05-11-2007, 05:34 PM
[font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1] [/size][/black][/font][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1][/size][/black][/font][font "Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"][black][size 1]I thought I'd start a thread for us to share some of our favorite tactics and presentations.
Personally, when the Walleyes have finished out their spawn I generally like to go shallow with finesse rigs on certain rivers, flowages and lakes. They all have their 'spots' where fish will hold to recover from the event.
My favorite place is dead falls on steep drops from shoreline. Second would be the first weedline both inside and outside of protected bays and points near deep water. Presentations are slow, methodical and above all QUIET!.. This isn't for the angler who needs to be moving all the time making noise in the boat.. you really need patience and a calm demeanor. What I generally use in staind waters (most of my fishing is in staind water)is 1/16oz. jigs tipped with leeches or crawlers. I'll go up to a 1/4oz jig if current is heavier, but lighter is better. My preferance of jig has a light aberdeen style wire hook. The reason is when you get snagged up on the wood (and you'll get snagged!) the wire is generally supple enough to either flex or bend out of the snag.
Again, here is where finesse comes into play.. you don't want to be ripping branches out because you'll spook the fish. You midas well pull up anchor and head to another spot if you do that. I also prefer lighter line -or- a mono/flourocarbon leader on Power-Pro or Fireline in 4-6lb test. The light line offers you lower breaking stength so you can recover faster and retie to get back to fishing if you can't coax the jig off the wood without a stuggle. Again, this struggle will normally mess up the spot.
What you're doing here is basicaly offering an easy meal to tired fish so S-L-O-W and quiet are key. I'll normally slip into a spot using a paddle or an oar.. I won't even drop the bow mount. Then as soon as I'm positioned correctly (boat parallel with shorline or weedline) I carefully slide one anchor at a time into the water.. again, quietly slide them in.
After I'm positioned the fun starts. Hook a leech or crawler and using a gentle cast hit up shollow (nearly on shore) and drag or lightly hop) your jig down the drop-off around the downfall tree pausing as much as a few minutes between movements. What you're looking for is slight line twitches either tightening or slack, little 'bumps' of the rod tip or slight preasure when you begin your slow 'hop' or drag. Once you experience one of these things.. drop your rod tip to give some slack then reel up and use a sweeping hookset. None of that Bill Dance, Mike Iaconelli 'rip-their-lips-off' stuff. Just a nice quick sweeping hookset.
One other tid bit - I really like light/m-light action rods for this. They add to the slow presentaion and movement and add fun to fighting a football sized Walleye.
Oh, I'll touch on the weedlines in a later post. [
]
What are your favorite post spawn tactic's and presentations?[/size][/black][/font]
[signature]
Personally, when the Walleyes have finished out their spawn I generally like to go shallow with finesse rigs on certain rivers, flowages and lakes. They all have their 'spots' where fish will hold to recover from the event.
My favorite place is dead falls on steep drops from shoreline. Second would be the first weedline both inside and outside of protected bays and points near deep water. Presentations are slow, methodical and above all QUIET!.. This isn't for the angler who needs to be moving all the time making noise in the boat.. you really need patience and a calm demeanor. What I generally use in staind waters (most of my fishing is in staind water)is 1/16oz. jigs tipped with leeches or crawlers. I'll go up to a 1/4oz jig if current is heavier, but lighter is better. My preferance of jig has a light aberdeen style wire hook. The reason is when you get snagged up on the wood (and you'll get snagged!) the wire is generally supple enough to either flex or bend out of the snag.
Again, here is where finesse comes into play.. you don't want to be ripping branches out because you'll spook the fish. You midas well pull up anchor and head to another spot if you do that. I also prefer lighter line -or- a mono/flourocarbon leader on Power-Pro or Fireline in 4-6lb test. The light line offers you lower breaking stength so you can recover faster and retie to get back to fishing if you can't coax the jig off the wood without a stuggle. Again, this struggle will normally mess up the spot.
What you're doing here is basicaly offering an easy meal to tired fish so S-L-O-W and quiet are key. I'll normally slip into a spot using a paddle or an oar.. I won't even drop the bow mount. Then as soon as I'm positioned correctly (boat parallel with shorline or weedline) I carefully slide one anchor at a time into the water.. again, quietly slide them in.
After I'm positioned the fun starts. Hook a leech or crawler and using a gentle cast hit up shollow (nearly on shore) and drag or lightly hop) your jig down the drop-off around the downfall tree pausing as much as a few minutes between movements. What you're looking for is slight line twitches either tightening or slack, little 'bumps' of the rod tip or slight preasure when you begin your slow 'hop' or drag. Once you experience one of these things.. drop your rod tip to give some slack then reel up and use a sweeping hookset. None of that Bill Dance, Mike Iaconelli 'rip-their-lips-off' stuff. Just a nice quick sweeping hookset.
One other tid bit - I really like light/m-light action rods for this. They add to the slow presentaion and movement and add fun to fighting a football sized Walleye.
Oh, I'll touch on the weedlines in a later post. [
] What are your favorite post spawn tactic's and presentations?[/size][/black][/font]
[signature]
![[Image: 5xgolc4.jpg]](http://i5.tinypic.com/5xgolc4.jpg)