Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Late Report


PerchJerker

Recommended Posts

I fished on Friday and Saturday nights, 10/26 and 10/27. After that I spent a few days bowhunting and am just now getting back to a computer.

Overall I was disappointed in the fishing. I was hoping (expecting, really) to hit the water, quickly dial in a pattern for those big fall walleyes, and have consistent fishing all night long. Didn't happen quite like that.

Both nights we got off to fast starts, getting on fish right away, and some really nice fish. The first fish of the trip was a legit 28.5" walleye. But both nights we'd have stretches where we'd get 2 or 3 or 4 quick fish, or catch fish on 2 or 3 or 4 consecutive trolling passes, and think we were really going to have some good fishing ....... only to get hit by a lull that would last for an hour or more before we'd get action again. And our flurries were always followed by more lulls. I thought it was very difficult to get consistent action.

Another example of a flurry followed by a lull ...... on Saturday we made a move to a new spot. We set our lines in deeper water and moved in toward the break and caught a fish right away, before we really even got started on our trolling pass. We repeated that and got a 2nd fish. Same for a 3rd and 4th fish. 4 quality fish in less than 10 minutes and we hadn't even got into our trolling pass yet. But then we made 3 passes through there and didn't get another bite. Frustrating grin.gif

Surprisingly, husky jerks and rogues were not our best baits. The water was 49 degrees but we did better on shad baits. I was reluctant to switch and had to see several fish caught on them before I'd change, but it was definately the best bait for our group on this trip.

Both nights were pretty calm and pretty crowded on the water. After the first flurry of bites ended each night we did better trying to get away from people. I think some more wave action would have helped the bite.

Good luck to everyone that tries it this weekend. I'll be in bed sleeping and dreaming about big bucks while you guys are chasing after those walleyes grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 75
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • MuleShack

    12

  • rodmaker

    11

  • Team Otter

    9

  • minnesotatuff

    9

Nice report PJ. Welcome back to reality. smirk.gif

We saw "flurries" like that when the moon was at it's brightest. But we were able to adjust with smaller profile baits in bright colors in slightly shallower water to keep their attention.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny, we catch 10-20 walleyes between 20"-29" in one night and we complain. People from other areas must laugh at us when complain about it. grin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:

Did you burn a full tank of gas?


Not even close. Only used about 8 gallons over 2 nights. No long runs this weekend, and I mostly stayed away from the most popular spots since it was a busy weekend on the water.

Quote:

We saw "flurries" like that when the moon was at it's brightest. But we were able to adjust with smaller profile baits in bright colors in slightly shallower water to keep their attention.


Friday night was cloudy and dark, especially for the 1st half of the night, and we did best on dark colored baits. Initially I was changing to bigger baits for the bigger profiles and slower actions but eventually came around to the shad baits. I assumed they were hot because of their action but maybe it was for their smaller profiles???

Saturday was a bright night and we fished mostly shad baits and bright colored baits. Both nights had very little wind where we were fishing. Both nights our bite started a little deeper, like 8 feet (I assume they would have been shallower with some wave action), and as the night wore on the action shifted up to 4 feet. Due to the calm conditions and trying to stay away from the packs of boats it was easy to do S turns and cover a lot of depths.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote:

Funny, we catch 10-20 walleyes between 20"-29" in one night and we complain. People from other areas must laugh at us when complain about it.
grin.gif


Laugh, I don't think so. GRRRR!! tongue.gif Envy is more like it. smile.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I echo your feelings. It was definitely slower. Most guys are reporting 10-15 a night which is still a good night. Anything more than that I have found was either luck or BS. Last year 30 a night was pretty common and in the past even better.

Even the guides are struggling to put more than 20 in the boat unless they are staying till 4-5 a.m.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the last two times i was up only 5 walleyes were boated each time. to catch 10 or more a trip is an excellent trip! i have great hopes for saturday night. its all relative though, you guys having nights like talked about in this thread have paid your dues...

best of luck to all adventurous enough to get out there.

regards,

minnesotatuff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ML trolling in the fall is relatively simple fishing IMO.

