Crankbaits, Spoons or Harnesses? How do I choose the right tool for the job?

[slimshady]

Over the years, I have seen and answered that question many times by people who are learning how to fish this system for walleyes. There's no right or wrong answer and you will likely get different opinions depending on who you ask. This is just my opinion based on my own personal experience and the collective experience of the people I have learned from.

For those who might be interested, I wrote a 2-part article on this topic. I have it broken out by "season", as things change throughout the year. When it comes to the calendar, there are only 4 seasons, of course. However, with fishing, I have broken it down further into; early-spring, late-spring, summer, early-fall and late-fall.

Part 1 of this article covers early and late spring.

Here's the link to the article:https://slimshadycustoms.com/blogs/n...hould-i-choose

[rexles]

Mike:
Enjoy your articles. Keep up the good work. Lots of helpful tips, even for us old timers.
Thanks again.
Hooked On Fishin

[itsbob]

Thanks Mike for that detailed article.Interesting how you set up the lines to troll with your spinning gear.Have not read of anybody doing that same set up.That hybrid trolling with the spinning gear was another tactic i have never heard of anybody doing either.But sounds like it is an effective way to catch.

[slimshady]

Mike:
Enjoy your articles. Keep up the good work. Lots of helpful tips, even for us old timers.
Thanks again.
Hooked On Fishin

Thanks!

[slimshady]

Thanks Mike for that detailed article.Interesting how you set up the lines to troll with your spinning gear.Have not read of anybody doing that same set up.That hybrid trolling with the spinning gear was another tactic i have never heard of anybody doing either.But sounds like it is an effective way to catch.

I started doing it that way out of necessity, as we were trolling Erie with wiggle-warts and hot-n-tots going back to the early 80s. IDK if line-counters even existed yet, and if they did, we certainly didn't own any. We didn't have boards, or even a real graph back then. We had our spinning rods and we held them in our hands. We would count the turns so we could duplicate the set-up and it worked. Now I do it because I love catching them on light tackle. Simple as that.

I actually figured out the hybrid method one year fishing out by the Kelley Island Reef. I noticed that the only way we were getting bites was when I would kill the motor and let the baits fall and then re-engage it. That was while we were trolling. But if I waited too long, then the bait fish would steal our bait and we would be dragging them around behind the boards. So that's when I decided to ditch the boards, and just hold the rod in our hands so we could feel what was happening. We starting banging the fish left and right, and it was a blast feeling them hit, etc. I started using it as an alternative to trolling when we were close to our limit or playing C & R. It is definitely more fun than trolling. By far.