YAKFM

Sweet ride, J-Doc.

Congratulations on your new boat, J-Doc. Thanks for sharing the screen shots of your graph too.

Cool stuff, F&F. Thanks for sharing. I see that Dr Aggus was involved in the construction of the report. I always enjoy talking with him when I am at Southtown.

Nice report and congrats on the eaters. Your experience was similar to ours. I am thankful I was in a boat and not a kayak last night. There is usually a good supply of crazy/stupid on the water during summer weekends but the full moon seemed to really draw them out yesterday.

Given the cigarette boat that cut between us and the point, the dozens of pleasure craft that came within jigging spoon casting distance, the wake that washed over the back of the boat, and the high wire act that you executed in the front of the boat as a nice set of rollers nearly sent you lake bound, its a wonder we were able to do as well as we did. Despite the boat craziness it was a great time on the water and we came home with some nice table fare.

Thank you for the updates, KJackson. Any idea on when this product will be available for purchase? I'm a sucker for jigging spoons too.

Thank you for the feedback on your experience with lead core in trees, KJackson. The only time I have fished spinnerbaits in walleye waters was on Rainy Lake on the MN/Canadian border. I was throwing 1/2 spinnerbaits around main lake reefs fishing for smallmouths. We would occasionally pick up nice eyes and they would hammer them. Yes, please post the results of your efforts.

I do. Its not ideal for a one person setup, but like most kayak applications it is a compromise. Yesterday I fished two 6'6" rods with the fluoro/snap weight system. When the snap is within 6-7' feet of the rod tip I quickly move my hand from the rod handle up the rod towards the eye closest to the reel. At the same time I point the rod away from the fish so the line comes close enough that I can reach with my free hand and quickly (hopefully) remove the snap weight. Fortunately, the walleyes are generally pretty worn out by the time I have reeled them in from 100+ feet back, so they don't fight much when they get close to the kayak. It worked great yesterday and hasn't cost me a fish yet, but may at some point. In July and August I will use lead core more frequently, particularly in open water when fishing away from trees and brush.

Green, with 100 ft + of fluoro out and non-factory hooks the #6 Flicker slowly sinks for me once it is down in the water column. I first discovered this while stopping a troll to reel in a fish a while back. The rod that I did not have a fish on was sitting in the holder with slack line. I had been fishing over brush 25 feet down and I was catching fish suspended above the brush. After releasing the fish I started to make another trolling pass and the #6 Flicker that was sitting idle was now dragging the bottom in 25 ft. Once I got back up to speed the lure came up in the water column. This happened several more times that day, once hanging into a brush pile that wasn't more than a few feet off the bottom in 25 FOW. I didn't make contact with any of the structure while trolling, the structure contact only came after sitting idle for 30 seconds or more.

All of the fish were caught trolling.

20 feet. I free spool both lines as I am starting to paddle forward. I marked with a sharpie (tip of the cap to F&F) where the 20 foot mark is on each spool. When the 20 foot mark is visible I attach the clip on weight. This is the 20+ method, which is a variation of the 50:50 method from the trolling handbook. In theory, you should expect that at 1.7-2.2 mph your bait should reach 33% deeper with a 1 oz weight than if your lure were straight line trolled. 1.5 oz should be 50% deeper and 2 oz should be 66% deeper. Speed, line (type and diameter), and style of bait can all impact your depth. I calibrated this method for my rig on a long flat that allowed me to probe 15, 20, and 25 foot depth intervals. I estimate that my trolling speed is between 1.5-2.0 mph. Colors were fire tiger and pearl white, with one fish coming on each. I will usually have different colors on the two rods until the fish tell me which ones they want. Last Friday when I was catching the crappie they wanted the baits slow (1 mph or less). Color didn't seem to matter much that day.

I agree, KJackson. Having a motorized boat can be both a blessing and a curse. 20 years ago I was fishing bass tournaments every couple of weekends on Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend in East Texas. At the time I had a 17' Tracker with a 90 hp. It was a good rig, but it wasn't suited for making long runs on 100+ thousand acre reservoirs, particularly when I was competing against guys that were running 20' rigs with 200 hp. I had the lakes broken down in sections and would approach creek arms as though they were lakes within a lake. I would further dissect the creek arms by identifying high percentage fish locations for a given time of year. Once I committed to fishing a creek for the tournament I was staying put. I would often spend several days during prefishing probing the creek with a hookless 20+ crankbait to help locate brush, humps, trees, grass, and fish. This methodical approach helped my partners and I win a number of tournaments that I don't believe we would have been in the money for had we had the luxury of being able to run all over the lake at 70 mph. It would have been too easy to give up on a pattern and just "run and gun". I use the same approach on Beaver with the Kayak, only now I mostly troll rather than cast to probe the depths.

