Fishing Articles

FALL WALLEYE TRANSITIONS

The word “transitions” may be one of the more overused terms in fishing today. We hear about mud-to-sand or sand-to-rock transitions, seasonal transitions, and bait transitions; to the point where the word tends to lose its meaning. Yet, it’s highly appropriate when discussing fall walleyes, as there are few times of year where everything can change as quickly as it can in the fall. Which is why you’ll need to be flexible in your approach if you’re going to catch fish during this stage of the game.

“Transitions” to fall walleyes means fish that are behaving differently in terms of their location. Warm spells and resultant increased water temps push fish back to more summer areas, often deeper than 20 feet of water. Cold bouts, and especially prolonged cooler temperatures have the opposite effect they do in the summer. Walleyes push shallower, feed more aggressively, and should be welcomed by anglers, even if they need some bulkier clothes and more cold-weather stamina to handle it. Nothing kills a great fall bite like an “Indian Summer” that hits as water temps are slowly but surely otherwise dropping nicely.

If walleye locations change, it should be no surprise that the techniques to catch them should transition as well. After water temps are in the 50’s to stay, you can put away the leadcore gear you used all summer to target scattered deep fish, and look for fish to congregate. For the most part, cool weather concentrates fish, and often does it shallow where walleyes like to feed heavily. This is especially true with prolonged wind events that stack fish in shallow, predictable locations. Cool, windy days in the fall can see the biggest fish in any water body actively feeding during daylight conditions.

That’s all well and good, but rarely in the fall is any one water body locked into a specific depth and individual pattern that works well for walleyes most of the time. In reality, fish move at back and forth, with these depth migrations being gradual over time, with all kinds of smaller movements throughout the days and weeks of fall. They relate to water temperatures, light conditions, and major weather events. All of which sums up the truest sense of the term “fall transition,” meaning that walleyes in the fall are ALWAYS in flux.

Knowing that, then we have the challenge of determining details in targeting them. First and foremost, start shallow, and start aggressive. Crankbaits, both lipless and short-bodied shad diving baits, along with swimbaits, jig and plastic combinations, and even stickbaits are great choices for this type of fishing. Fish wind-driven points, rock piles, and ledges in as shallow as a few feet of water, and give it a good hour or more of your time. Make the fish prove to you that they’re not shallow before abandoning that bite, as when it’s on, it’s on in a big way.

Next, move to the first break, and let your electronics be your guide. Often, especially in clear bodies of water, fall transition fish will move below the edge of the first pronounced drop-off from shore during the day, still feeding occasionally, while waiting to push to nearby shallows for a night-time feeding session. These fish may require a bit more attention and subtlety, and large, live minnows are a great presentation for them. Free-swim a big chub behind ample weight on a larger than average rigging hook, and wait for the thump-thump of the minnow to be interrupted by a “smash.” Pay the fish ample line and give it some time to get the bait in his mouth before setting the hook, and you’ll be surprised how well fall walleyes are into big minnows. With some patience, many minnows lost, and some practice, you’ll also be wondering how even eater-sized walleyes can eat these extremely large minnows.

If live-bait isn’t your game, it’s a great time to try Puppet Minnows on these intermediate-depth fish. You’ve got the combination of concentrated, aggressive fish, along with a bit of distance between you and the fish, such that Puppet Minnows really have the space to dive, dart, swing, and work their magic. I know more than a few anglers that fish this bite from 60 degree water temps all the way until lake ice-up.

Finally, if fall walleye locations are confounding you, and you haven’t found anything at shallow or intermediary depths, consider going back to what worked in the summer. This could be live bait rigging deep structure, or even pulling leadcore. A few years ago, I did really well pulling leadcore, at night, in 25 feet of water in October. The fish shouldn’t have been there, especially then, but they were and they ate. It could be due to warmer than average weather preceding your visit to the lake, exceptionally clear water, or a number of other factors including turnover, but know that you’ve always got the patterns from the previous weeks to fall back on.

Stay mobile, be flexible with your baits, and fish the fall walleye transition in order from shallow to the depths. Let the fish decide what they want and where they want it, then realize that each fall day can act like a new season altogether as you repeat the process with success.

