What gives ??? 4/26

I need some help. I took some buddies to the reef complex Saturday and got skunked. We saw folks netting fish right next to us that appeared to be using the same purple hair jigs. We were tipping ours on the hook and then we tried tipping the stinger with no luck at all. We tried different colors, tried letting out long lines due to the winds, tried fishing short lines up and down and nothing worked in 4 hours. I thought maybe we were drifting too fast because we didn't have a drift bag, could that have been it? I was very disappointed because we had a first timer with us and I probably ruined it for him. Wind was horrible Saturday. I guess I'll have to wait for the worm bite. Any help would be VERY much appreciated.

Speed has alot to do with your presentation. Could you tell you guys were going faster than the others?

The worm bite is the easiest and it is just around the corner (within 2 weeks). I am not a big fan of jigging for eyes unless I'm in Northern Ontario, but I do it to get out. Too fast a drift is the enemy. You are primarilly targetting male fish as most females go dormant for a couple of weeks post spawn. The males stay at the spawn site until the water warms. The females head for deeper water to recover from the spawn. The slower the drift, the better. Some fishermen will even anchor. If you dont have a drift sock, you can improvise by tossing a couple or 3, 5 gallon buckets over. Bow, stern and mid boat. it should cut your drift in half. Tip your jigs with multiple minnows. Having a sensative rod is a must, slowly raise a couple of feet and drop. The bite feels like 1 little tap, then set the hook. The fish aren't aggressive yet and move very little until hooked. Good luck brother.

Thanks for the tip on the 5 gallon buckets, wish I would have thought of that, maybe we could have salvaged the day. I use a sensitive St Croix med action rod and can feel the slightest tap with it. I am convinced now that it was the speed. Maybe I'll spend another $100 for gas to come back next weekend. I'll be watching all your reports before I make another trip. Thanks guys for the help.

fishing was tough today, seven men managed 22 walleyes, lost another
2 dozen, large males 3 to 4 lbs, 1 oz jigs, blue, green, chartuse, purple,
some with minnows some without, some lifts only two inches of bottom, others on six foot sharp lifts, 15 to 17 ft. of water the best, beach of crane creek.

I found also to cast against the wind seems to produce fish even more so than castin with the wind and drag/jiggin. Cast against wind and jig back towards the boat. It is alittle more difficult to do but you will get the speed to jig back as it will vary to how fast your drifting. All our fish came this way.....Hope this is helpful.

I was out saturday too. Started in front of locust point,but the pack kept moving west ,closer to crane creek. I had 2 drift socks out and still wish I could slow down more. I did see a couple of boats with anchors out. Managed to get 10,but my friends got tired of the weather,so we ran into wildwings to get beer for the ride back to anchor point.

I've noticed that presentation is a big deal. Your right the wind speed on saturday was strong. We used two drift socks and could not get as slow as we wanted. The result, we changed how we jigged. We always, always kept our line tight, and just barly popped the jig off the bottom. Keeping with in 2" of the bottom at all times. Seemed to really do the trick. Came off the lake with 8 eye's.
If you didn't have a drift socks or 5 gallon buckets you were sunk on saturday. The other good rule of thumb is, keep a 45 degree angle if your line get's out past that say 60 or 70 degree's your drift speed is to fast and you have to adjust your jig speed or throw off the other side like stated before.
Good Luck

Throw your jig down wind on an angle and twitch your rod and reel a turn, twitch and reel a turn until it is just short of parellel. Then just twitch, twitch, twitch-- moving your jig minimally for the last 20 yards of the drift. Once a gets past 1 O'Clock reel it in and pitch again. It keeps the jig basically in the same spot through the entire drift. Aggitates them well somedays. And sometimes when ya twitch--they twitch back--fish on

Thanks everyone for the great advice. Now if the weather will straighten up I will make the trip back to give all your techniques a try. Can't wait!