Shallow water active Saugeye crumbs n' tidbits

[Raybob]

Dog-day 2-day, 18 hour total, "chopped-shad" test... 6-26/27 w/water temps @ 85-86 degrees......

I picked one location for this 2 day test that took place on a Sunday & Monday in a very high traffic WOT area between 10:30 am to 9 pm ... (nearly constant 2' slam waves from all directions, most on Sunday)

-small .15 mile elongated hardbottom hump that was 3.4 - 3.9' topside with breaks to 5.5' @ 2.9 to 3.5 sog......

- lures used shortlined-flat in matched pairs w/colors F tiger & chrome shades at 4.5' on the surroundin' b-line ... Shadrap's - Ripshad's - Smoo's - Wallydiver's - D. Lil' ripper's......

All had nearly equal run time & all pairs were run 3x ...

"Smoo" hand-painted fire tiger was the hands-down winner w/speed of 3.1 to 3.3 sog for this test for numbers & size ~ Shadrap was number two placer...

I didn't run any SSR7's for this test because I didn't leave out anymore line than 35' w/rod tips 4' off the water surface & 15' apart with heavy traffic..... probably 75-80 percent dinks under 16"es with 27 eater-size (16") & up for two days of trollin' ~ that's a very poor ave of less than two eater-size per hour but probably the only day-bite game in town that I have found...

-tense hard wave-slammin' work & a lotta noise too!

Just had to get this outta my system cuz I know the (day-bite) eyes are eatin' chopped shad as safely as possible (No-Gals) ~ back to my BOD & nite-bite sUMo chase

[Raybob]

oldie but goodie...

Bebob's Tap n' Glide Pull

I like to do a tap n' glide pull for scattered Eyes on uniform flats at times to trigger a 'put-down bite outta pressured Eyes from other boats on the flat --

It's usually a 2.7-3.0 sog pull with the lures/SSR7's or R-traps back till they start to dig bottom & bring back in 5' to clear the bottom on a straight-line pull, Remember the LC count for resets. I then run the flat by workin' the wheel back & forth with a double/tripple bottom rod tap between alternate wheel turns & you control the lure speed with the wheel for what triggers them ... does a good job on fickle feeders.....

[Raybob]

Dog-Day deeper slot pull for whatever...

I usually run a 3-4 mile dredge slot down the center with a pair of inline PBs used like big boards on one pair of LCs & attach my G'kid's fishin' lines to the vacant rear PB OS black clip as my release... great for GKids cuz they can crank in Crappie/WBs/Eyez/whatever w/o PB removal hassels. I usually fix them up with 3 jig/t-tails 18" apart on each line & "S" the boat down the centerline of the slot which raises n' lowers/speeds up n' slows down the jigs. The Gkids can use there favorite rods with this setup rather than the no-fun killer size LC rods. Easy to setup - just put out their jigs -fasten their line to the PB black clip -leave the PBs out to 20-30' w/the LCs... the kids catch on quick & it's hassel free for them to mess around in the boat w/water fights n' etc between bites on a summer dog-day pull...

I've never posted this before & think I gave you the general idea of my GKid MO & maybe you can twist this setup into something that will work for you...

[Raybob]

Toad said ...
With GPS getting better and mapping getting better, boat control plays an important role.



I like to call up named plotted trails to pull...

New named Trail Creation --

I'll usually sweep the boat back & forth on the 1st pass & use drop icons @ .15 mile zoom on the trail target ~ I'll refine the trail with several more pull passes & drop icons till I'm happy with a good pull by followin' drop icons ~ then when I'm ready for a named trail I will clear the trail function of the mess at my trail start point & follow my icon trail path to the other end & then stop & Name the trail - Save it on the backup chip - Create a waypoint with the same name as the trail - clear the drop icons ... Also, I don't like to run the noisy fish-spookin' recorder except when plottin' & I rely totally on my saved GPS data for my style of fishin' n' pullin'...

works great for breaks - pull paths through stump fields & etc... I retired from markin' thousands of stumps & found this to be much better... I also mark every Eye over 7 pounds ~ I spend time in the winter months goin' over new collected plot data to make/upgrade seasonal maps for - eater pulls - sUMo pulls - nite pulls & etc by quadrant of IL... I luv data & havin' the odds in my favor w/o re-inventin' the wheel every year or relying on my drifty old memory...

[Raybob]

Wow, what mapping chips are you using Ray? Are you using the Mapcreate at all?


