WHERE TO FIND THE SPRING HOGS

[lobo]

Question for you more experienced walleye guys. In the spring, 1st or 2nd week of June, we usually fly somewhere north of Pickle Lk or Red Lk. The fishing is always terrific for numbers of smaller male walleyes. Most of the time the small males are stacked by the thousands any where near river/stream mouths. The question is where would you target the larger females ? Are they the fish we mark in the deeper waters ? do they come in the river after the males or have they already been ? Any tips would be appreciated.

thanks

lobo

[WAeyes]

I would assume that in June, the females have moved out of the feeder spawning inlets and are moving into their deeper summer hangouts. Although just to make sure, I would try shallow at night near mouths of inlets. I catch alot of fish in these areas. Good Luck

[lobo]

If you were jigging a spot where you were catching dozens of 13-18" fish would you continue to fish that spot with hopes of a bigger fish or move on to maybe deeper water and/or try a diff strategy (trolling structure, casting shad raps at drop offs etc) ??

lobo

[JR1]

It depends on what you want. If you are content for action, then stay their, but if you want a trophy move. You have to remember that targeting big fish, in the most cases, will reduce your catch rate. Another point is if the system that you are fishing on does not have a strong population of big fish, I would stay there and catch those fish all day. There are many other points to consider. who are you fishing with? will they like to spend alot of time without catching fish? Hope this helps. For myself I would search for the big fish.

[eyedoktr]

If you are catching alot of smaller fish, the odds of catching a "hog" in the same spot are slim. Walleye tend to school by size. I'm not saying you can't find different size fish in the same school, it's just not too common to have dinks and "hogs" together.

[lobo]

WAeyes,

I can't seem to get anything to post here as a response; we'll try it again.
If you're catching dozens of walleyes jigging near an inlet but there all fairly small (good eaters) would you move and try other techniques or stay and hope the larger bite is coming ?


Steve

[WAeyes]

If you can't catch bigger fish using bigger baits at night, then I would make short moves until you locate bigger fish. If there is "thousands" of walleyes near this inlet, as you say, I would bet there is plenty of forage in the area so I would guess the bigger fish are close by but they will be harder to catch. They didn't get to be bigger fish by accident. Try different techniques with larger baits to locate them, then when you catch one, set up camp and figure out exactly what they want. Night time is the right time for those bigger fish. They seem to lose their inhibitions at night. Good Luck

[terry]

I would get a map if possible and troll around (not fishing) and just check depths and structure in the same general area. Its true that schools are made up of fish generally the same size but something is initially attracting fish to that area. The larger fish may just be more sensitive to depth and structure. I fish an area similar to what you describe but 75' away there is a rock pile no bigger than a small compact car that consistantly holds large fish.

[lobo]

Thanks guys,

It's always been hard to leave the "honey holes" but I guess we'll have to do what you say- bigger baits, move out gradually, and try the night bite. The nite part will be difficult at best - where we went last year the honey hole was 14-15 miles from camp - depending on this years water we may have to skip the night thing.

Generally where we go it is either the first or second year of a camp and believe me it's not fishing - it's catching (that's why I'm asking about fishing). 100+ fish days per man are common and last year we had one string where there were 17 fish on 17 casts (I'd say they are pretty thick !!) I'm only describing this because I want a little help in finding the bigger fish and I thank you guys again.

One last bit of info for any others that may reply - these lakes are generally stained water with a max depth of 40'.

thanks again,

Steve