Total Fish: 7 3 walleyes (2 legal-18.25" and 18.5") and 4 spots to 15" Air Temp: Low 90's Water Temp: 81-82 Water Clarity: 5 ft Put in at 12 bridge at 4 pm and fished until 7:30. Pleasure boat traffic was heavy around the islands so I paddled for a couple of miles to a bluff I have had some success fishing in the past. I found the school of fish on the graph suspended 20-25 ft down over 35-40 FOW in a transition area from bluff to flat. One of the legal walleyes came on a #5 Hot-N-Tot with a 1 oz snap weight 20' ahead of the lure. The other bit on a #6 Flicker Shad with a 1 oz snap weight 20' ahead of the lure. Baitfish appeared to be plentiful on the graph and there was some surface activity in the area.

Very nice! Congrats to you and your son.

Sounds like a great time with the kids. I have a 4 year old am looking forward to sharing similar experiences with him. Yes on switching the hooks out on the Flickers.

Excellent report as always F&F. You found the crappie in a similar depth range as I did yesterday. Enjoy your catch this evening.

The sheriff boat was out on the water yesterday afternoon/evening around 12 bridge.

I discovered by accident that the fish wanted the baits slow, even paused briefly, in the 15-20 ft range. I had stopped paddling during a trolling pass to drink some water and had my two crankbaits back 100+ feet behind the kayak as I drifted with the wind. Within 10 seconds of stopping paddling I had a double hookup. My drift speed was probably just over 1 mph. This after not catching any fish while trolling through the school at 2+ mph for 15-20 minutes. 29 of the 31 fish came using this drift/pause method. I would simply paddle to get the baits down to max depth, then drift through the school. I would also turn the kayak from side to side every so often to create a stop and go effect. The other 2 fish came straight line trolling at the end of the day. I used some Bobby G's for a while but the wind made it tough to keep the baits in the strike zone. Every day is a little different. Looking forward to getting out there with you again soon, Green.

Briefly talked with a couple of people at the boat ramp in a pontoon last night that were heading out as I was taking out. I asked if they were going out night fishing. One of the guys replied "more like night drinking". This is one of many reasons that I will not be on Beaver until after the 4th.

I ordered 6 of the Flicker Minnows from FishUSA.com in May. A few weeks ago I received an email notification that the FM would not be available for shipment until August due to "higher than expected demand". At least they will be here for fall fishing. I agree on the pro slick colors.

Total Fish: 31 17 Crappie (12 legal, size range 8-16"), 8 Catfish (~2-5 lbs), 6 walleyes (all short) Air Temp: Low to Mid 80's Water Temp: 80+ Water Clarity: 5-7 ft Wind: Yes Put in at 12 bridge at 2 pm. Paddled for a while and found fish at close to 3:30. Most of the fish were caught between 4-7 pm. All fish came on #6 Flicker Shads and #5 Hot-N-Tots. Boat control was difficult due to high wind. Fish were on the leeward side of a ridge and were stacked in an area half the size of a football field. The fish were suspended throughout the water column. When I moved to water less than 30 feet deep the fish became sparse. Low tech screen shot included. Kept 7 of the legal crappie from 12-16". Beaver Lake PB of 8 catfish. The last catfish I caught was also the largest at ~5 lbs (not pictured). I intended to take him home for dinner, but I had a net malfunction at the side of the kayak. All of the catfish came on cranks and were suspended 15-20 feet down over 30-38 FOW.

Long lining 10 lb Fluoro at 150 Ft back I can reach ~18 FOW with a #7, 16 FOW with a #6, and 14 FOW with a #5 FS at 2-2.5 mph. Of course, you get a little less with mono and a little more with braid. If I want to go 20 FOW or more with long lining I use deeper diving baits-Deep Tail Dancers, Cabelas Walleye Runner, or Reef Runners. Recently started using lead core and snap weights and can easily reach 20 FOW plus with a number #5 FS. It is a bit easier for me to fish lead core and snap weights out of the yak than it is a downrigger.

I've caught several this spring/summer on Flickers while trolling (as F&F stated) and two in one day on a 1/2 oz Sebile Vibrato under schooling bass on a long point near RB. All of them hammered the baits and fought nicely too.

Grand Isle eh? Will be blazing hot in July, but the fishing and food will more than make up for it.

Yes and yes. I added habanero cheese to mine. I am thinking that I may be "ordered" back to the lake very soon.