolling...well...it sucks. I would rather watch lifetime television. |
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Posts: 921
Location: Manitowoc, WI | Mud? What mud? Hahahahahahaha! I got all muddied up today. I had to stay out in the mud for a whole 3 1/2 hours to catch 20 walleye and a few scrap fish. Yes, had to sort through the little ones but the bigger ones come along about every 4th or 5th fish. Just get out there and enjoy. I'll give more detail Monday after the tournaments this weekend. |
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| I was out on Thursday in "da mud" and at first I had plenty of time to eat a samich until the bugs invaded my samich and I ran for a couple of minuted to clear out the bugs from my boat. When I stopped, I managed to put a enough Eyes in the boat for a limit in 2 hours somewhere between Calumet co park and Garlic. 105 back on glass perch. I was having so much fun, I did not even try crawlers. On the way back into Jefferson, I stopped and pitched a #7 Rapala Countdown in Perch and caught 6 additional Eyes in the 14-15 inrange in 4 feet of water in the mouth of the river. By 11:00 pm, I had all I could take from the bugs.
I'll be out every day next week if anyone is looking for a ride. Bago or the Bay of GB. E-mail me.
Purple Skeeter |
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Location: Manitowoc WI | bob,
We will see if that mud bite got affected by the weather..
i got a fealling if your trolling tommrow you better be by a hard surface..
My input on the mud: it may be hit or miss and when its hot, its hot.... go to the rocks and weeds for a consistant bite..
Its where you will find me tommrow!
Edited by budsbud66 6/28/2008 11:31 PM
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Location: Darboy USA | I sent you an e-mail Dom. Let me know.
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Location: Orland Park, IL | Sometimes I go faster in the muck then the mud. Usually in the mud, I am slower with cranks. In the muck I am faster with harnesses.
So I am a schmuck in the muck, bud in the mud.
Edited by Mark Komo 6/30/2008 10:34 AM
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | Well, we let Bago kick our butts yesterday. After catching plenty of tourney sized fish on Friday and Saturday, we believed we could pull a few nice ones even in the rougher conditions. Boy were we wrong. Although I believed we may have beaten Biggs for the smallest weighable fish at 14" and .77 lbs. Ouch! That's embarrassing. Still licking my wounds. |
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Location: LaCrosse, WI | We were over yesterday in the middle of the front as well. We certainly didn't kill them. We did have a few nice fish though, but they were a long time between. Our first eye took about two hours. We did find a decent number of fish trolling over tops of rock humps, but the humps were pretty spread out where we were.
Here is a picture of Jack with his first ever Bago Walleye. Too bad we couldn't find much else to go with it. As you can see, he hasn't handled many Walleyes in his day, so this was a hilarious challenge for us. The second picture is him attempting to hold the fish for a picture. Note that the fish is nowhere to be seen. I believe it was laying on the floor right next to him.
We decided it would be better to get this fish back in then let him get a beating while trying to get a better pic.
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| check out this link.
http://www.myfishingpartner.com/mf/mfp/index.php?option=com_content...
I believe it also ran in the Midwest Outdoors magazine. You have to scroll down the page a bit, but it is a good how to on bago cranks. |
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Posts: 1195
Location: Orland Park, IL | nice article. Thanks for the tip. |
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