The biggest thing I see people doing wrong is going way too fast!!!

When I was up last weekend and puttin along at 1.0-1.6, I had boats zingin past me all night. I will bet they had slow nights.

Other than that, catch a fish, knock in an icon and beat that spot up until it quits giving up fish. When it does, move on until you find some more. Like PJ said, it seems you will catch 2-3 fish in an area, then you have to go looking for more.

Staying away from traffic also helps IMO.

PS 50 fish nights are not common this year. Most are fish tales!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The smaller profile baits have definitely found their place on ML this fall. #7 and #9 Salmo Minnows have been good to me as have #5 shallow Shad Raps. I think a lot of this has to do with the YOY perch population out there. Monster schools of those and very few tulibee, to this point, to compete with. However, that will soon change.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Willy,

Most of the time I would tend to agree with going slower. However, we fished several nights last week up to and including Friday night. Fishing was not near as good for us as the last 3 years...except for Friday night. Had some friends in another boat who only had a 75 horse outboard...couldnt get their speed under 2 mph. Fished an area we had never tried before. The guys with the 75 horse motor tried the spot before us, and had boated 10-12 fish before we got there(including a 26 and 30.5). We made several runs trolling 1.2 - 1.6 and nothing. Put on jointed shap raps/x-raps and cranked it up to 1.75 - 2.5 and started catching fish(most from 22-25); couple 26's; couple of eaters....sometimes higher speeds work....seems awfully fast for that time of year, but I have seen it before...we had 3 boats working that area that night and each boat landed 20-25 fish...best night for all of us...being at a spot where there was little traffic had alot to do with it I'm sure...but sometimes speed works!?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thats a real advantage having 3 boats to experiment with...fantastic trip! im going up tomorrow and plan on putting in at eddy's between 5 & 6. we'll be 2 people in a warrior. if anyone wants to share info to hone in on tactics, my cell is 651/270-3365.

regards,

minnesotatuff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

minnesotatuff,

the perch colored jointed shad raps/x-raps seemed to be the best for our boat...did get a few on the shad color also. The size 4 shad raps got beat up pretty good(was hard to keep the size 5 out of the weeds)...depths from 5-9 feet....inside of the weedline and over it...fought the weeds quite a bit...but sometimes if you would hit a weed and jerk it loose...wham!

The blue/silver husky jerks(mainly size 10) worked well for some in our group also...that, black/gold, and tennessee shad have always worked pretty good for us ...on cloudy nights we have done well with firetiger...hopefully that helps a little...

Good Luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cool, thanks! i was wondering about the jointed perch shads. hadnt tried them in shallow, dont think i have a shallow one... i have had good luck on a black & chrome SSR5, a shad colored #7 & #5, and clown, but im drawn to firetiger. take that with a grain of salt though, im not able to post any great catches. 5-9 feet is a little deeper than i have been concentrating but will be using some S-curves to experiment. that night a couple weeks ago when the casino gaurd showed me a walleye sitting by the dock at 1:00 in the morning was all the proof i needed to think i needed to be shallow. well, maybe not all. ive read comments on here from very experienced people...guess i always have to learn the hard way.

all the info coming from here is fantastic for putting together a plan for tomorrow. my fishing buddy from the pic (different than the person tomorrow) & i were talking about trying minnows with a split-shot. now theres another completely different approach. this trip is planned to be trolling... im looking forward to any input the people at the resort might have too. it all helps. all the stars have to align to get the big one!

thanks again and good luck to all.

regards,

minnesotatuff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That walleye must be a frequent visitor, as a DNR guy pointed him out again on Saturday night when we were talking at the access ramp.

