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Posts: 3926
| Ok, I've never fished this late in the season befor. Water temps are now in the upper 30*s. I'm confused by what I think are contradictory techniques I've seen posted on the board lately. On one hand, I see folks recommending sloooowwww presentations, especially slow sinking gliders and weighted suicks. On the other hand, I see people (like Shep/Eric) are scoring by trolling. I think one post I said trolling around 4mph was boating fish, which sure ain't slow. Shep, how fast were you trolling? So, just what is the ticket?!
Last, I recently bought an Oddyssey Phantom jerk/glider in natural walleye. Doesn't seem to do much for me, action-wise. What is the best leader for that guy, and how do I present it?
Thanks again. | |
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Posts: 5874
| Not trolling fast, somewhere around 2.2 to 2.9. I raised a nice fish on Pewaukee with the Extreme One 2 weeks ago, just slowly reeling in a 8" Jointed Perch Believer. Fish came up from below, and made a good run at it. I think my success the last 2 weeks was the fact that the water tewmps finally got below 50, and were 39 or so. I think now until ice up really makes em put on the feed bag. Windows are short, and I'm now hearing that there may be several windows in a day. Will test that theory out after gun season. | |
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| Ranger
Real pros like Doug Johnson and Dick Pearson probably laugh if they ever read advice like this, but here is the opinion of one weekend warrior - since you asked.
I'm a caster, so can't speak for trolling techniques. In bitter cold water, you'll contact fish by fishing steep breaks. By this, I mean fast tapering shorelines or fast breaking weed walls. The fish can be positioned near shore, or right off the deep weed edge, or out a full two or three cast from these structures. The key seems to be deep water and a fast break. Keep your boat deep and cast, cast, cast. Know that you're doing the right thing, even if you don't see a fish for an hour or two, 'cause on your next cast a big brown flash will appear near where your bait should be and you'll suddenly be locked up with one.
On sunny days, fish in these areas seem to rise up higher off the bottom and are active. I've caught lots of nice fish in sub 40 degree water, out over 22 -24 ft. (throwing towards the 15 ft. deep weed wall) while twitching big Jakes or the large Phantom that are running only 3 or 4 ft. down. Use large flash type baits (silver prism) when the sun is high in the sky, and switch to Firetiger when the sun is obscured or is low in the sky. A big flash bait on a bright, cold blue-bird day can be deadly. It's counter-productive when the conditions darken.
On cloudy days, fish in these areas seem to go deeper. Deep diving baits, or the large Bulldawgs seem more productive. I use white and Firetiger alot under dark, cloudy conditions. These conditions seem better for numbers, but it seems all my biggest fish have come under sunny conditions.
A few random thoughts. Steep breaking points, deep weed points, but especially steep breaking inside turns are great in super cold water. Windy spots can be good, but don't seem necessary this time of year. Also, for some reason, I get way more fish in a figure 8 now, so be on the look out every cast. Finally, the colder the water (closer to freezing) the deeper and less structure oriented my fish seem to be.
Lots of magazine articles by pros doing different stuff right now (vertical jigging Fuzzy Duzzits, etc.) and others on this board are on a shallow bite, but this works for me year in and year out. Sounds like you've lost some confidence though. Suggest you pick a technique and stay with it until you have some success. Any of these techniques will eventually payoff.
BrianF.
Twin Cities | |
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | I second the deep/steep breaking inside turns in cold water.
good sucker spots.
Cory
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