| | The experience of professional tournament anglers has proven time and time again that trolling crankbaits is a potent tactic for walleye. Lakes or reservoirs, makes no difference when fish are suspended or dispersed along a flat on the bottom.
Here is some advice to improve your trolling success.
First step comes before you reach the water. Check with bait shops, conservation workers and guides to learn exactly what kind of bait fish walleyes are foraging on at the targeted lake. If it’s perch, expect walleyes to be holding near the bottom. If it’s shad or cisco, walleyes may suspend. Collect data on where and how locals are catching fish and use a lake map to scout other potential areas. Use the general rule that walleyes seek feeder rivers or shallows in early spring; mid-depth flats in early summer; deeper flats, ledges or open water areas holding schools of baitfish later in summer; and deeper flats and steeper drop-offs in fall.
Mike Norris, who won second place at the Professional Walleye Trail - Lake Erie tournament in April, advises to fight the urge to start fishing immediately after you launch. Cruise areas at moderate speeds, up to about 20 mph, closely watching your sonar for signs of baitfish or concentrations of walleye. When you see some marks, slow down and determine if it’s merely a small pocket or a larger school of fish. Using this search technique, unproductive water is eliminated fast and you avoid the mistake made by others who fish in spots they think "look good" but where there are actually few or no walleyes at all.
Once baitfish and/or walleyes appear on the graph, make a lure choice to imitate the type of forage in size and color. Be creative - neutral fish may be triggered by a combination of a crankbait/livebait presentation by impaling a nightcrawler on the front treble hook.
The key is to make certain your crankbait is running at the same depth or slightly above the suspended fish. Use the "Precision Trolling " guide, authored by Dr. Steve Holt and Tom Irwin. They used scuba gear and underwater observations to determine dive curves for over 90 of the most popular crankbaits. A simple on the water reference to "Precision Trolling Guide" reveals exactly how much line to let out to achieve the desired depth with the chose bait. They used 10 LB test line, but they include a conversion formula for anglers who use lighter or heavier weight lines. It’s available through Cabela’s or by direct mailing from Sportsman’s Corner Publishing, 2304 Olthoff Drive, Muskegon, Mich., 49444 (616) 773-2696.
Use line counter reels or marked trolling lines like Stren’s Depth Finder line, which is marked every 10 feet or count the passes the line makes on the reel as you let crankbaits back to give the "repeatability" you need to return the baits to the same depth over and over again. Attach crankbaits to the line with snaps and make sure they run in a straight line to avoid twisting. To tune one that runs to the right, bend the eyelet slightly to the left; if it runs to the left, bend the eyelet to the right.
It’s always a good ides to run at least one bait shallow to catch some of the bigger fish. Greg Horoky of Canada will attest to that. After a slow start, he won the PWT tournament at Lake Winnebago this season on shallow running cranks. He began by catching only small fish until he noticed white bass were occasionally slamming his deeper diving crankbaits. From experience on his home lake, Lake Erie, he knew big walleyes sometimes hold near the surface to feed on baitfish wounded by white bass. He started to look specifically for white bass schools and to raise his baits a bit higher. He immediately began catching medium sized walleyes, so he then decided to experiment some more. The biggest fish came when he attached a Mann’s Loudmouth jerkbait that typically runs just 2 feet deep on 10 pound test line. He then went to 15 pound test line to make it run even shallower. He also trolled fairly fast by going 2.2 to 3.0 mph.
Use inline planer boards to cover a wider area of water and to reach fish spooked to the sides by boat noise. Cannon Rovers and Offshore Tackle are both good trolling boards that track well in big waves and handle the bigger baits.
I typically troll with the wind about 90 percent of the time to help maintain a more even speed and better boat control. But, there are times when you should try trolling perpendicular to the wind or even against it - let the fish tell you what they want. A good starting point for speed is 1.5 to 2.0 mph, then adjust if the fish show a preference. Strikes sometimes will come on the outside planer boards on wide turns, signaling that the walleye might prefer a faster speed. If strikes come on the inside boards on turns, you might want to slow down a bit. Try using gentle S-turns to slow down and speed up your baits in order to induce more strikes.
Once the fish is on, there is really no need to jerk back - you could actually pull the hooks out completely or allow some slack line. Just maintain constant, steady pressure as you reel. You’ll boat more big walleyes this way.
Consider trolling crankbaits when you need to cover acres of water for walleyes either suspended or spread out along the bottom. No other method allows you to sift through as much water as thoroughly or as efficiently. |
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