Best practices - Mud Flat FIshing?

[Burchoid]

OK. So I am somewhat of a noob when it comes to to walleye fishing Mille Lacs. I have done very well under certain conditions and patterns that I know how to fish.

One pattern that I DO NOT know how to fish is the mud flats. Yes, I've pulled deep cranks, spinners, and lindy rigs but without much to show for it! All the while I see folks around us with bent rods.

It must come down to color and presentation because we have used the same style lures in the same areas that others are catching fish.

My questions are:

-How do you fish your lindy rigs? on bottom? off bottom? floats? no floats? speed?

-Does spinner blade color really make that big of a difference? Saw someone right next to us catch over 10 fish on gold blade while my orange blade didn't even get a bite.

-If you do resort to bobber fishing, how far off the bottom do you usually set it?

-Any other minor details that make a BIG difference out on the mud flats on the big pond?

I appreciate any advice or feedback. If you have something you want to share with me but not the whole world, send it to [email protected]

Thanks!!

[MuleShack]

Dont drag the weight in the mud...keep it off bottom.

Change presentations until you find one combination that works.

Change speeds, some days aggressive, some are lazier.

Longer snells.

Red hook isn't always the best way to go.

[rodmaker]

Don't drag your sinkers. Once they hit bottom wind up and keep them just off the bottom. Use long snells. Right now, orange and chart. hooks are producing. Colors do make a difference.

As far as spinners, pink, orange, chart, rainbow, hammered copper. As the season goes on use bigger sizes. 4 & 5's.

[maros91]

When we were bobber fishing the mud on Saturday I was between 6 inches and a foot off bottom. I had a white glow jig on. I did just fine with that.

[skunked_again]

I tend to believe that speed is by far the most important aspect... Usually for lindy rigging, the biggest mistake is going too fast with the mille lacs wind. Find the right combination of weight and speed. Buy two drift socks. Try and follow the edge of the flat or on top...sometimes one is much more productive. Then start thinking about color, snell length, etc. which is usually not as important imo.

[cabin boy]

I know it varies with drift speed, but as a rule of thumb how much weight should be used?

[rodmaker]

At least 1/2 oz. If rigging.

[james_walleye]

I know this has been brought up before but don't rule out dragging the sinker. I was on a flat 9 days ago with about 15 other boats and we were catching eyes very consistently while no one was catching anything and we were dragging our sinkers. Also i have a question. Why does everyone drift the mudflats? We were anchored in the morning bobber fishing and a bunch of boats were drifting. Every once in a while when they hit the edge someone would catch a fish. It was very predictable. No one dropped a trolling motor and actually worked the edge. So when a few boats cleared out i did that and we did very well. It wasnt that windy and it was easy holding postition on the edge. Why dont more people do that? Every time i go too Mille Lacs i see this random drifting and not precision boat control on the edge. Can someone let me in on what i'm missing?

Color on that day was also a huge part of our success. It was the single biggest key.

[skunked_again]

People don't know what they're doing!

[rodmaker]

Sometimes it doesn't matter if you drag or not. I think day in and out, your'e better off not dragging. Alot of drifting the flats is all about covering water, and locating fish. Usually, I'll start just off the flat and make a drift to the edge and continue drifting a portion of the top of the flat.

Then I'll backtroll out to deeper water.

Alot of times with the heavy boat traffic, it makes it impossible to just work a particular edge, especially if your'e seeing alot of fish caught. Two weekends ago, just before the slot change, the bigger fish were on the edges, and most of the slot fish were scattered on the top. Goes to show that don't get "hooked" on just fishing the edges, you can do well on the tops also.

Color does make a difference. Just curious, what color worked for you???

[james_walleye]

Chartruese that day, hands down. I caught the first 3 on chartruese and once the other 2 switched over we all 3 were in the action. Red did nothing. Plain hook did nothing. When we switched over too bobbers the same held true. We all 3 started with different colors and i caught 2 in about 5 minutes on chartruese so the other 2 switched and again we all had action. What i found curious though was that as sunset came the action slowed down, and by about 9:45 the flat that was so full of fish was absolutely bare. It was the opposite of what i thought would happen. I thought for as many fish as we caught from 2-4 that it would get even better towards dark. It was the opposite.

[rodmaker]

They probably moved on top of the flat, or just off of the edge.

[james_walleye]

We spent a half hour cruising the top of the flat, edges, and off the deep edge both friday and saturday nights and never marked a single thing. They vacated that area at dark for some reason.

[rodmaker]

next time you go, try boot flat. South side on the edges.