Posted in Dock Talk

Catching gar from a kayak – on purpose

By 

 Bill Hilts

For anyone who knows me, they probably understand that my body is not made for a kayak. I am not very bendy to say the least. So, when fellow scribe Joel Spring of Ransomville asked me to go kayak fishing for longnose gar no less, I was a bit apprehensive. First, because of that whole kayak thing. Second, because who goes fishing for gar – on purpose!

I decided to give it a try. Spring promised that it would be plenty comfortable because it was a sit-on-top kayak with a seat and plenty of room to stretch. Once I was in/on the personal vessel, he was right – it was not bad at all.

Like with any fishing trip, I brought way too much gear. That is not good for a kayak, especially when you are not very bendy. Did I mention that? I brought along my camera bag that was stuffed with extra fishing tackle and binoculars (which I could not reach because it was on the bow of the kayak strapped down). I had an extra tackle box that was tied down to the stern of the boat (which I also could not reach because I am not very bendy).

Basically, all I needed was my fishing rod and a lure in the way of tackle. And “lure” is suspect because there are no hooks on it. Spring calls it a “rope fly” and he has added a spinner to give it a little flash. It is a piece of rope that has been frayed. That is all you need. Really.

We paddled across the launch ramp on the Oak Orchard River and Spring was immediately excited.

“There are lots of gar just outside the weed bed,” as he pointed near the docks. He caught one on his first cast and I immediately paddled over to try and take a photo or two from the phone. My camera bag was too far away.

“You should see them just fine if you have polarized sunglasses,” he said.

I switched the glasses I had on and it seemed to make a difference, but I still could not see them … until I did. Then they were everywhere. These waters were infested with longnose gar and if I were going to catch one, this would be the place.

As we moved up the creek in search of more active gar, it did not take long. Yes! I fought the fish as Spring jockeyed into place to take some photos. The rope fly worked its magic and I pulled the fish alongside my kayak. There was no net.

“Just put your gloves on and grab it by the snout,” said Spring matter-of-factly.

These gars have a long mouth full of teeth. Trying to get the fish to open its mouth to pull the rope fly out was no easy task. Spring came over to assist as he saw me holding the body with one hand and the mouth with the other.

Once we released the fish, Spring was back off casting, catching several more gars including one that was huge. “They get bigger than this, too,” said Spring. He was much more adept at catching, and releasing, the prehistoric-looking fish.

I had several more hits, but the rope fly failed to connect properly. Next time … and there will be a next time – if Joel asks again. We will have to wait and see on that one.

It took me longer to get out of the kayak after my legs were locked into place from not moving them for 2-1/2 hours. However, it was worth it, and it was a great experience to try something new and be successful.

I wonder how a pontoon boat would work fishing for longnose gar.

Kicking big-lake madness via trout isolation

By   

 Tony Peterson

Most of my time spent fishing since May has been in a boat on big(ish) lakes. Lately, though, I’ve started to lose my desire for 4 a.m. alarms and the inevitable recreational boat traffic that seems to start earlier and earlier each day (and which really reaches a fever pitch by lunchtime). This has me thinking about small streams and trout.

Trout are generally the first fish to have a wave of open-water anglers descend upon their haunts, usually in April. By mid-May, the hordes die down to the point where you’re far more likely to see a solo fly fisherman standing in a good run with plenty of elbow room upstream and downstream to work with, as opposed to multiple fisherman running everything from flies to spinners to crawlers.

By August, you’re likely to not see anyone out. That’s what has me putting aside 7-foot, 6-inch flippin’ sticks and picking up rods that are a bit whippier right now. Even though small stream trout are generally, as a rule, pretty small, they are also current fish which means if you’re stealthy they’ll bite. That’s probably reason enough to get out there, but for me it’s more about the places they live and the fact that I’ll probably be the only person there.

I saw this my whole life growing up in southeastern Minnesota, and even more these days now that I target brook and brown trout in northern Wisconsin every time I’m over there scouting deer. While the bugs can be bad, the fishing won’t be and it’s usually easy enough to find a stretch of quality water without a single angler on it. It’s low pressure, quiet, and usually productive fishing.

There’s plenty to like about that in my book, and if that sounds interesting to you, consider leaving the lakes to the jet-skiers and head out to some small, meandering water. You probably won’t catch any giants, but you’ll have all of the peace and quiet you want on some of the most beautiful waters

Anglers who are tired of the lake traffic might want to check out some nearby trout streams, which can be a great place to find quality fishing action and solitude in late summer.

