6/23 Inexperienced Walleye Report

[sloch24]

My wife and I went out around 9:30 from Meinke West (Anchor Point).

We followed the GPS toward the turnaround buoy until we saw a large pack of boats between the buoy and West Sister. We stayed about 3/4 mile from the pack and got the boat set up for trolling.

I have a 27' I/O, so we have to run trolling bags (Amish Outfitter x 2).

We ran worm harnesses behind 2 oz inline sinkers behind Offshore Tackle planer boards.

Both the Gold/Green harnesses with painted/gold blades, and the gold/red harnesses with copper blades seemed to work about the same.

I also wasn't sure on the depth, and think I was running the bait too low most of the time

My autopilot doesn't like when the boat is getting tossed up and down, so we just followed the pack and trolled across the current (North in this case).

We picked up 2 19" walleye within the first 30 minutes, then another 2 about an hour later, and another one before we left.

We ended up with 5 total. Not bad I guess for the first time out in 2 years for Walleye. I hope to get better in time, and maybe mix it up a bit the next time we go out (spoons, bottom bouncers, etc...)

I know my next upgrade needs to be my fish finder. I'm living in 2003 with what I have now. I'm seriously considering either an Elite, or HDS by Lowrance. That will be one hell of an upgrade from my tiny little Raymarine unit that was on the boat when I bought it used back in 2010. Either way, this will be a winter project.

Next trip out I want to try some Tripz divers that I've had for about 5 years now and never got wet.

We normally target the perch mostly, but decided to see if we could get in on some of this fast and furious walleye action we've been hearing so much about!!

Comments/Opinions/Tips/Tricks/Prayers welcome!

[Riches]

try spoons trolling with 40 divers 50 to75 back

[BILLY JOE]

try running your weight on harness up about 6 foot in front of it or use a snap weight or rubber band to attach weight half way up line like let out 30ft then attach weight let out another 30 ft then hook to board you can run spoons with weight same way but most use jet divers try different weights like 1 ounce let out more line to go deeper till you figure out what works care full on turns inside weights may sink down and hit bottom

[itsbob]

Sloch 24,With all the reports of plentifull and quick limits,you probably thought you would have gotten more than 5 for the two of you.Sometimes takes a couple trips to get dialed in,especially since have not fished in a couple years.We have trolled harnesses a lot in the last 15yrs I have trolled.The set up you used should catch fish,but sometimes its the little things that make the difference.About 4yrs ago I switched to the offshore #2 tadpoles instead of sinkers and really like them.I would recommend you buy 2 or 4 and try them out.You mentioned you might have been too deep.Putting the lures at the proper depth is probably the most important part in trolling.You have to have dive charts for all the lures,divers and weights you have.You can find that all online.That being said,I could still catch fish without those charts.What you do is spread out your depths/leads to cover the water column you are fishing.Then whatever lead catches,you match that with the other rods.For the past two seasons,i have found that spoons have been outfishing the harnesses.The charters are killing them with the Tru Trip 40 and spoons.The tru trip 40s pull too hard for your inline boards but the Tru trip 30s will work and I have already used them this season with spoons.But lately,we have been running our spoons behind #1 dipseys and have been doing very well.Once you get used to the dipseys,they are much quicker to use than boards.We often will run dipseys and boards together quite effectively too.Keep reading these posts and you will learn a lot,or go out with a charter like Porkchop or Juls that also use inline boards.That really helps the learning curve.

[branhamautomotive]

You can run 40tt behind standard offshore boards even with tattle flags, the new flags help this alot as the a much lower rear eyelet location that the pull arm for the flag to run through.

I have been pulling them behind my offshore boards for 3 or 4 years now this way when I get the chance to fish my own boat.

[sloch24]

Thanks for the advice guys. I hope to get out again soon and try some of your suggestions!

[Pauken23]

One thing to remember with inline weights, they are very speed dependent. For example, running a bandit with 100ft of line out and a 2oz snap weight at 50ft (50/50) gets the bandit down to 34ft at 1.5mph and only 25ft at 2.5mph (precision trolling guide is my source). That’s a 9ft difference from 1.5mph-2.5mph. That’s why I usually go with jet divers or tru trips. Bandits get down to 20ft on their own and I throw those off the boards to cover the middle/upper part of the column. Have been experimenting with inline weights on bandits to get them deeper though.

[sherman51]

its really hard to comment without knowing your speed and line out. right now the fish seems to be suspended in the water column. you might have been a little deep. or should have tried a little closer to the boats as they may have been on a nice pod of fish.

[sloch24]

Since my boat idles at around 4.5 MPH I'm having to run 2 big bags to get my boat down to about 2 MPH. The GPS said 1.5 - 1.8 most of the day, but that doesn't take current into consideration.

Running harnesses, which don't dive on their own, if I remember correctly, I was running 1 ft of line for 2 ft of depth with a 2 oz inline sinker. That didn't seem right to me at the time, and now I'm thinking maybe I wasn't letting enough line out! Back to the books...

I'm out of practice, and I need to get back out and play. I also have some "how to" stuff I need to go through again.

I got some of the "Walleye 101" info from Lance Valentine a few years back, and after running with his information, I limited out on my first trip. Probably luck, but it's been a while since I've been out and/or did any studying.

[rickerd]

Not sure how long your trolling runs were but if you catch a couple fish, mark that spot on your map and if you go 10 or 15 mins without a fish, make a big turn back over that mark.

If you don't have a map on your finder, I've been using Navionics map on my phone to mark spots too. My friends boat I use in CLE doesn't have fish finder or a map. Its been fun to try and sniff them out with his boat too.
Rickerd