Bottom Bouncing For Walleye

[Ham]

So having caught some accidental walleye and few more targeted walleye, I'm starting to slip down the slope of fishing for them more as the target species.

I did manage a few keepers and my wife wants me to bring more home for supper.

I have a few bottom bouncers. How many do you need? Are they frequently hung up and lost?

We talked about weight of the B/B on another thread and I have purchased 1 oz and 1 1/2 oz. I'm thinking about 2 oz as well.

Is this mostly a live bait deal or would rapalas/rouges work also?

What about berkley gulp stuff like the worms, minnows, and leeches? Any chance that will work for the walleye?

Do you guys make your own trolling set ups (blades and beads)? It seems like I need somewhere between a #2, #4, and #6 hook depending on type bait used.

Blades in the 2,3,4 range?

on mono or fluro in 12-17 lb line?

How often do you use the floats built into the harness to keep the bait up.

Basically 3 to 4 foot long finished length?

I've got rod holders on the boat already.

I've got some medium action softer taper rods that I was planning on using.

What pound test line is a good starting pointto troll with? Braid or mono?

Please feel free to comment on any or all of this and add to anything I'm overlooking.

[rps]

There are others who know more than I but I can start and let the experts correct and add.

I tie my own bottom rigs. One variety is the traditional spinner - #3 colorado or indiana blade, beads and floats, snelled onto #4 front and #6 back octapus hooks. My leader is 15# Yozuri, 3 to 4 feet long, and tied off on a swivel. I hook the hooks in a piece of a foam swimming noodle and wrap the leader until I can put a small nail through the swivel into the foam.

I use gulp worms and leaches simply because I always forget to buy night crawlers. I bought one quart and now add other types to the mix - there is plenty of room.

My BB rod is the same 7' medium power rod I use to troll hard baits and is wound with 10# Power Pro green.

Two variations:

1. Tie several 6' leaders with a single hook, one bead ,one float, and no blades. Use these with the gulp leaches or floating short worms. Go a little slower than you would with a crawler harness.

2. Tie several slow death rigs. (Google it) Fish these very slow.

Good luck.

[Martin]

Ham, I use mostly 2 oz bouncers but I know people that start fishing shallower and they use 1 1/2 oz bouncers from say, 10 to 17 feet of water. I finally realized that I need to keep it as simple as possible, so I just bought a bunch of 2 ozer's and they work fine for me all the way to about 30 deep. I do have a few 3 oz bouncers I use up front if I have others fishing bouncers farther back in the boat. Helps keep tangles down with my rig more vertical. You hit the nail on the head for tying spinner rigs. Most guys use floro in about 14 to 17 pound test. Spinners seems to work better on the stiffer line. I use superline on my reel. I use 15 lb test Fireline BRAID or Power Pro, any of those high strength, low strecth lines are fine. You will lose a bouncer once in awhile, but it's usually the spinner (harness) that gets hung up. I use # 3 and # 4 blades. Indiana or colorado is fine. I also use # 4 hooks (keeping it simple) and tie 2 hook rigs and some 3 hook rigs. I rarely add a float but I've recently started using some BPS "body spacers" instead of multiple beads. The spacers float and I caught several eyes with those rigs at Bull Shoals last week. The rod you mentioned sounds fine.

I haven't used any Gulp or Gulp Alive, but guys I know say they work "sometimes". It's hard to beat a big, fat, live nightcrawler.

The main thing to remember is to get the boat moving with your electric trolling motor before you let this rig down. The idea is to get close to the bottom but not dragging on the bottom. 1 mph is usually about right for me. Anywhere from .8 to 1.2 mph is kind of the speed range that works for me. It takes awhile to get used to trying to keep the boat at a fairly exact depth, while maintaining exact speed, and letting out the exact amount of line. lol. You are constantly adjusting line length.

Hope this helps.