BOTTOM BOUNCER BASICS FOR WALLEYE

By Jason Mitchell

In both North and South Dakota, bottom bouncer rigs have been catching walleye on the Missouri River reservoirs for an awfully long time.  The popularity of bottom bouncers however has expanded far and wide.  Come mid-summer, bottom bouncers are probably my go to presentation to catch walleyes day in and day out on many different fisheries.  The reason bottom bouncers are so effective is the simple versatility.  You can speed up to cover water at over two miles per hour with a bottom bouncer.  You can also slow down at a mile per hour or less.  You can fish deep water or shallow.  You can run plain snells and live bait.  You can run half crawler Slow Death style hooks that have become so popular over the last decade.  You can run spinner harnesses with blades.

All these options enable the angler to fish slow or fast, with subtle or vibration with flash.  You can fish shallow or deep.  Through this entire spectrum, bottom bouncers are forgiving in that you can slide out into deeper water or move up shallow and keep your presentation near the bottom if need be.  You can also simply put the rod in the rod holder and the rod simply loads up with a fish.  Bottom bouncers are so simple to use and so effective.  I have often joked that bottom bouncers are a guide’s best friend because you can catch a lot of walleye with a bottom bouncer regardless of experience or feel.  Last, bottom bouncers are simply fun.  Feeling a hard strike on a bottom bouncer and setting the hook is right up with catching a fish on a jig.

Bottom bouncers can also help you really learn what you are fishing.  Great tools for really fine-tuning bottom transitions and feeling rock, gravel, etc. which ultimately greatly aids your boat control and understanding of a location, the wire on a bottom bouncer transmits so much valuable information.

As a rule of thumb, we recommend an ounce of weight for every ten feet of water.  Choosing the right weight is important so that you can keep the bottom bouncer along the bottom upright and close to the boat.  There are exceptions of course, there are times when we will run lighter bottom bouncers behind the boat at faster speeds particularly along shallow flats but this is the basic starting point.  An ounce for every ten feet of water will enable you to easily fish the bottom bouncer below the boat at about a forty-five-degree angle.  This keeps your presentation close to what you are seeing on your electronics.  As you change depths, you can always let out more line or pick up line.  Usually, if there is any doubt, error on the side of heavy because heavier bottom bouncers are much more forgiving with not only depth but speed.  Often, we simply catch more fish with bottom bouncers by simply speeding up to cover water to find active fish and triggering fish.

Since I do like to run bottom bouncers at faster speeds, I am also a big believer in using heavier snells.  This is not a case for finesse.  If I must fish slow with light line, I often prefer to slip bobber or live bait rig.  Heavier snells hold up to faster speeds so much better.  If your snell or harness is getting twisted, you are using too light of poundage on your snell.  I find that fourteen or even twenty-pound snells track behind the bottom bouncer much better at the faster speeds and enable you to use speed to find and trigger fish.  Snell length can really vary.  Most spinners are tied with a five to six-foot snell but I often prefer to use a shorter three-foot snell when fishing around weeds or using slow death style hooks.  Of course, there are exceptions.  Long eight to twelve-foot snells can be deadly in clear water or over a real soft bottom.  When dealing with clear water or high numbers of incidental pike, I often tie snells with Fluorocarbon and offset the sinking characteristics of fluorocarbon by using a float in the snell or spinner harness.

Perhaps one of the hottest trends we are seeing in our travels is the popularity of subtle harnesses that include small metal props, mylar blades like Mack Blades or plastic props like Northland Fishing Tackle Butterfly and Wingnut Blades.  These blade options are more subtle than a traditional metal spinner blade and turn at much slower speeds which is deadly whenever you must turn the boat a lot to stay on structure.

In clear water, using a simple plain snell is extremely deadly and is underrated at times.  From the basic simple snell that has a single hook, you can experiment by adding a single bead or a handful of beads and a float.  The next step with vibration is the prop options described above and of course classic spinner harness rigs are a solid option when more vibration and flash is needed.  I personally like to lean heavily on spinner harnesses whenever the water is dirty or stained either from wind, water color or algae blooms.  Spinner harnesses can also shine when the fish are extremely aggressive as a turning blade can be seen and felt from much further away.  On most inland lakes, deep cup Colorado blades have long been the most popular and offer the most thump or vibration at the slowest speeds.  Indiana blades shine at slightly faster speeds of over a mile and a half per hour and willow leaf blades shine over open water and fast speeds but put off noticeably less vibration.

