powerdive

luv2fish, what kind of rod 'n' reel were you using? Leadcore is very clunky. It tends to kink up if you're not careful. Set your spool tension to allow the line to exit the reel smoothly when letting out, but you'll still have to watch for overruns and hangups (catching on the guides). Never reel in slack--you need to keep pressure on the line, either with the weight of the lure/fish, or by running it thru your fingers, just like braid. Trolling rods have larger guides--that helps a lot. Core kinks easily--it's just the way it is. Keep an eye out for kinks and smooth 'em right away. Your leadcore should last a full season, maybe two, barring losses to snags. If you use a ball-bearing swivel to connect your leadcore to your mono/braid/fluoro leader, that'll help. Of course, your leader will need to be shorter than your rod length if you do, to prevent guide damage and enable netting. Tie the lines together without a swivel, and you can reel thru the guides and have a longer leader, but you lose flexibility/twist reduction. I use BPS Magibraid leadcore also.They're all about the same. Nobody LIKES leadcore. But it freakin' WORKS, doesn't it?

I've caught quite a few flatheads while trolling or jigging, but have released every one. Not so long ago Martin laid some trotline fillets on me, and I have to say, it was the finest freshwater fish I've ever eaten, bar none. Some walleyes or crappies may just go free next time a flattie shows up!

Leadcore is amazing...so incredibly precise once you understand its properties. It's very speed dependent, so it can give your lure some vertical swim on demand (by speeding up or slowing down your troll, sweeping or dropping back your rod tip, pulling in or letting out line). It follows your trolling path more precisely than flatlines, and once you get the hang of it, you can put any lure at any depth and adjust at will to account for depth changes, swim over brushpiles, strain different parts of the water column, etc. Its only drawbacks are that it's heavy and clunky, and requires bigger gear. (Small fish aren't much fun.) Normal lure dive depths are figured on 10-lb. mono, per the manufacturer or as listed in the Precision Trolling system published by Steven Holt and Mark Romanack. After awhile, though, you can pretty much just ballpark it. Most of us use line counter reels, but because core is color-metered, you can do just fine without the counter mechanisms--just count colors. The key is to always know how much line/how many colors you have out (like RM did), so when you catch a fish you can repeat it. Most of the time, you do have to decide what relative depth you want to run your lures at, esp. if targeting suspended fish. But if you let line out until your lure scrapes bottom at trolling speed, then pull a little line back in, you can run any contour pretty effectively, adjusting on the fly by letting out more line as the water gets deeper, or cranking line in to account for shallower water. At 2 mph you're moving 3' per second. So if you troll over a brushpile with 90' of line out, it'll take about 30 seconds for your lure to get there. Let's say your lure is running 2' off bottom, and you want to run your lure just over the top of that brush you just went over. Best approach is to simply speed the boat up to say 3.5 mph for about 30 seconds. Your line will respond by bellying and rising in the water column, pulling your lure up with it. Bam! Fish darts up outta the pile to whack the lure going overhead. Otherwise, just slow back down to normal trolling speed, and the line and lure will settle back smoothly. It takes a few trips to get comfortable with core, but no other system works quite like that. Definitely worthwhile for trollers.

Unfortunately, though, it looks like I'm gonna have to take up bass fishing due to work requirements...probably not the most terrible thing in the world, but I've got a lot of catching up to do.

That is some top-quality, super-helpful information, and I thank you, Bill, for your willingness to provide it. As you recall I don't fish bass, but knowing what other predators are doing helps me target the walleyes a little better. Again, thanks!

Crappies????

DB,if I may ask, were you fishing points or bluffs? Thanks.

Eyeman, wait a couple years and Devils Lake will probably come to you!

If it has to be, I like zarraspook's "safety pin" solution rather than defacing the fish.

Nice report. The crappie are bigger than the bass around here.

I'm surprised some of the "plastic fishermen" on Table Rock haven't picked up on this for their Carolina rigging...

I understand the reasoning, but not necessarily the reason. When 2 or 3 people fish together they usually function as a team, and divide up the fish they keep between them at the end of the day, within their limits. If you have 3 valid licenses onboard, and 3 people actively fishing, you should be able to put 3 limits in the well, no questions asked, rather than penalizing people who may not be as proficient as their partner, and vice versa. How many fish do guides catch for their clients? Of course, if someone dies in the boat while fishing, then you've got a REAL Conservation problem with marked fish. Sorry, I think it's unnecessary governmental bullheadedness. Obviously, I'm a deviant antisocial scofflaw criminal.

Fishbait3, any weighting system will work. The key is the angled hook; when rigged properly, the half-crawler spins or wobbles slowly, increasing the attraction over a straight-pull rig. The original method up in the Dakotas was to use a 3'-5' mono leader ending with a single bead ahead of a gold or red #2 Tru-Turn hook, and thread the half-crawler on past the hook eye, leaving about an inch of tail wagging behind the hook bend. Done right, the crawler wobbled like a crankbait coming slowly through the water behind the bottom bouncer. Picking up on this, Mustad now offers a special Slow Death Hook for making your own rigs; it actually does a slow spin when on the move at 0.5 to 1.5 mph (trolling motor speed). Bass Pro carries the hooks in the Springfield store; here's a look: http://www.basspro.com/Mustad-Slow-Death-Walleye-Hooks/product/10202663/-1572285 Hope that helps.

Zac, your old rigging will work fine. Spinner blades will work fine. A jig will work fine. Anything you can get into 15-20 feet of water with a crawler on it will work fine. If you can't slow down enough, troll deep cranks and hang an inch of crawler off the front belly hook. It'll...you guessed it, work fine. Evidently, judging by the size of the walleyes being caught, the recent high water years have resulted in successful natural spawns. We don't have the size gaps that usually occur due to the every-other-year stocking schedule. Lots of fish in the lake right now, and they're eating.

Awesome report, BrianS. Very nice of you--and congrats on your win.

Wow, I haven't heard anyone talk about catching "Walters" since I left Wisconsin 13 years ago! I guess not too many folks around here are on a first-name basis with the walleyes--and that's OK with me.....

Feels good when you "earn" one, though. Kudos to you for toughing it out, rps.

What the heck. I'll try 6.63. Thanks!

Impressive! Well done.

Nice work, great info--thanks!

I generally toss stickbaits on the steep rocky bluffs between Swan and Johnson Hole at night during the cold water period. While I've caught some very nice eyes that way, I've wondered about zipping straight across to the sandy, shallower shoreline flats opposite the channel bluffs. Don't see why there wouldn't be fish cruising those areas also, but I've never actually tried it. I've never seen another boat in those areas, either. Has anybody ever had any luck on the shallow sides?

CA, stay away from my walleye, y'hear? And start keeping those green fish--there's way too many of 'em in these lakes! All in good fun. You've been here long enough to know how it all works, so obviously you were being unseriously sarcastic. Or sarcastically unserious. Anyway, good luck out there--and I'll be sure to post up if ever Fortune decides to smile upon me.

Cajun, geez, we're just yanking yer chain a little. This site has had well over 100,000 posts, but probably has had views in the tens of millions. It's the way it is. Only a certain percentage of people who read forum posts are going to respond. Only a certain percentage of fishermen share your interest. Only a certain percentage of those will have something they wish to announce to the world. There are thousands of lurkers who have never posted once. Ask yourself: if you don't do well out there, do you post a report? I usually don't, and I suspect I'm part of a vast majority in that regard. Entertainment takes many forms, my friend. I don't think this is about closed-mouth selfishness at all. By the way, good job out there.

Sorry, cajunangler, but "Weekend Fishing Report" is a rather nebulous topic. If you'd mentioned it was about bass fishing, I wouldn't have read it. But I did, and I have nothing to contribute, as green fish don't interest me.

Packersooner, best price I've found on Special Mates (be sure to get the 8" deep crankbait model if you buy one) is from Jackson Lures: http://www.jacksonlures.com/ Best price going on Reef Runners (they seem to be on permanent close-out) is at Reelbait: http://www.reelbait.com/ Speed supposedly does not affect the dive curves for unweighted lures. Amount of line out does. (That's why line counter reels are so great to have.) Yes, a 2-oz. snap weight will give you double the depth addition that a 1-oz. weight will, given the same speed and lure. I'm not familiar with the 33% formula, though. Leadcore is considered a weighted system also, so speed is crucial. Most benchmarks for leadcore are based on 2.0 mph. Using the same lure, if you go faster, you'll need to let out more lead to reach the same depth; go slower, and you'll need less lead out. I generally catch more fish on leadcore than on flatlines. Don't know why, other than the fact that turns and speed changes create vertical swim (the lure will rise or fall in response to the boat movement), which may sometimes be a trigger. Also, flatlines tend to "shortcut" or flare out on turns, while leadcore follows the boat's path more precisely.