bass boat blues

Just got back from the lake and only caught 14 eyes in 3 long days of trolling stinger spoons. I bass fish mostly and will be up on the 26 - 29th for a tournament out of Sandusky. Thaught Id give walleye a try cause I love eatin em but had no planer setup and had just 4 rods out with jets and spoons. Could it be that we were spooking fish by not getting lines away from the boat and engine? I kept speed between 1.5 and 2.5 mph just like I was told. . . .Caught most fosh when nobody around us , a mile or 2 nw of West Sister and up to 11 miles from Wild Wings. Caught a couple near Crib, but saw folks with boards nettin em left and right. We started out with jets at45-50 feet back and increased that in small increments till we caught some , up to 95 feet back in 31 feet of water. No real pattern showed up. Any advice? Also wondering if anyones catching smallies cause i will be up hunting those this next trip.:confused: