Fishing out from Besse Davis

[jiginitis69]

15' is where you will be jigging for males in the 18"-25" range. Once you have your limit of them you can rig up the trolling equipment and go for the sows in deeper water. P-I-Bay is on South Bass Island. Between South Bass and Catawaba Peninisula is what is called the South Passage. Heavy eastward flowing current. That is one of the characteristics that draws the walleye to the spawning grounds. Its never a bad idea to troll or drift bottom bouncers through that area. Another good area is B & C Cans for sows. Get a good laminated map at the bait store and you will be able to find them easily.

As far as jigging. You will see the pack of boats drifting downwind and swinging nets. Go to the front of the line and have your turn. It is frowned upon to cut off a charters drift or another fishermans for that matter. Just a courteous FYI on that. No need for any aggrevation. There's enough for everyone.

Hail me on Channel 69---Jiginitis. I'll respond if I'm there.

[PCperchhunter]

The week you'll be here is about the peak for jigging for walleyes, so be sure to take the advice previous and pick up bucktail jigs. Purple, pink seem to work best for us. When you get tired and want to kick back in that lawn chair and enjoy the day, then switch to drifting or trolling with bottom bouncers and harnesses. You'll get the bigger fish this way. Lot of 24-inchers this way last year. Chartreuse blades (#4 or #5), along with gold blades, pink/white blades, or firetiger blades seem to work best for us. String on a good 'ole nightcrawler on the harness, use a heavy enough bouncer to stay in contact with the bottom on your drift, kick back and wait for the rod to crank over.


You'll love this area. I've lived here 15 years and wouldn't trade this fishing life for the world!

[Rod Bender]

Pretty good info posted here already from the other gentlemen. A drift sock maybe one item to consider when vertical jigging for the males on or around the reef complex. All about the presentation as you know. As mentioned previously, south passage is somewhat of a funnel and historically holds alot of post spawn females as they will stage in this particular area for a breif period of time prior to heading back east for deeper waters. During a PWT tournament in 1993, we hit a pod of walleye which produced several 10-12 pound post spawn females trolling smithwick (Rattlin Rogue, Clown Color) A very slender crankbait with limit movement is critical, off shore snap weights or lead core to get the crankbait down in the strike zone. Speed is just as important,.08 to 1.2 mph tops. Hopefully the weather pattern and barometer is steady for you guys and the Ol' Northeasters don't show up with a big blow.

Rod Bender