He was out infront of the Launch boat. grin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

we saw the same security guard on saturday also. he told us about the walleye but we didnt go look. there was a white lund pulling in right after us. was that you?

regards,

minnesotatuff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nope, I have a white Alumacraft Tournament Sport.

after being out all night friday and not much sleep during the day on saturday, i called it a night at 9:00 saturday with no fish.

Managed 5 up by garrison on friday night in 12 hours of fishing.

Dont know what i'm not doing right, used #8 and #10 sizes this week and speed was .9 to 1.3 and worked from 4ft to 10ft with different colors and experimenting with line lenght etc, and that is all i got to show for it. Got fish on Gold and tenn shad and the 26"er on a #10 clown. I did get a tagged 25"er, so that was kind of cool. i plugged the info in on the DNR website last night and will have to see what comes back from it.

I guess 5 fish above 19" would be considered a good night on any other lake in the state...it's just when you hear of others doing 5 times that it just makes me wonder what i'm not doing?

Anyway, that was probably my last trip up to the pond until ice up.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you try running #5 & 7 Shallow Shad Raps?? I would use 12 & 14 HJ's. How far were you running them behind the boat?? 40-80 ft behind??. Colors used?? Purple Perch is working well.

Just questions, not doubting anything else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rodmaker,

No i didn't go that small with the #5's. I thought about it, but not for very long. grin.gif

Last week that is all i was using was the HJ14's and even some 18 floating raps (which was what i caught the Pike on), and i guess that was too big for their preference last week. so this week i tried to keep it a little smaller. figured if nothing else i might just catch more small eye's.

I did have a purple perch on for a little while but nothing wanted it.

I was running the line from 50' back to 150' over the 9-10' water...which is how i picked up the 26"er running it way back.

Heck, i even put a 8' floro leader on this week and it upped my catch by 3 grin.gif

I guess it just takes time on the water and years of checking out new spots and getting first hand experience and paying attention to details. i'm thru the rookie season for fall trolling and have learned quite a few things this year as far as how the bait size preference can fluctuate and how important speed is as well as depth. I'll have to compile all this info and put it to good use in my 2nd season next year and hopefully see better results. cool.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like you tried about everything!!!

If you have time, go back to the Mille Lacs posts from last Fall. Tons of info in them. More info and reports I believe than so far this year. Print them out and put into a 3 ring binder for future references.

If you get out again, about the only thing you could try is to get shallow (3 ft) and maybe cast.

I've brought up the idea to Paul W. about making a DVD on night time trolling on Mille Lacs. I need to get in touch with him again and see what his thoughts are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know that is a great idea about making some print outs and keeping it in the boat.

I mean i read stuff here and think i have it stored and want to try something out, then to find out that i forgot about that idea when i read the new posts after i got home....

That night time trolling idea on DVD sounds like a good idea...maybe you could be a co-star in it too? cool.gif

and i did think about doing a little casting, but again that was on the way up and forgot about it while actually on the lake. crazy.gif

Maybe we'll see you up on the ice.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would like to get up there this season. It's been a long time since I've fished "hard water up there".

I always catch myself printing out posts ansd storing them away.

I'll give Paul a call late in the week and see if he would like to pursue the idea of the DVD.

I mentioned to him to cover the Summer Season also. Make 2 DVD's. I'm sure that they would be a big hit to everyone who fishes Mille Lacs. cool.gifgrin.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DVD production; wow, stepping into the big-time.

