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Member
Posts: 6
| Hey everyone, I usually spend alot of time in the Musky First side of things. My name there is "Tigger" In the basement baits forum. Mr Sworrall suggested that I post on the walleye side also.
Well the night bite has been going strong up untill the winter blast that is going on right now! It may be over this year but you never know! LOL
The night bite here is world class in my opinion and glad to have access to it. The last three weeks have been incredible. Our boat has landed 7 fish over 10 pounds of which two of them have been in the mid 11 pound range. The biggest on an official scale was 11.995. It was only 29" long!!!!!!!!! plum crazy when you think about it! None of the fish have been over 30" yet.
I play around making my own baits mostly for musky's but decided to try some for the night walleyes with some specific thoughts and styles in mind. I wanted to try to design something more to the needs of the after dark creatures. Had tinkering with a bait that would wobble nice in very very slow trolling speeds and that would only dive to less than 5 feet down and more like 3 feet. I felt the some of the other baits were getting under the hot active feeders. Many times while checking the water for clarity with a spot light I would see large walleyes swimming just under the surface by only inches and at times with their dorsal sticking out of the water! On some nights with no wind and no waves you can here them hitting smelt on the surface. More a slow rolling sound. The night bite has been one of my all time favorite things to do for the last three years.
Here are some pics to share. It has been a blast making them and catching some fish also to boot. Very rewarding and fun!
John Snow
(DSC05324firstwalleye.jpg)
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 DSC05290gaggle.jpg (35KB - 87 downloads)
DSC05295blackhead.jpg (25KB - 87 downloads)
DSC05324firstwalleye.jpg (36KB - 91 downloads)
DSC05277metalsmelt.jpg (25KB - 88 downloads)
DSC05403bookends.jpg (36KB - 91 downloads)
DSC05412mybiggest.jpg (38KB - 92 downloads)
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Member
Posts: 6
| I started to play around with some jointed baits the they went over very good with the walleyes.
We got 2 fish the one night on the orange tiger. One was 11lbs 3 oz and the other was 10lbs 6oz. They came within 15 minutes of each other. The green head one took a 10 lb 3 oz the previous night.
Here are some more pics
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DSC05421yellowjointed.jpg (20KB - 83 downloads)
DSC05496tonytrix.jpg (27KB - 92 downloads)
DSC05479pair.jpg (32KB - 95 downloads)
DSC05481secondandy.jpg (52KB - 91 downloads)
DSC05485trix.jpg (33KB - 84 downloads)
DSC05489batch.jpg (57KB - 91 downloads)
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Member
Posts: 6
| I noticed that the fish in the livewell were spitting up 4 inch shad. I made a bait I hope to try if the weather settles down. A shad immitation. I did three others also I hope to run with a non-jointed body style.
(DSC05605walleyeshad.jpg)
(DSC05606walleyetigers.jpg)
(DSC05597biggest walleye.jpg)
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DSC05423bellyshad.jpg (38KB - 97 downloads)
DSC05605walleyeshad.jpg (17KB - 95 downloads)
DSC05606walleyetigers.jpg (32KB - 99 downloads)
DSC05597biggest walleye.jpg (26KB - 100 downloads)
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Member
Posts: 1991
| Nice fish and sweet lookin baits, night fishing Millelacs here in MN they would be great |
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Member
Posts: 2300
Location: Berlin | I got to tell you, that paint job is unreal! I don't think I could even use them they are way to pretty. Those pics blew me away. |
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Member
Posts: 120
Location: Appleton, WI | Hey Tigger!
I lurk over here to. sweet looking stuff! |
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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Hey Tigger.
I know you didn't mention it. But If your willing to sell a few of those awesome looking cranks, please PM me. This sites willingness (like few others) to allow unique stuff likes this to be posted about and sold, along with a lot of guys on it that have been kind enough over the last few years to support, buy and try some of these member made inventions, because they see the merit and quality in them, is just great for all concerned. People who I do and do not know trusted in a few of my inventions and had some success, I'd like to recipicate and buy and try some of yours if possible. Because our night fishery on both the Saginaw Bay and River beg for shallow diving, exaggerated wobbling cranks like them. Last year while I was just doing O.K. in 8 to 12 FOW after dark, I had friends killing them in water 6 Feet or less.
Edited by walleye express 12/6/2007 3:10 PM
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Member
Posts: 389
| Beautiful baits. It's easy to see you take great pride in your work. 
Juls |
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Member
Posts: 6
| Thanks guys for the kind words about the baits. I guess I never thought about selling the walleye ones. I just started thinking about and tinkering with the walleye side of things. I definetly have some clearer ideas about them and some things to work and try over the winter. I will let you know and post as I tinker.
Rob good to hear from you. I will make up there in the next couple of years to visit K-bob, you and Beav!
Juls. Do I see you on the OGF? I am "tigger" on there also.
Well we went last night. Zero!!!!!!!! The water temp dipping into the 38 range. They move offshore into the depths with the bait. The reverse will happen in the post spring feed. The water is really flipped over and muddy. It was worth a shot!!! LOL
It was neat having the FLW championship here this year. To bad they won't have it hear again for a while if ever. Scheduling conflicts with the NFL and MBL sports! Bummer
I can't say enough how great the all the "First" sites are "musky,walleye....etc" Great people and friends!