As water temperatures climb through the summer, speed is your biggest trigger especially when using bottom bouncers and snells.  If we are missing fish, we often find that we improve our batting average by simply speeding up.  There is often no need to drop the rod back or feed line, simply drag the fish and let them choke up on the bait.  When the water temperatures are over seventy degrees, we often see the fish grab on to the bait and as the bait keeps moving, the fish simply do not want the bait to get out of their mouth.  When the rod loads from a fish, simply drag the fish until the rod starts to load even more and as you feel the fish shake, set the hook with a sweep of the rod or use the momentum of the boat to hook the fish… this is why a rod holder will often out fish you holding the rod in the summer when you are using bottom bouncers.

Bottom bouncers and spinner harnesses can be run with no live bait as well which can be extremely deadly at times.  Gulp! crawlers and minnows or traditional soft plastic fluke and worm profiles are much more durable than live bait and really shine around weeds or small nuisance fish.  I often find that I can catch bigger walleye by ditching the live bait options and using soft plastics.  One of my favorite tricks for improving the size of walleye I catch with harnesses is using soft plastic or Gulp! behind a harness and hooking the soft bait with a two hook harness so the bait is warped or curved like a banana.  These curved soft baits zig zag and swim through the water at over a mile and a half per hour and really seem to trigger the larger fish and the added movement seems to keep the smaller fish from being able to get their mouths around the bait.

For rods and reels, I prefer to use a baitcasting set up.  I personally like to use a stiffer seven-foot medium heavy bait casting rod as the stiffer rod loads up and pops the bottom bouncer through rocks and snags much better especially if you have the rods in the rod holders.  Stiffer rods are also needed to hook up fish at slower speeds below the boat.  Scheels currently has a perfect bottom bouncer rod in their Walleye Series that is a seven-foot casting rod in a medium heavy action.  For holding the rod, nothing beats a good baitcasting reel with a flipping switch which are getting harder to find.  Quantum still makes a reel with a flipping switch called the Accurist PT.  For running bottom bouncers in rod holders or when guiding, Scheels has an exclusive low-profile line counter reel that is incredible for keeping bottom bouncing simple and easy.

Bottom bouncer rigs are so incredibly effective on so many fisheries right now.  In fact, if I could only use one presentation alone during the month of July, it would be hard to beat a bottom bouncer teamed up with either a spinner harness or some type of rig.  You can slow down a bottom bouncer and fish a plain snell with live bait for example if the bite gets tough after a front or in the middle of the day when there is no wind.  You can trigger fish with speed and harnesses or go with more subtle hybrid rigs like Butterfly Blades and cover a lot of water on the other end of the spectrum.  Bottom bouncers shine around rock, gravel and sand.  Bottom bouncers are one of my favorite presentations for running weed line edges as the bottom bouncer serves as a large weed guard collecting a lot of the weeds while the harness runs clean behind.  There are few tools that will help you catch more walleye right now under so many different conditions.

 

Photo Caption

Bottom bouncers are an incredibly effective tool for catching walleye on a wide variety of natural lakes and reservoirs come midsummer.  As water temperatures climb, don’t hesitate to use speed to cover water to find scattered fish and also use speed to trigger fish.

Often called a guide’s best friend.  If you ever need to take kids, family members or friends out fishing that haven’t necessarily done a lot of walleye fishing, bottom bouncers are very user friendly.  Picture is the author Jason Mitchell with his oldest son Brennen Mitchell with Brennen’s largest walleye from the summer of 2019.

Prop rigs like Northland Fishing Tackle’s Butterfly Blade are simply deadly as they turn at much slower speeds than traditional spinner blades which keeps the presentation off the bottom and out of snags particularly when you have to turn the boat a lot to stay on tight structure.

 

Posted in Dock Talk

HOW DEEP IS TOO DEEP

By Joel Nelson

Walleyes spend the better part of their summer season in deep water.  Provided there’s enough oxygen at depth, they happily enjoy cooler water temperatures and the bevy of bugs and other bait that congregate on deep structure.  Older fish in certain lakes, learn to key in on larger bait stock.  That could mean ciscoes and whitefish, or suckers and even bullheads or rough fish depending on where you’re fishing.  That still puts them deep, maybe coming up occasionally to feed before sinking back down.

