Fall Walleye

[minnesotawalleyeguy]

Anybody got any tips for gettin some slabs from now til spring? I grew up in Minnesota ice fishing but its different sitting in a climate controlled shanty versus in a boat and my freezer is getting empty so i need to get some to get me through the winter. I'm planning on using my spring fishing tactics but am not sure. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dutch]

Powerdrive is the main walleye guru around here.

[powerdive]

MWG, here's an article I wrote for Mid-South Walleyes awhile back. Since the club no longer exists, might as well share it here.

Sorry, don't have time to edit out names or any dated material, but hopefully you'll find it helpful just the same. Targeting crappies, plus bonus walleyes.

One Hot Winter Technique

by Mike Alley

The deep, clear lakes of the Ozarks are perfect for one of my favorite coldwater fishing techniques—spooning!

My first spooning lesson came on New Year’s Eve day in 1999, when legendary MSW member John Estes invited me to hop into his boat for some Stockton Lake crappie fishing. By the end of the day, John had just barely edged me out by catching 24 nice keeper crappies to my 4.

It was clear from the start that I had a lot to learn about this method of catching fish. I’ve had several years now to pick John’s brain and put his instructions into practice. Along the way I’ve even learned a few things on my own. This is what works for me.

The cooling of the water in late fall spurs fish movement in every part of the lake. The key to finding and catching both crappies and walleyes in the cold water period is finding concentrations of shad.

On Stockton, what we would consider the cold water period begins around the first of December in most years. By then turnover is complete and water temps have dropped to about 50 degrees. That’s cold enough to start stressing the shad, which are a warmwater species, so they tend to band closer together and head for the protection of the deep channels. Cold weather simply increases the stress factor for the shad; as water temps fall through the 40s and into the 30s, shad will collect in huge, tightly packed schools, 30 to 70 feet down. Sharp bends in the channel serve as natural collection and ambush points, and so are good places to start looking. And if you can find a channel bend in conjunction with a bluff wall that blocks the wind, count your lucky stars!

Naturally, wherever the shad go, the gamefish follow. You’ll find crappies and walleyes in and around schools of shad, especially where these suspended schools come in contact with structure—channel drops, deep points, and brush.

Spooning is generally a vertical presentation. The idea is to position your boat directly over the top of the fish—so precise location is critical. When you reach the spot you plan to fish, use your big motor to slowly cruise back and forth over the channel rim, deep to shallow, shallow to deep, watching your sonar closely. With practice you’ll soon be able to tell if fish are present with a ball of shad, and whether the fish are relating to a brushpile or a clean bottom.

When you cruise over a fairly substantial pile of shad and/or fish—or “show,” as John calls it—toss out a marker, preferably to the upwind side (so it’ll always be in view as you fish). Cut the motor, drop the electric, and try to hover directly above the fish/shad below. Drop a spoon or Jigging Rap, and start catching.

I use a medium-light rod with a soft-action tip and a 20- or 25-class spinning reel with a good drag. My reel will be spooled with 10/2 or 8/1 SpiderWire Stealth braid; its thin diameter cuts through the water to get your lure down quickly, and the no-stretch property really lets you feel everything—even a tiny nudge from a neutral fish at 70 feet. Sometimes you’ll even feel shad brushing the line as well.

On the business end I use a small snap, tied direct to the braid. A snap swivel would be fine as well, though I’ve not had any problems with line twist—so it’s just extra hardware to me. On the snap goes the lure—usually a ½-oz. or ¾-oz. jigging spoon or Rap. Go with the ½-oz. for shallower water (30-40 feet) and the ¾-oz. for deeper water.

Virtually all my deep-jigging lures are some kind of silver or white, since I will always be fishing in and around real baitfish. Open the bail and let the lure free-fall to the bottom; close the bail and give the handle 1-2 revolutions to position your lure just off bottom.

