Fall Walleye In The Rock

[rangerman]

I had always done well on three way rigs with a firetiger thunderstick on the James River Arm. Fish the breaks and inside bends described above and pull them at about 1 to 1.2....Trolling wise pearl and pearl with blue back is hard to beat.

[Martin]

The guys have pretty much covered the basic methods. Since I usually fish more then one rod, I stay over on the gravel / rocky points that run way out. RPS has had great success with his tree trolling method, but I believe he uses one rod when doing that. But you can't argue with success, and believe me, this has been a VERY good year for rps... lol

I know pretty much nothing about the James River / Cape Fair, but it sounds like you got some great info from Wesley. If you are taking a novice, I'd go trolling. Bottom Bouncing with live bait takes a little practice to master. Reef Runners are good, but I know some retired guys that swear by a Norman's DD 22.

I think whatever you can get down to the 24 to 32 foot range with. The braid (superlines) like Power Pro are great for trolling due to their small diameter.

In Sept of 2006, we had some unforgetable walleye fishing trolling big crankbaits. My old boat goes about 2.6 to 2.8 mph just idling, which many think is too fast, but I've caught a bunch of fish going that fast. My thinking is that as the water cools off, the slower we should go, but right now, anything goes.

Leadcore line trolling is a good way to get a small crankbait down deep, but it takes some getting used to, not to mention the expense of buying a BIG reel and the leadcore line. Are you familar with leadcore trolling?

[Martin]

I forgot to add, the "flats" from about Point 5 all the way to Point 7 can be good walleye fishing. Good is a relative word here. Tablerock isn't Bull Shoals or Stockton. As my former friend Powerdive says, "It's population dynamics".....There just plain isn't as many walleyes as we'd like to see. Tablerock is a famous bass lake, and rightly so. But if you can get to where you can catch a walleye or 4, on purpose, you can put a feather in your cap... lol....

On those flats: As you learn them by putting around and looking, or actually trolling, look for anomolies like ditch's, high spots, low spots, change of bottom material, brushpiles, etc. Walleyes do A LOT of things similar to bass...They love cover. Ambush spots where they can grab a shad or bluegill, or crawdad....The list goes on. They do like a fast moving crankbait (sometimes)...lol

If you are familar with leadcore trolling, DEFINATELY try that. The ugly bait Powerdive refered to was a Rip Shad made by the same company that makes the Reef Runners....There are 2 sizes of RipShads. I was pulling the bigger one (which isn't very big) on leadcore...Not sure what they call the color, but it was partially clear and it had some chartruese and some red on the throat...(It WAS ugly, but we weren't loading the boat, so I thru that thing out in desperation.

lol...

I guess Powerdive can still be my friend, but he has to buy the gasoline next time...lol

[Martin]

And...Don't forget Rangerman's tips. He and his pops are really good at catching walleyes everywhere they go.

[James32962]

I am used to lead core line.. I fished Lake Lanier for Stripers and we trolled flatlines, Lead core, Umbrela Rigs amd used down rods.. We casted redfins, sammys spooks , flukes or what ever to get them.. The Profile pic was my best a 26 LB. We usually caught one in the "Teens " every time... We also used balloons and planer boards with live bait.. A little different but I will figure it out in time.. We didn't have Walleye in Albama or Georgia much, mostly sauger... Thanks for all the help, I have a small break from work so Will Post around thurs if we do any good...James

[Whack'emGood]

Man, that was awesome. You just asked for advice, and got 3 Table Rock walleye Gurus to reply with good stuff. Way to go guys. This kind of thing is what makes OAF so great... it's cool to see.

Whack'em

[walleyerich]

Take half a crawler, put on a small hook and drag on the bottom.

[Martin]

For those of you that don't know of "walleyerich", he is extremely good at catching eyes in many of our lakes. So now we've probably got james32962 thoroughly confused....lol.....All those things really do work. You just have to get out there and try. Wow, and thanks for the compliments. It's the way this forum operates. Probably unique, but it's the only way in my book.

[walleyerich]

When I started walleye fishing all of the walleye guys I met would give information freely. It is not unusual for a walleye guy to tell you exactly where they have been fishing, what bait has worked the best, etc. Bass guys...not so much. Why is that?

[James32962]

Well Here it goes... Had all intentions to try and catch some walleyes, but the two guys I took wanted to go after crappie... We fished the bridge at Bridgeport and they were huggin the pylons.. Caught 5 keepers and about a gizillion of small bass. We trolled some but got only one short bass.. Looked at my old striper rods and will rig a couple with leadcore.. Thanks so much for all the help..