John Snow |
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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | When you get your ducks in a row and decide would you please let me know tigger. I'd like probably 5 of the long and 5 of the short versions. Our open water night trolling window is realitively short. But our walleye act just about in reverse then yours does during the fall/winter months. My best time night fishing on the river for Big fish is when the water temps get down to about 38 degrees. Even the Bay gets better near shore just before ice up. With how shallow it is totally on the Saginaw Bay, a batfishes best temperature refuge is in the rivers or at their flooded mouths. Of course that scenario also eventually kills most of them as well. Our spring bite is like yours, when the post spawn eyes are falling out of the river systems they hang shallow and meet the in-coming adult smelt/perch/chubs/suckers on their own journeys into the rivers and/or shallows to spawn. I could do what my extremely shallow water buds were doing last spring and run my #18 Rapala's 3 to 6 feet behind the boards. They would also use the In-Fisherman technique of twisting the front attachment eye to give the crank more roll. But you risk not having it work and ruining the $7.00 crank because of it. Then they were simply reeling the boards to the tip of the rods leaving them attached and netting the fish. But that makes things even more clumsy in the dark for me and clients not used to some of these things even in the daylight. I'd like to try something new that works and can be let out a decent distance to give me ample room for board removal and still stay at the 3 to 5 feet diving depth.
Edited by walleye express 12/7/2007 8:23 AM
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Member
Posts: 3899
| Really nice looking baits. I am hoping some will become available for sale. The shad walleyetiggers look awesome. Great looking paint on them all. Keep us posted on availability, please.
Edited by Shep 12/7/2007 8:37 AM
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Member
Posts: 6
| The baits. Thanks for the kind words guys. I really really enjoy tinkering around with them. I am amazed the things you find out with the weighting ,body shapes, and lip designs of the baits. In the past you catch a fish take the hook out and throw it in the cooler. After making the baits I have been paying a little more attention to the details. For instance....... With the walleyes........ The smaller fish like the 3 to 6 poounders will head shot the bait. In a "t" bone manner. almost every one of those fish is hooked on the front hook. Sometimes the back hook will spin around a catch them in the side at time. They will hit like a freight train!!!!!!! You think a salmon just took the bait. The big ones over 9 pounds seem to come up behind the bait and take it on the back hook. The bait is usually in the in their mouth a bit. This got me thinking about the baits having attracting action but not too crazy for the big ones to chase. They seem to be more lazy in their approach. This was then linked to speed. At a little faster speed the smaller ones/aggressive ones kept taking the baits. When the speed super slow to 1.3 to 1.8 bigger ones got involved.
Arched backs verses straight. The arched back baits got the actions closer to the what I was looking for a slow speeds. The straight backs worked better at 2.2 to 2.5.
Broken backs.. The opened a new door in the slow speed trolling with their willingness to give good action and the impression of a bigger bait. It helped also with the extra sound it makes with the clicking of the hardware.
Hook placement. With the walleye baits. I was worried about not having a center hook in the middle of the bait. The 6" plus ones. It impeaded the action a bit with the middle hook. The action it moocho better without it. It didn't seem to effect the hook-ups without it.
F-18's Those were deadly this year also. I remember running those for the first time. I was thinking those are too big. It didn't seem to matter I found out. The one fella that is about the only night guide here was telling times when he found 11" and 12" baby walleyes in the livewell after they were coughed up by the bigger fish. I also remember the In-fishermen tip on elongating the eyelet to increase side wobble. I did tried it and it seem to work a bit. I also started with some of the baits adding a spit ring in the nose to help with that. Interesting with the f-18's also. Last night when we trolled we had 2 of the 18's and two of the homemades out. The 18's never had any bait stuck on the hooks. The homemade kept having 3 and 4" shad impaled on the hooks. All the leads were around 30 foot range. Speaking of the leads. It is nuts bring in the fish with the shorter leads like you said, when you go to unhook the board the fish is breaking the water at the boat. Can get a bit hairy at night. Thats what I like about the some of the baits, you can lengthen the leads and keep the same depth of the troll and have the bonus luxury of distance away on the unclipping. |
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Member
Posts: 6
| This is an interesting little bait. It is called a "zico" It is not made anymore. A friend from Sweden sent me a couple as a gift to open my mind with the baitmaking. It has mombo action. I cannot get a fish to hit it unless I am trolling into the waves. Believe me I have tried for hours. Turn into the waves 3 footers or more I have to beat them off it. I hope to solve the riddle of this bait this winter. I broke the lip off of the one in the photo. It smacked the side of the boat and broke the lip on it.  The second one I had a steelhead broke us off the next night. Those are always fun at night tearing up things! Keeps you on your toes. The fish in the pic was a mid ten pounder. Again the big ones seem to up behind and grab the bait.
(DSC05593swedwalleye.jpg)
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DSC05593swedwalleye.jpg (42KB - 101 downloads)
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