Rule of thumb: one full handle turn retrieves about 2 feet of line. Ideally, you want to be able to watch your lure on your sonar screen, but that’s not really necessary—because with the Two Foot Rule, you can position your bait anywhere in the water column relative to the bottom. If the shad school tops out at 12 feet off bottom and you want to fish the top of the school (where the bigger crappies sometimes like to hang), simply give your reel handle 6 full turns to put your bait right there.

Conversely, if the bottom of the shad school is say, 6 feet up and the gamefish are right on bottom, try reeling up 3 or 4 turns and then just letting the spoon flutter down out of the bottom of the school like a badly injured minnow to the hungry mouths waiting below. That’s an old Frank Claspill trick; the situation doesn’t come along that often, but when it does, it helps to know what to do!

Last winter I had my best spooning day ever on Stockton. Three of us caught our limits of big crappies in just over half a day, and the size was just awesome. The 45 fish bag had to weigh 50-60 pounds; we had 6 fish pushing 15” and countless 13’s and 14’s. We got them all in one spot and were fishing at 34 to 42 feet that day; I was able to watch all three lures on my sonar screen and tell the other guys when to raise or lower their lures to avoid the brush or get bit. Talk about fun!

If you’ve never worked a spoon before—well, it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. A couple of things to remember: 1) you need to concentrate, because hits are often very light and easy to miss; and 2) much of the time it’s all about flash, since the world is rather dark at the depths we’re fishing. Visualize the movement of your bait; before you drop, try holding it a couple feet under the surface and working it with your rod tip a few times, so you can see how the lure reacts. With a little concentration, you’ll quickly learn how to make it flash and shimmy like a real stressed-out minnow.

One thing you absolutely do not want to do is set up a regular rhythm, because that’s not normal in nature. Constantly vary the action of your lure, and you’ll catch a whole lot more fish.

John and I both prefer a fairly subtle “jig stroke” most of the time. Gently lift the rod tip 1-2 feet, hold for half a count, and let the lure free-fall back. Follow it down with the rod tip; if there are any walleyes about, they’ll probably thump it on the drop. When the lure returns to its “rest” position, just let it stay there for a few seconds; crappies seem to do most of their hitting then.

As mentioned, vary your stroke—lift higher, lift shorter, hold at the top and jiggle, give it a quick little jerk, jiggle at the bottom. All are great ways to trigger fish.

That’s not to say there won’t be “Lee Brown” days, when the fish want you to really haul butt and wrench on your spoon as hard as you can, jumping it through the water like a whirling dervish. It happens; ask Lee why his shoulder is always sore.

Most of the time, hits will range from a panfish nibble to a solid ker-thunk to a crappie “lift.” In all cases, set the hook immediately.

What’s a crappie lift? It’s when your line suddenly goes slack (that’s why you need to pay attention). I used to think that it was a crappie or walleye grabbing the lure and swimming upward with it. The crazy thing was, it would happen even when you knew your lure was no more than 2” off bottom. These days, I know better—the fish is simply flaring its gills and inhaling the lure.

When it happens, there’s only one way to deal with it—hit ‘em hard, immediately. If you’re quick enough you can hook the fish before he expels the spoon. Even after all this practice, I still miss about a third of those darned lifters! And that’s too bad, because there are days when the majority of my hits will be of the “lifting” variety. Both crappie and walleye will hit this way.

Here are a few miscellaneous tips that will add to your experience:

• Fish hooked in deep water will experience massive stress by the time they reach the surface. You can reduce this effect by bringing the fish up slowly.

• Short crappies caught in deep water can be very hard to release. Blowing into their mouths and then forcefully plunging them headfirst into the water actually gives them the best chance to revive and swim away. Walleyes are quite a bit hardier.

• If your lure hangs up in brush or on an edge, don’t haul on it. Get directly over the top of it and work your rod tip gently, and it will often come loose.

• To reduce the chance of snags, I follow John’s lead and replace all spoon trebles with #1 short-shank O’Shaughnessy or siwash single hooks. These styles have large ring eyes that work well with split rings. With Jigging Raps, I leave the belly treble (since it will catch 99% of the fish) and cut off the end hooks.