Depth however is a relative term, depending on the lake you’re fishing.  On Minnesota’s Upper Red Lake, 10 feet of water and deeper is considered quite deep.  The same is true in the prairie pothole region where there’s plenty of great little walleye holes that never make even 20 feet.  Then again, there’s great walleye lakes like Vermillion, where walleyes can be found in excess of 50 feet of water.  Of course, your favorite walleye lake may be at either end, or anywhere in between.

While the depth of walleyes may be relative to the system in which they live, their ability to survive summer capture at those various depths is not.  Most fish caught in 30+ feet of water will likely die as the result if water temps are at their peak.  Brandon Eder, Assistant Area Fisheries Supervisor for the MN DNR’s Waterville Office confirmed this in a recent conversation while adding, “No matter how slowly you reel in fish from that depth, there’s still likely going to be some trauma.” 

Throughout the walleye-belt then, there’s plenty of catch and release fishing that might as well be catch and kill.  Not that there’s anything wrong with eating a walleye either.  I love ‘em, and prepare them a bunch of different ways.  However, there are plenty of lakes that mandate release of walleyes a certain size, and anglers should know some ins and outs of how depth can affect the release of walleyes during the summer.  Eder suggests, “Be prepared to keep your first 6 fish regardless of size (depending on the regs) and then quit or go shallow.”

There’s a pile of factors that influence walleye mortality, with depth of capture being only one of them.  Hooking method, or how deeply into its mouth a walleye eats the bait is a big influence, as is the use of live bait vs. artificial baits, but those are often related.  Water temperature is another factor, and warmer temps see fish that simply don’t release as well and survive.  It’s why catch and release walleye tournaments aren’t held as often in the deep summer, and why you should consider eating the fish you catch when water temps are the hottest of the year.  Extended or prolonged handling of a fish outside of the water is yet another factor that affects mortality.

Many of those factors an angler can directly influence, especially in the summer as you can’t control the water temp.  Without switching away from live-bait, circle hooks vs “J”-hooks, and pinching down all barbs, what’s a catch and release angler to do?  The answer is to change the depth at which you’re fishing, and to know what depths are likely lethal, and which are not.

Barotrauma is a big word with a relatively simple meaning, especially as it pertains to walleyes caught at depth.  It affects all living things, but with walleyes swimming rapidly from deep water, it refers to physical injuries caused by water pressure.  Quick ascent means a swelling air bladder, which can push their stomachs out, bulge their eyes, and ultimately cause deadly injury.  Releasing those fish at the surface, in extremely warm water may make the angler feel good as they swim away, but may not lead to survival.

One solution to the problem of fish barotrauma has been “fizzing” – the act of releasing that pressure with an accurately placed hypodermic needle into the swim bladder of the fish.  Of course, “accurately” is the key, as stabbing a fish with a needle indiscriminately, can further exacerbate the problem.  Eder says, “I don’t like the idea of anglers running around poking walleye with needles.  It’s hard to get the right spot in perfect conditions and even tougher in rain, wind, or after dark.”

Another solution in the form of re-compression devices may pose some freshwater promise, as they have gained greater acceptance in coastal areas.  These tools can simply be an inverted barbless hook secured to a line with a weight that takes the fish to bottom and releases it with a sharp snap of the line, or a jaw clamp that releases similarly.  The general idea of both being that the fish quickly gets back down to a depth that allows air bladder pressures to recede, and ultimately supports its survival.  For rockfish specifically, studies have shown 80%+ survival rates.  While I’m not aware of any similar research on walleyes, the decompression devices show greater efficacy overall.

Of course, you could always just limit your fishing north of 30 feet, or make sure that you are legally able to take and eat fish of any size for the lake that you’re fishing.  If a limit is what you’re after in those depths, stop fishing once you’ve hit it.  Eder also mentions, “If you are on fish over 20″ you should leave so you don’t kill more than your 1 over 20″.”  All of which means that if you’re putting the hurt on big fish deep, consider switching tactics, locations, and potentially lakes.  Focus early and late when fish are more active shallow.  Break out some slip-bobbers and camp out on a rock pile, or drag some spinners or rigs along a weedline.

There’s lots of ways to get your ‘eyes, but this summer when temperatures climb, do your best to respect the resource by going easy on those deep fish.

Posted in Dock Talk