Anybody help a weekender?

[tomdury]

Nicely done Nick!! I forgot to text you that we were coming up! I thought about doing the dumping grounds because I heard it was pretty good bite over there but the wife didnt want to make the "detour" lol. We will be back up the 11-14 so hoping to get a little more fishing in with the little one, maybe find some perch to keep her attention with some hot action!

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I was up this past weekend around PiB… we had limits each time out in fairly short order trolling hot ‘n tots and shallow diving bandits on braid spinning rods. Few fish in the 20-24” range but mostly good eaters. Fished the edge of depth changes around well known local reefs around PiB and we caught most of ours in the 12-15 FOW range. Caught fish both in AM and evening starting around 5pm. Best colors were darker… copper/olive with orange underside.

[tomdury]

@shane, were you using hot'n tots on boards and all that jazz or just straight trolling them? My dad used to troll those guys way back in the day when the casting bite was 0 and I have a ton of them left from his box! I have never been sure how affective they would be with my setup (i am really not setup for dialed in trolling, just forward, neutral, forward, neutral, etc.). What depth do you think they were running, how far back, etc.?

[rickerd]

I've had success running Hot n Tots flatlined with no board. In WB about 45-60 back with a 2oz. weight 5 feet in front of them. I've used them similar areas between all the islands on west side. Also success in front of Edgewater Beach in central basin. But deeper there. I keep one copper/ orange, gold one, green and silver, and blue and silver. I also use them to cast for steelhead in river mouths until early december.

Rickerd

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These are just flatlined off braided spinning rods..When I fish this way it’s an old aluminum boat with no electronics. I have a throw buoy I use to keep them marked when I find them concentrated in a certain area, which definitely happens, but I’ve been fishing same reefs for years so I have a pretty good idea of where they may be stacked up.

My guess is 25-30 yards back so maybe 90 feet or so.. I can judge the right speed by how the plug is vibrating with the braid. Sometimes you want to bump bottom once in awhile in 8-10 feet and it’s amazing how often a walleye will grab it after it bangs off bottom.. must be the noise and sudden movement change.

Caught another quick limit of fish today of better grade, all 19-23”. Black and gold and a chartreuse perch today.. always have had better luck with traditional colors compared to some of the more funky modern hot n tot colors.

Definitely pull out those old hot n tots and give them some water time.. you may be surprised what happens and super fun on light tackle. Areas around Lost Ballast, Buckeye and Starve are all productive with this style until the weeds finally show up in the shallows when it becomes a PIA to troll these areas.

[Gobucks8100!]

Plenty of 22-24” walleye south east of dumping ground in front of cedar point. 37-40’ water. Tight to the bottom. Had 2 man limits both sat and sun from 0630-1130 am. Dragging harnesses any color 2.0. 2 ounce weights. Keep the info sharing going guys. There’s plenty of meat for us all!! Tight lines!!

[itsbob]

Thanks for the post.Was your speed 2.0mph?
Also were your harness blades Colorado or Willow...and color?

[Gobucks8100!]

Sorry…speed 2.0…they seemed to like it slower and deeper. Colorado blades in crawler harnesses. any color was hitting. Running from 100-125’ back from planer boards.

[itsbob]

Thanks GoBucks.When out last time could not get the harnesses on our boards to catch.Didnt go slow enough or try Colorado blades like you did successfully.

[Gobucks8100!]

Thanks. Blind squirrel even finds a nut once in a while. Haha