Harnesses Over Crankbaits Any Time of the Year

[Madd Matt]

Wow, I had no idea there would be a reaction like this. Let me take a minute to try to explain and try to answer everybody's concerns. First, everything I posted about my catch on Erie is 100% accurate and true. We were on Lake Erie from 4/19 through 4/25. Myself and 3 friends caught over 140 walleyes over 7 lbs. I have dozens of photos and lots of video. We caught and released fish all day, only keeping fish that were gill-hooked or looked like they wouldn’t make it. At the end of the day, when we reached our legal limit, we stopped fishing. We had many doubles and triples of fish between 27 and 32 inches. We did start the first day dragging crank baits because that’s how we’ve done well every other time we fished here, and so that’s how the guys I was with wanted to fish. After we had a good morning, and everybody was satisfied that we had caught fish I convinced them to give these new Mepps Trolling Rigs a try. It is absolutely a fact that I helped Mepps to develop these lures. I wasn’t trying to hide that. Like someone pointed out, look at the Mepps hat. I want to be clear that I am not paid by Mepps. But it’s also a fact that we had an amazing week of fishing these lures. I didn’t mean to make my post sound like a commercial, but I wanted to give you all the details about my experience. I assumed with the results I had people would want to know the details, especially since a lot of guys don’t typically think about dragging harnesses this early in the year. This experience was an eye opener for me too. I’ll attach a couple more pictures here and I did send the videos to Mepps. I think they’re going to edit it together and put something on their website, hopefully soon. Like I said, our results were REALLY good, so I thought other walleye fishermen would want to know.

ReelLivin,

Welcome to the forums! lol
I think that part of your problem is that you posted a fishing report from 4/19-4/25 on 5/6 and didn't give a date. Typically fishing reports show up the day of the catch or the day after. That way it actually helps others who are headed to the Lake know a program.

This was an issue because no one was catching fish the way you described on 5/6/2014 after three days of blustery winds. The most seasoned charters where catching fish, but not anything close to what you described during that time.

On 4/18 -4/20 I actually believe that you could have caught 4 limits of 25"-32" fish if you spent all day out there. If you read the reports from those days the trolling was on fire. We ourselves limited a 5 man limit and from start of fishing to last fish was 1hr 40min... If you read my report we caught 6 fish ohio and 14 others all over 26". We actually caught 29 and threw back anything under 26" because they were so hot.

Also if you read reports from those days, anything and everything was catching walleye... all depths. You could have been using balls of Styrofoam and you would have limited out in less than 2 hours.

I am not saying that your Mepps aren't good... I'm just saying that there is a big difference between posting what you did in the midst of every single report from East of Kelly's to Davis Bessie and everywhere in between was a mad house of "walleye suicide" (One users actual post description of that time). Go back and read reports from that week, the walleye jumped in every boat, from every depth on every color and lure.

Also, many people on here were on the water and did the same thing that you did during that time.

Next time, try not to post you fishing report from several weeks ago during a slump when they aren't biting.

Secondly, posting that report is fine... Nothing wrong with it... but it really does help people to know what is "currently" going on with the bite and program. Posting that report several weeks later is just simply bragging about your catch... Nothing wrong with that. We all brag about days like that... But it doesn't do anything for helping guys going out today.

Nice catch!

[Madd Matt]

http://community.walleye.com/showthread.php?t=7583

There is what we did on the same day... 5 man limit in less than 2 hours... So did anyone else on the water.

[reellivin]

Thanks Madd Matt. Lesson learned.

Nice catch to you too.

[MasterKraft]

Its funny that you actually publicly posted that you only kept the ones you brought in the boat foul hooked, or in other words illegal.

[wakina]

Reellivin

I was critical of you in earlier replies to this thread! I fully accept your explanation and would like to welcome you to the site. I would also like to offer you a heartfelt apology and wish you and MEPP'S Tackle all the best. May your lines stay tight and your coolers full.

[stubby]

Its funny that you actually publicly posted that you only kept the ones you brought in the boat foul hooked, or in other words illegal.

i did not know that!
we try to keep any gill hooked or heavy bleeders or fouled if they look like they won't make it and are over the measure limit.
if that is illegal, that sounds really silly to me but oh well, dealing with regulations is always a challenge......

[miso_ohio]

Yeah I could believe it on those days I know the weekend after that I was doing decent just North of Rattlesnake, weekend before they where everywhere begging to be caught.

Last weekend I would of been shocked, I heard 10 walleye caught between 3 boats on Sunday around rattlesnake and they did not report too many more boats up there. Last weekend was tough but as I told the customers days like that make you a better fisherman. As someone mentioned a lot of really good charter captains ended up with zero or in the single digits.

I was happy to get what I got, I mean did you see the size of that walleye in that picture, at least 14 foot.

As for Mepps, use to use those a lot trout fishing as a kid in PA. Would not mind getting a few larger ones for some pike in East Harbor since somebody keeps telling me they are in there, I got a kayak ready for action this summer. I would try the harnesses for walleye but DJ would probably kill me.

[MasterKraft]

Maybe I am misunderstanding the phrase gill hooked, to me it sounds like snagging. I totally agree there is no sense in throwing a fish to the seagulls but odnr frowns on fish kept not hooked from the inside of themouth. Maybe you are referring to a second treble on a rr or ddhj. By the way nice catch on that 14 footer. Talk about fish ohio.

[Capt Juls]

Its funny that you actually publicly posted that you only kept the ones you brought in the boat foul hooked, or in other words illegal.

He said, "gill hooked" not "foul hooked". Big difference! Gill hooked means the hook was inside the fish's mouth, deep down in the gills, making it bleed. Nothing illegal about that.

Foul hooked would be where the hooks are on top of the head, in the fish's side, or tail, etc.

[MasterKraft]

Gotcha, Juls. After I thought about my post for another minute I kinda thought that's what they meant. You can tell I get down to the river more than I get out on the lake. I did go out today for a bit out by outer light. Found a pack of boats but didn't see any netting action. I didn't stay long figuring the wind would be picking up as usual.