7-7-14 Pm Report

[nathanhooper]

Hopefully the first report of many this week.

I actually did look at the water temp, 82+ degree's. We trolled in anywhere from 20'(and even shallower when I was not paying attention) out to 40'. Trolling SK XD's

Got out around 6:30 and stayed till little after 10. 6 fish total. 2 Walleye, 3 SM, and who knows what. We contend it was the striper he was wanting to catch, lol.

Took a friend out who always says he is the black cat of fishing. And, I'll have to say, we have fished in the past and been skunked most times. But I was really hoping to get him on a striper.

The fish all came in 20'-25' FOW. But I was seeing a lot of fish out in the 30'-40' range. My lures just don't get down deep enough.

I am thinking that its time I start with the down riggers. The majority of them just seemed to be deeper. I really want to cut my new boats teeth on a decent striper, and I just cant see it happening anytime soon with long lining crank baits.

Anyways, question time - If I have crankbaits that run 20' deep just long lining out 150', If I put them on down riggers and set the balls 10' deep, will those lures now run 30' deep?

I have a small remembrance of asking this question before....but maybe I can get some new insight on it.

[Feathers and Fins]

Anyways, question time - If I have crankbaits that run 20' deep just long lining out 150', If I put them on down riggers and set the balls 10' deep, will those lures now run 30' deep?

Roughly, you need to play with the lure to find out for certain. Flicker shad will as will most Rapala's. Warts tend to run a little deeper Bandits are the worse behind riggers IMO they seem to be all over the place. Also no reason to let the 150 out I actually only let out 50ft to obtain the depth needed when using riggers because you loose the drag factor as everything is already in the water.

[nathanhooper]

I figured that the more out the more likely I would start to get the lures rolling and all. As long as the rain holds off tonight I will try it out. I'm thinking I could put the line on the balls with a rubber band and that might allow me to see the lure ticking the bottom. Then I could see just how deep below the ball the lures run.

On another side note. I've caught a lot of walleye this year. And I am wondering if that's a good thing, or potentially a bad thing. I know that just the fish I take out is not putting a dent in the population, but I also know I am not the only one catching them. Is there anyway to truly over fish this lake and negatively impact the walleye population?

[Feathers and Fins]

Sure a lake can be over fished, I do think they monitor Beaver pretty carefully and that will help. For myself I need just 1 20' fish to feed me and my wife typically by the end of May I have enough in vacuum bags to get me through the summer dull drums so I only keep 1 freshy or two at most per week the rest get to go back, we eat walleye on average twice a week so the fresh one plus a froze one is perfect for us. To me its about self regulating only what you really need to same goes for crappie unless I have a fish fry coming up.

I found it takes 4 crappie for me and my wife and we eat it about once a week to once every two weeks so I build up stock in the vacuum bags and then only keep what I need for a meal for fresh. I cannot begrudge anyone for keeping any fish to eat that's why God put them here, but if you are going to keep some in the freezer use a vacuum bag and only keep what you need for your family plus some for when its slow in that way I believe we would insure the continued sustainability of the fish.

What I do see as potential problems to the fish are the limb, jug and trot lines in the lake. They are indiscriminate killers! I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the lines floating unattended during the day which is ILLEGAL and seen ( J ) style hooks on them which are great gut-hookers which kills sub-legal fish. I wish AGFC would get on these guys and also change the law to require circle hooks on them. Same for Limb and Trot lines, make them use circle hooks. If you are going to do this type of fishing that's fine but use hooks that are more friendly on sub legal fish. My Jugs are all set with Circle Hooks and its common to catch undersized fish and they are not gut hooked because of the Circle and can be released.

[nathanhooper]

That's about what I have been doing. And I'll say, we have been loving it. Used to be that we would buy fish from the store. I don't think my wife has bought any this year now. The only fish I keep in the freezer are the whites and stripers I have caught. They thaw decent enough to fry up just fine.

It takes 2-3 eyes to feed my family, depending on their size. At least 5 whites, better with 6. Who knows with crappie....ive yet to bring in enough for a full meal.

So I guess I do self regulate. Most of the fish I caught earlier this year went to the big fry we had. I did package up the other for frying latter on. And now we just eat fresh. I'm sure in the coming weeks I'll only be able to get out once or twice each week. So, if we were just strictly talking walleye, I imagine that when you really count it up, I don't harvest that much in comparison to what's in there and gets stocked.

When fall comes the boat is going to be lucky if it gets out on the water. So really I only fish "heavy"(for me) about 7 months of the year. 2 of those months I do hit the whites harder than other fish. And my plan is to go after the stripers more so than the walleye now, so in reality I only fish for the eyes about 3-4 months of the year. If on average 2 trips per week, and average out about 2 eyes a trip, that's only ~70 eyes a year?

I think that's a generous number too. I highly doubt I'll ever get that many in a year. Just all makes me wonder what the population is and what it can take. I know that AGFC sets their limits to help keep the population good, but what are their limits based on? A guy going X amount each year? Or overall X amount of fishing license multiplied by X average times a person fishes?

Ok....my brain is starting to hurt....

[kjackson]

F & F:

"What I do see as potential problems to the fish are the limb, jug and trot lines in the lake. They are indiscriminate killers! I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the lines floating unattended during the day which is ILLEGAL and seen ( J ) style hooks on them which are great gut-hookers which kills sub-legal fish. I wish AGFC would get on these guys and also change the law to require circle hooks on them. Same for Limb and Trot lines, make them use circle hooks. If you are going to do this type of fishing that's fine but use hooks that are more friendly on sub legal fish. My Jugs are all set with Circle Hooks and its common to catch undersized fish and they are not gut hooked because of the Circle and can be released."

Would these work?

[Feathers and Fins]

No clue how they base the numbers. I also don't think its as heavily fished as you would think. Most people i talk to get frustrated trying to fish for them and give up pretty fast as they really do require specific technique for different times of year and much of it is boat control combined with technique so people think of it as very hard. To me though that's the challenge and the rewards are very tasty.

[Feathers and Fins]

For shark KJ... Might want to go a little smaller for the lake lol

[Quillback]

No clue how they base the numbers. I also don't think its as heavily fished as you would think. Most people i talk to get frustrated trying to fish for them and give up pretty fast as they really do require specific technique for different times of year and much of it is boat control combined with technique so people think of it as very hard. To me though that's the challenge and the rewards are very tasty.

Or as I tell people, if you want to catch walleye, just go bass fishing.

And the walleye guys will tell you, if you want to catch bass, go walleye fishing.

[nathanhooper]

I love fishing for them for sure. I try not to get too cocky about it. I pulled up to the ramp Saturday and after parking my trailer I came back down to the boat. A family was there camping and he said that my boy(gotta love that little guy)told him we were going to catch walleye.

He asked if there were really any on there and I told him there was. Then we came back a few hours later and they were still down by the water. He asked if we caught some and I was happy to tell him we did. So I'm sure he is thinking it's like fishing in a barrel now. Lol

It's nice to learn how to catch them for sure. But I'll have to say that Saturday night was the only time I actually went out with the intention of catching them specifically. I knew they would make some good tacos.