• The best conditions are cloudy and mild, with light winds. The fish bite better in the low light, and it’s easier to control the boat and stay on top of the school.

• In sunny conditions, crappies will “run” on you. You’ll catch a few, and then—nothing. The school has moved. Often you can circle about and re-contact them just a few yards away, then catch a few more before they run again.

No doubt about it. When it works, spooning is the most fun fishing of the year for me. Get out and try it—I’ll bet you’ll like it too!

[DeadHead]

THANKS POWERDRIVE! DeadHead

[Jeff Olson]

Thanks for the article Powerdive!

[zarraspook]

Great info !!!!! Thanks...

[Walleyedmike]

Very well written and informative article there PD. Makes me feel like I'm back in the boat with you, but I thought the wind always blows in the winter on Stockton! LOL

WM

[powerdive]

Only when you show up, WM. It's uncanny. And when we finally got some decent weather, nobody bothered to tell the fish--except this one...

[ric lee]

Great reading Powerdive. Thanks.

[powerdive]

I can't wait for the water temps to drop! So, a few more tips:

* Color matters, and preferences seem to change year to year. The last couple years I've done better with gold and firetiger than my old faves, silver and white.

* My go-to is the 1/2-oz. Jigging Rap. If the bite slows but nothing's cleared out on sonar, I'll switch to a spoon, or a 1/4 to 3/8 jig with plastic, or a blade bait, or a weighted lipless crank. Usually the fish will respond to the change. (The crank seems to be a not-many-bites-but-they're-usually-good-ones lure.) In the cold water, subtle moves usually out-produce aggressive tactics--but not always.

* Don't go TOO light on your gear, and don't underestimate the value of fishing the top of the schools--that seems to be where the big eaters hang. A couple winters ago I caught a 6.5-pound walleye at the top of a large, tight shad school, 32 feet down over 48 feet of water. Had a similar experience right near the face of the dam, fishing down in the channel--caught a 35-lb. flathead on a Jigging Rap at 75 feet. Darn near burned out the drag on my Pflueger.

* Most of the time, we'll fish 30 to 50 feet deep, but it's not uncommon to target fish at 65-75 feet. The deepest we've caught fish at Stockton is 98 feet, in the channel at Point 2. It was all whites and walleyes. Gotta be delicate at those depths. We did have a few floater whites, but Jim scooped 'em up and fed the foxes at home. Our short eyes and larger whites (we don't eat white bass) all made it back down, though some needed extra handling.

* One sunny day in December '11, I was fishing the mouth of a small cove on Big Sac, not far from the river channel. The action had slowed, so I was snacking on some venison summer sausage. What the heck, I thought, let's put a little chunk on the belly hook. Bam, bam, bam, the bite was back on. Caught a quick limit. So of course, I started tipping my lures with Gulp maggots. It seems to help sometimes.

* Most people don't want to believe that crappie limits can be taken on big heavy spoons with monster hooks. Suffice it to say, the same principles work with traditional crappie gear--light mono and small jigs. It just takes "forever" to drop your lure to the productive depth. But that's how the best crappie guide on Stockton does HIS winter damage, targeting the suspenders below the shad schools and hauling fish up from 60+ feet on 1/16-oz. jigs. He and his clients seem to limit out most days, so if you have his patience, go for it.

* Best lesson from all this: trust your sonar. There are a lot of fish way down in the depths of the lake in winter, and they're ready to bite. Just gotta find 'em and put a lure in their face. White bass seem to align themselves horizontally; crappies are more vertical, like ragged haystacks; concentrations of walleyes often look like clutter spread out over the bottom. And fish may or may not be inside any big shad school, at any depth. The only way to know, is to fish it--and even if you don't catch any fish, often you can snag a shad to at least learn what size they are. This vertical stuff is a load of fun--try it!