fishing bottom bouncers

[Swan]

What is the proper way to fish a bottom bouncer....I'll be fishing a deep clear water Canadaian lake...I know there are walleye in there...but just can't seem to find them during the day...lake is very deep...any suggestions? Trolling what? Rapalas? spoons? Any help is appreciated

[steve]

I caught them in erie by driftfishing. I'd let them go all the way to the bottom and then reel up 4-6 cranks. Didn't get great numbers off of it, but did pretty well. Just used a firetiger worm harness with about five feet of liter off of the bouncer

[Fin Addict]

What do you mean by very deep? 50', 100' and what type of bottom are we talking about. I am assuming a hard bottom w/ lots of rock but are there large flat areas or is it lots of humps? The simple answer on a lake like this is to sleep during the high daylight hours and fish at night or go after other species in the daylight hours. Look for deep water near long slow tapering flats and points. It should hold fish during the day. On clear or calm days I would use a slow very neutral presentation for day fishing such a lake 10-12' light fluorocarbon leaders with a leech or crawler on a red hook w/ no beads or maybe a single bead presented w/ a very slow drift. Use socks or electric to keep it slow. If the fish are more active pick up the pace and add more flash to your rigs. Smaller more natural colored cranks have been better for me in these situations during the day. Heddon Sonars can be deadly in deep water for active fish. The key to using a bottom bouncer is to use enough weight to get the rig on the bottom w/ no more than a 45 degree swing or you will be hung up all the time. Be sure your rod is heavy enough to handle heavier rigs. Run the lake and look for fish on your graph. If they are suspending use approriate cranks and techniques to put baits just above the fish. Long set backs and lighter line will be a plus in clearer water. Best suggestion would be to hire a guide the 1st day and pay attention, then do what he did during the rest of your trip.

[Big Bottom Bouncer]

Read the "BIBLE" of walleye fishing - "Walleye Wisdom", Al Lindner, it cost around $6.00 at most book stores.

Stucture - Structure - Structure - per Lindner

Lindner quotes -" 90% of the water doesnt contain fish."

Good Luck! I'll be up in Ontario the last week of July.

[Juls_WI]

A good way to fish bottom bouncers is to keep the line at a 45 degree angle. How fast your moving will determine the size weight you need to get your bait down, and keep the line at the desired angle. Once you hit bottom, keep in contact by "bouncing" the weight off the bottom.

Use harnesses, or Rapala's to entice your fish.
The fish will tell you what they want. You just have to be listening! Pay attention to the little details. Speed for instance...did you speed up? Did you slow down when the fish hit? Things like that. Try one with a harness and one with a lure at the same time. It's pretty easy to work two rods at the same time (while holding them).
You can also run them off of in-line planer boards. Try setting one out on a board while you work the other on the inside. The one on the board will run at a set depth, while the one on the inside, your holding, can be kept in contact with the bottom.
My partner and I have run three on each side, by setting the outside board with a 1oz bottom bouncer, the middle one with a 2oz BB and the inside one (not on a board) with a 3oz BB. This way we can cover more depths.
It's a fun way to fish!!

Let us know how it works out for you!

Good Luck!

Juls

[Eyez]

Bouncers are most often fished with either a spinner with a 2-4 foot snell or a plain snell of any length, or some combination of hardware that fits somewhere in between those two descriptions. Just about anything you would fish a slip sinker with will work on a bouncer. Bouncers excel in snags, especially rocks. The "correct" way to fish a bouncer is to let out line, fairly slowly until it hits the bottom, then reel up one or two cranks so that it is just barely dragging or is just off the bottom, So that you can drop the rod tip back and feel it "thump" the bottom. Most people fish bouncers with too much line out, and they tend to drag sideways, and are quite snag prone. When fishing spinners, it's important to make sure you don't have too much line out also, because spinners sink, and part of the function of a bouncer is to hold the spinner slightly off the bottom, to keep it from snagging or fouling with bottom vegetation.

Typically when you get a strike while fishing a bouncer, you just need to drop the rod tip back for a few seconds for the fish to inhale the bait, and then set the hook. Unless you're using a sliding bouncer, dropping the line and freespooling is pointless, and when fishing bouncers, you would probably be fishing faster than you would with a lindy rig, and bites are a bit more agressive.

You can run original raps or other stickbaits behind bouncers, as long as you use a pretty short snell (1-3 feet). Any longer than that and the plug will bang bottom constantly and snag up.

I could write a whole book, but this is already pretty darn long :) email me if you have any other questions.


Eyez
Eyez@dotplanet.com

[Swan]

Lake drops off deep pretty rapidly...down to 90 & 150 ft deep almost 200 at some points. There are a lot of cliffs with deep drop offs...some sunken islands. There is sand bottom & granite bottom. I have caught lake trout but never walleye during the day or over the open water areas in the lake...there is a lot of ground to cover in open water. I will try some of these tactics...I am determined to catch walleye this year using a method different than a lindy rig tipped w/a leech! Keep your suggestions coming! Thanks & tight lines to all who read this!

[Gunga Din]

>My partner and I have run three on each side, by
>setting the outside board with a 1oz bottom bouncer, the
>middle one with a 2oz BB and the inside one
>(not on a board) with a 3oz BB. This
>way we can cover more depths.

Juls--mind if I probe a bit? What baits do you typically run? Cranks on the lighter BBs? Spinners/crawler harnesses on the heavier ones? What cranks? Shallow diving Shad Raps or shallow Rapala minnows?

I tend to lose cranks when pulling them behind BBs. Also, I typically pull cranks faster than crawler harnesses (cranks 1.8/spinners <1). Can you help me put all this together?

Thanks!!!

[Juls_WI]

We pull all crawler harnesses when we do this. We also use different blades and bead colors to see what's working best.

Juls

[Gunga Din]

So you let out the same amt of line on each board, letting the weight of the BB determine the depth? How much line do you typically have between board and bait? 50'?

Sorry if I'm being a pest--just want to know how "the master" does it! :) Email me if you'd rather, Dennis@Climbing-Guides.com. Thanks.

[Go_Fish]

Swan,

As has been mentioned earlier, structure is the key. As a start, you could fish in the same areas that you have caught lake trout in, just fish shallower, that is if the structure permits. It is also a really good idea to have a clue as to the depth of the thermocline in the lake. As with most lakes this is well established in the summer months and fishing where the top of this thermocline meets structure running into a deep basin is usually a good place to start. As for fishing 3-ways, I have found that fishing a short line, and using braided line when fishing deep waters is a good combination. The braided line has a smaller diameter, and less stretch compared to mono, which allows you to feel the bottom better. Hope this helps...

Good Luck

Go_Fish

[Juls_WI]

Never A Bother!!!

I'm not exactly sure how my partner is doing his side ( I think we are doing it the same?), but on my side of the boat, I'm letting the line out until the bottom bouncer hits bottom ONCE, then putting a board on. The lighter weights of the 1 and 2oz BB's will raise the baits higher off the bottom. (The faster you go, the higher it rides).
If you were to let it hit bottom, then let more line out, till it was basically dragging...it would defeat the purpose of trying to run the baits at different depths. The weight of the bouncer, and the speed we are going, determine the depth.
The only way I can repeat this after catching a fish, is to note the amount of line out when I put the board on the first time.
There is not set amount of line I start with...the depth we are fishing, at the time we first start our troll, is what determines how much line I put out.
Of course if we move to another area with a different depth...I start all over!

Hope this helps some and if anyone has any input to help us more...please do! We all have to keep learning, or what fun is it?

Juls