I just use a pair of SanDisk chips & make full use of the lowrance functions ~ both GMD6 & MC6 are useful tools/aids on the PC for data massage, but I'm just a old naval 'hack for the most part ... I do have MC6/EZ on one chip for the lake outline, the 70 islands & miles n' miles of channels, but it isn't accurate enough to go by after dark or in the fog...

[Raybob]

Yeppers -been doin' it for a long time & it's startin' to get old cuz I-fishin' for Gals is way too easy if you put your mind to it... I'm gettin' old & have other new interests in life that interest me more-so it seems, besides I don't like to eat fish & hate killin'/cleanin' them for others. I think I enjoyed map makin' details n' plottin' the under-water world more so than rod-bendin' last year. When I look out at the main lake I see a much more complex under-water world of structure than what I can view of dry land structures from my fishin' shack ~ while many other fishermen see a vast amount of water & know a couple of humps........

-heheh... I got bored in the middle of a I-slam last May after about a hundred landed & tried a Bass twist with surface lures/ETM slow-pulled along the pad-lines w/rod-pump & still had a nearly 50/50 split between Bass/Eyes -lol

Hay ~ whatever floats your Boat!!!

[Raybob]

-food for thought from a True Ohio I-Guy

here's a post from a couple of years ago by another central ohio I-Guy that says alot if you read between the lines somewhat ~ if you get the drift--


-Slameye on Saugeye!

Don't drift. Saugeye will hold on very SPECIFIC structure (wood,
rock piles, incline, decline, etc..) If you are drifting, your bait
is not going to be on the spot. Work the point with your electric
motor. Learn where the rocks are, or where the inside turn of a
point is. Don't fish blind or by happenstance. Once you know where
on a point you need to be you can go back in and work only the areas
that will hold fish. It will increase your catch rate tremendously.

On a different note.

I have noticed a lot of "where are they" questions. Guys, you need
to spend some more time learning the lake. You could probably catch
fish on just about every point on Alum. No one can give you an exact
location anyway because they would be gone the next day anyway. I
fished Alum when I first got a boat, and the first 2 years I probably
caught 12 saugeye. Two of many reasons for this.

1. I drfited
2. I did not try to learn the bottom of the lake.

Once I started looking at the lake, studing the bottom, making notes
of where a drop off was on a point, etc.. my catches went way up.
When I knew where the structure was, I could use my trolling motor
and put my bait in the zone 100% of the time instead of drifting
through it for a couple minutes. I used to give exact locations,
until I saw guys that putting 8" saugeye in their wells. Guys I knew
were members of this site, and got the info from me. I will help
anyone with how, or when, or what, but not EXACTLY where. A lot of
these guys will help point you in the right direction, but it is up
to you to do the dirty work, we all have. Guys give depths, baits,
colors, even general vicinity, Terry even posts water Temp from top
to bottom, that should be good enough to get you started. PLEASE
don't take this the wrong way, I am not trying to bash anyone, just
trying to be helpful. We all love to help out other guys, but that
person has to be willing to learn. Ask all the questions you want!!
We would all love to answer them. I wish this site was around when I
started fishing, would have made me a better fisherman about a
thousand times faster.

Slameye

[Raybob]

Myself, I like to pull from 3.7 to 4.5 sog 'lure-speed for a eater-size(17-20") Hot-bite I-Slam in the daytime...

[Raybob]

Quote ~ Never caught a walleye over 4mph


heheh ~ I'm the slow-poke pullin' cranks for larger Eyez in the midst of a Slam-bite amoung the local weekday regulars who 'Zip by me wakin' it @ 8-10 sog while pullin' mostly blades n' metal for many dinks under 16"es & few eaters...

I kinda think the streamlined mean-a$$ aggressive Saugeye has one up on W-eyez when they have the feedbag on out in open water on the hump tops in 3.5-4 fow... but the next day they could be scattered out in the pads bushwhackin' to fill there bellies -or- get the daylite lockjaw bug ~ krazy toothy critters to pattern compared to W-eyez cuz they play bass games to go along with eye games n' you have to follow there lead to score well.

PS ... Ohio Muskie guys pullin' huge cranks at warp speed crank more than a few sUMo Saugeye!

[Raybob]

Quote ~ cranks starting to spin out


-the Rapala SSR7 is good to > 5 sog, 1/4-1/2 oz R-Traps to > 8 sog at the bottom is the tune-me n' tune-me RR lineup w/zero run depth accuracy at < 3 sog, except for the better trackin' RR R-sticks.

lots of stick baits will handle the warp-drive pull too but catch too many dinks & white bass compared to a wide body lure like my 2 favs above...