New Angler - Vermilion

[itsbob]

We fished yesterday off Vermilion in 43-46 fow.The four of us caught 23 fish that weighed 45 lbs.The majority of fish were caught on our dipseys pulling 3 spoon harness and one double willow worm harness.Was catching 3 setting at 85 and 1 setting at 65.Also had 2 inline boards out that caught a few fish.Had a gold bandits out with 50 ft than 2 oz weight and another 100 for total of 150.Got the biggest at 25". I would guess that bandit was around 30 ft down while our speed was 2.5 mph.A good rule of thumb when adding weight is you add 4 ft of depth for each ounce of weight.So our 2,oz weight added 8 ft of depth to that bandit.

[West Basin]

All good advice.

Start with the basics. I assume you have a fish / depth finder? The first task is to find walleye. Get a general or specific location to try first, such as the reports on this forum. Once you get there, watch your fish finder for good walleye marks (if you don't know what those look like, watch some online videos or read some online articles, or ask someone to show you). Once you find a location with good marks, see the depth those fish are at, and get your lure in that "fish zone". Drifting is fine, and you can use a variety of lures, from "mayfly rigs" or "crawler harnesses" to the 'ole Erie Dearies or weight forward spinners to the newer jerk baits. Use the countdown method to start the lure in the fish zone and try to keep it there as long as possible. Try different depths around the fish zone depth. When you catch your first walleye, remember what you did. How many seconds you counted before starting the retrieve. How fast you were retrieving. Etc. Repeat the best you can. Once you "dial it in", meaning you know what depth the active fish are at and you know how to get and keep your lure there, just keep fishing that way. If the action stops, look at your fish finder and see if the fish have changed depth, or they have left the area. Make whatever adjustments you need to - adjust the fishing depth, the lure, the retrieve, or move to find active fish again. It will take you a lot of time and practice to get all of this down. Don't get discouraged if you aren't very successful right away. It will take a learning curve. We all had to do it. And remember the most important thing: you have to have active walleye around you or no matter what you do you won't catch any!