Mule Shack, are you holding onto your rod or letting it sit in the rod holder? Are you using snap swivels or direct-tie on the presentation?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

muleshack,

i wasnt sure of the exact time we came back in saturday. you said you fished to about 9? but, there was a white aluminum boat with a full/maybe walk-thru windshield behind us coming in. im not sure what the brand name was, sorry... they used the north ramp. we were at the main one.

not that im catching any fish, but i use a direct tie to a tiny o-ring that i put on cranks. the boats clean and ready for saturday. a lot may depend on if i can get someone to go with...

its cool you guys are persuing something you feel energized about...refering to the dvd. youve helped me learn things i didnt know. but i am afraid of all the publicity...it didnt help mille lacs this spring. i too am starting to think we (the public) fished it with too much indiscretion this spring.

regards,

minnesotatuff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A DVD like you're talking about was made last year by a well-known guide. He has a website that 'competes' with this one so I won't give names or links, but he single-handedly has done more than anyone else to teach people about how to night-fish trophy walleyes, and to increase the popularity of it. He's made other DVDs too, such as fishing on the river, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We were also out there Sat. night. Fished about 5 hours and had 8 fish. Didn't get into fish till about 10 oclock when we had 6 of them within an hour stretch. Then the bite died completely. If I would have went to that area right away, we would have nailed them I bet. Should have, I had icons all over the area from last weekend and the fish were still there. smirk.gif

Instead we chased fish stories for a couple hours. That fishing though. tongue.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel sort of guilty as I own and have watched many times previously mentioned DVD. grin.gif

Its good.

The one thing I would comment on is they really focus on trolling the outside weededge in 8-10' of water. They don't discuss any other trolling patterns- rocks, inside weededge, shallow water, sand, or on top of the weeds but they do an incredible job covering that one aspect of night trolling on Mille Lacs. The other patterns are basically variations on a theme.

I should start a post titled "What I've learned my first fall season of trolling cranks for walleyes" or something like that. I've been on Mille Lacs, Cass Lake, Minnetonka trying the same pattern and each lake is wildly different and requires a different (although the same) approach.

For each of those 3 lakes, you need a crankbait selection that covers the entire range of depth, from Floaters to Shad Raps. I really started to like pulling Original Floating raps about 100-125' back up on Cass, we'd be in less than 6' of water doing this. 125' back, that lure is diving about 2 1/2' probably. When you consider the bottom has 1' of weeds, that lure is right in the middle of the water column and a walleye will have no problem coming up a 1' to eat it.

Now if you slide out deeper, now you can get into Husky Jerk territory on 80'-100' or so. If you are near the weeds in that 8'-10' range, your bait will probably be digging them a little bit. Remember a HJ14 dives 1-1/2' deeper or so an a same length of line that a HJ12 dives. And Borch always reminded me that you can have 2 identical lures and they'll both dive different depths for whatever reason- it happens, you need to learn how your baits dive.

The one super critical thing to remember is to tune your crankbaits to track straight. Over half my baits out of the box wouldn't track straight. A slight bend to the eyelet one way or the other and I would be in the groove. You need to test your baits pretty much every time they go in the water or they'll run to the side or blow out.

If you are trolling around weeds, you can't be pulling a small chunk of weed around on your bait, the action is killed. You have to clear it by snapping the rod, or reeling in and removing it yourself. My trolling rod is phenomenal for feeling that thump, thump, thump of a crankbait working right. I'll know immediately if something has fouled the action.

And as far as catching fish, if you catch a fish in a spot, mark it on the GPS and swing around and troll back through. Chances are there will be more fish there. I have read in a few reports from people that this was becoming key further into fall, the fish were starting to concentrate into specific areas rather than being spread out fairly equally. Work those fish catching spots until they don't produce.

Borch and I were also discussing line on the phone the other night. Superline vs Mono will affect the trolling depths of your lures because of line diameter. Know where your lures are diving to on your specific line. Thanks to Borch, I now feel I need another trolling rod spooled with Mono so I can pull my baits shallower on the same length of line. Thanks buddy! wink.gif

I would like to conclude that I am by no means an expert on this (I'm at home on the river, not the lake), but these are some observations I made this fall that are pretty important IMO. I've got a headache now and never mentioned lure color, lure style, lure models, trolling speeds, etc...

I think the basic trolling game is simple and straightforward. However, there are obviously lots and lots of subtle details that will help you out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.



  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.