Head boat fishing

[miso_ohio]

I have done quite a bit of head boat fishing, sometimes it just makes good economic sense to take one if you really want to get out fishing. Now at that time in the year I imagine most will be walleye fishing all though you may find a couple that may have a perch boat or two going out.

For walleye:

In my experience, you pay for the boat and then get 2-3 dozen night-crawlers per person. Bring a good casting rod and some weight forward lures and some short crawler harnesses with some weight for them as well. They mostly do not anchor but sometimes they will but rarely. They do a drift and then go back and do it again with the sides of the boat swapped.

It is all about the underhand cast, keep up on your counts and don't be afraid to change colors. The most annoying part of walleye fishing on those boats is the people around you, the person next to you may have no clue and does not take advice very well. You got a great 15 count going and are catching fish, when you tell them green 15 count, they just ignore you and instead start casting in front of you basically cutting you off from fishing if you have people on both sides doing it. Then you have the people who just can't cast that will not give you any room to cast yourself as well.

I normally don't care on taking a head boat walleye trip unless I know they are really on or if the boat I am on will not be elbow to elbow people.

for perch:

This is what I prefer, pay for the boat trip and add $5 and they supply all the minnows you could use. Pretty much like a smaller boat, they head out and anchor down. They start the motors up from time to time to help trigger a bite and then also move around a bit to find the fish. The people next to you can make a bad trip as week but nowhere near to the level as they can on a walleye trip. The biggest issue you will have is when somebody from the other side of the boat lets way too much line out and it ends up tangling you every time you drift their way.


The biggest plus to a head boat is you can cull your catch if you are able to catch fish quicker then the people around you. You have your walleye or perch limit you just keep fishing. Every time you catch another fish you add it to your fish and take the smallest one out and throw it into the community pile. I have had a few trips we we left with a really, really nice limit of fish. I don't get to do it too much anymore but I was debating giving it a try this weekend if they are running.



Another option

Some of the charter boats on here will take walk on trips if they are not full. If you know the dates post them on here. Somebody may only have 4 people on a charter and they are willing to take 2 more to help with the costs. It normally averages out to not that much more then taking a head boat.