island lake walleyes (report)

[Northlander]

Hit Island Lake with Ripstick yesterday. We caught 6 walleyes I think and kept 4 between 13" and 17". Most were caught trolling cranks and no color was hot. 30' of water was key though. We later jigged in a area we marked and caught a lot of fish and hooked several heavier fish but they all managed to be tail suckers and none made it in the boat, even after stinger hooks were put on the jigs.

Oh well it was a beautiful day and the fish seem to be getting more and more cooperative up there. Water temp was in the low 50's.

[troyslund]

northlander,,

trollin cranks in 30', were the fish suspended or did you have to go deep... if so what do you use to get 30',, i recently bought a diawa line counter, put 10lb fireline on, and also picked up the precision trolling guide, i'm tryin to get the hang of this stuff.. any suggestions.

thanx

troy

[rodmaker]

Purchase a few of the rapala taildancers. Size 11 I believe. They troll down to 30'. Colors clown, firetiger, perch. Tenn. Shad, gold, chart/silver. Also try a few of the chromes.

The Precision Trolling book you purchased is the best that's out there.

[Down Deep]

Sunday, Sept. 16. Fished Island starting @ 10:00 am till about 3:30 p. What a perfect day. Spent the first 3 hours chucking big cranks for a musky. I raised one. I think is the same one I landed couple weeks ago. Anyway he came off the same spot and looked pretty close to the same size. Then I went to my favorite walleye hole and flipped some jigs. Caught 15 or so small ones and a couple 14 - 15 inch keepers. I also caught 3 crappies in the 8-9 inch class. Threw everything back as my freezer has limits of both crappie and walleyes.

The one thing I noticed was that since Friday the fish have come in and were bunching up off the shorelines dropoffs in about 25 fow and the reef tops were active. The water temp is now 59 -60 and when it hits 55 on a cloudy day the lake will provide some days of pretty awsome fishing.

PS: The weather was so nice that it made listening to the Packer game tolerable......just tolerable. Then I went home and watched the last half of the Viking game and it occured to me that I should have stayed out fishing. Pretty poor excuse for a football team.

[Northlander]

DD we were out trolling the mid lake breaks by Bear Island. Tan/green lund tiller. What were you in?

As for getting down deep we use Taildancers, 800 series reef runners and for smaller shallower diving baits either snap weights ot inline chain weights.

With 10# Power Pro or Fireline you can get those RR's and Taildancers down to bottom in 25-30' with anywheres from 120' to 150' of line out.

Lots of the fish we caught were bottom hugging. We didnt hook any of the suspended fish we saw.

[Down Deep]

I was in my Red Explorer Sport with a Merc. I think I waved to you guys as I was heading toward bridge about 3:00 - 3:15 pm. I was on the other side of Bear Island fishing for w's.

[troyslund]

i too have a green tan lund angler with a dark gray johnson tiller 40hrse... would be more than happy to chat or share if someone stopped by on the water.... thanks for the info i've bought a s-load of taildancers and shads just need to get out to use em....

keep a tight line..