During late summer and fall, if walleye are present, they are going to show up on electronics. Favorite fall walleye structure is rock reefs, deep points and classic structure that is between fifteen and forty feet of water - you are going to see fish on the screen. Bare spots that are void of life are usually a waste of time. No arches, no clutter, no bumps on the bottom - this often means no activity. Fishing this time of year is often very methodical and calculated. You have to trust your electronics and put yourself into position to be successful. Find the right fish and wait them out. Usually, when the marks start to lift off the bottom and separate, those are your active fish and that is your window to strike. This entire strategy however will unravel if you spend the entire ... [ Read More ]
Dreams of Building My Own Wheeled Fish House
Forget the intricacies of this years Vikings team. What Minnesotans really want to know is the best way to build the best ice-fishing house. And if you want the best, you've got to be thinking about building a wheeled fish house. Are you the type of person who is constantly thinking the best way to construct the next one? Like many - maybe most - fish houses on Minnesota ice, your perfect house is on wheels. That way you can fish, say, Gull Lake one day and run up to Leech the next and Lake of the Woods the next, much like using the comforts of your boat for walleyes and panfish. Or Deer hunting, duck hunting or, dare I say, the family camper. Retail, a wheeled house might go for about $6,000 to $50,000 - less, perhaps, if bought in the off season. With a few carpentry skills and ... [ Read More ]
Winning Walleye Crankbaits
Searching for the best ways to use walleye crankbaits? Look no further. The advantage of trolling crankbaits for walleye is twofold. You can cover a lot of water and swipe through large areas, and you can also trigger fish that might not respond to some slower and subtler presentations. On so many bodies of water, we see a transition that gains intensity as fall transcends into summer where crankbaits seem to trigger more fish, especially if you are looking for big fish. Crankbaits are not the answer for every situation, but trolling hard baits shine whenever the locations get big. Basins are an obviously big locations, but so are a lot of the contours and locations that hold fish each fall. The first step I like to do when attempting to dial in a trolling strategy, is identify the ... [ Read More ]
Jig and Pig Walleye
The trend we see developing has been right in front of us for an awful long time. Pork rind has been used to tip bass jigs forever. Before the explosion of soft plastic products over the last twenty years, most bass anglers tipped both spinner baits and jigs with pork. Over the years, pork kind of disappeared from the forefront of the fishing scene but we still had a few souvenirs like the phrase 'jig and pig' which began to morph into something that wasn’t quite so much pig. Pork trailers were a closely held secret amongst a few bass pros, particularly late in the fall when water temperatures dived or after severe cold fronts and the fish had a case of the lockjaw. The durability and effectiveness of pork rind is starting to spread. This past season, the old iconic company in the ... [ Read More ]
Spinner Rig Snake Rigging Walleye
Like many anglers, I started out relying on crawlers to tip my spinner rig. Crawlers can be fished through such a wide spectrum of speeds and what walleye can resist the squirming undulating action of a big fat crawler pulled through the water? Over the past ten years, like many anglers… my rig tipping has evolved to include a lot of soft plastic and pork crawlers. Whether you are running a spread of planer boards on the Great Lakes or hitting a milk run of points with bottom bouncers on one of the Missouri River reservoirs, you would be hard pressed to find a more effective presentation than a spinner rig. The combination of vibration, flash and profile combined with the speed makes this classic walleye weapon so effective through the dog days of summer. My own personal evolution ... [ Read More ]
Weedline walleye, bass and pike
Weeds and fish are a mix that mid-summer anglers should take full advantage of. Weedline walleye, bass and pike are there for the taking if you just know how to locate them. Weed lines attract and concentrate a variety of species, which can make them easy to find. If you can locate the weeds, you can find the fish. The easiest edge for anglers to fish, has to be the deep weed line. That's the deepest part of the weeds, where they can no longer grow because of the lack of sunlight. An edge is created, which makes a high percentage spot for contacting just about every kind of fish. When pike, bass, or walleyes get in the snackin' mood, they'll move to an edge, in the weed line, and ambush hapless baitfish as they swim by. The thick, green stuff, makes a summer home for minnows, ... [ Read More ]
Summer walleyes are hot!
With June in full swing, the action with summer walleyes is really starting to heat up. When the sun begins to push water temps into the lukewarm range, walleye activity increases accordingly. Although some may find the going a little tough this time of the year, those that are willing to change how and where they fish for walleyes, can still make some excellent catches. As walleyes vacate early season hideouts, in favor of deeper summer haunts, there's a period of time when fish are in transition. When there aren't that many fish shallow, and there aren't that many deep, fishing can be a bit sporadic. However, as more and more fish show up at their new 'home for the summer', the action can only get better. Summer locations can include deep, offshore structure, like sunken islands, ... [ Read More ]
Pitching Drop Shotting
Author: Matt Johnson When we think of drop-shotting, we typically think of vertical, finesse fishing over a rock pile or piece of isolated structure. Or maybe even a tactic used to pick-off schooling smallmouth bass along expansive flats. Drop-shotting is without a doubt an effective way to deploy a finesse presentation. But what about casting—or pitching—a drop-shot presentation? Why be limited to fishing this rig vertically when covering water can be just as fun… this is where “pitching drop-shots” comes into play and can have a place when targeting a variety of species. The setup. Commonly, a drop-shot setup consists of lighter line, lighter rods, smaller hooks and baits—things directed towards negative fish. While this mindset is definitely true, I would also encourage you to ... [ Read More ]
Hot Salmo Hornet Trend: Walleyes in a Snap
For hooking some big walleye, one hot trend that's been gaining momentum over the last ten years on so many inland lakes - and even some reservoirs - has been running smaller hard vibration lures, like a Salmo Hornet, behind lead core line. Then, over the past five years, we have also seen another trend gain some serious momentum and that is using big snap weights. In fact, using snap weights as large as four or five ounces that get out quickly and fish closer to the boat is actually starting to replace lead core, which previously has been a staple for walleye anglers. Part of what makes trolling crankbaits so effective as we move towards the heart of the summer, is that a crankbait is the fastest presentation you have. With speeds that can range from two to over three miles per hour, ... [ Read More ]
Economical soft bass swimbaits
It should come as no surprise to most anglers that if you want to catch bass, swimbaits will land you the fish. A lot of fish, and big fish. It's a tournament anglers dream. Like a lot of upper Midwest bass anglers, I started to experiment with soft-bodied swimbaits about 3 years ago, thanks in part to information made available to us by publications such as In-Fisherman and Bassmaster magazine. Hoping to get an edge on the tournament field, I've invested considerable time playing with soft swimbaits. Developing confidence in the soft swimbait should be pretty simple for most anglers, as fishing a swimbait is just like swimming a jig or grub/jig combination, which are both age-old presentations in most places. Ease of use is probably the hallmark of soft swimbaits and, when I talk about ... [ Read More ]