You Would Have To Be Crazy

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

It's something about those cobalt owners. Saw one in diamond city with 21 people on it some were on a tube behind it and a lot of kids on the swim deck. Te guy was at the marina driving around even saw him up it in reverse a couple times. Even with all the kids on the back.

[BleacherBum28]

How do you decipher short walleye hits vs. Bluegill grabbing the end of the worm. I am just beginning to learn how to catch walleye while drifting worm harnesses. Many times I'll see the typical hit, hit, hit - then nothing and chalk it up to bluegills. But the most frustrating will be what I'll call just a solid thump, bending the tip hard, and then feel nothing when I set the hook. Typically, I don't hold my rods, just watching them while operating my transom trolling motor.

[Feathers and Fins]

Rapid fire tap tap tap is typically bluegill or more in fact several hitting the worm. The hard hit I have found to be a few things

A. fish hitting the beads/spinner combo

B. Catfish sucking and spitting hard

C. A simple snag or rock

The best way to find out is when you see that take the boat out of gear and drop the rod back only for a few seconds but long enough to let it come back... Always check a bait after as well.

[powerdive]

BB28, the little machine gunners are usually bluegill, the thumpers walleye or catfish, sometimes bass. More often than not the eyes will suddenly just "be there," slowly sucking the crawler in, and your rod tip will bend slow and steady like you've picked up some debris. No need to set the hook. Let the tip continue to load (a soft, flexible, slower-action tip is best for harnesses), and when the rod tip starts pumping, he's hooked--just pick up the rod and start reeling. Some fish will be more aggressive (yank, yank, on!) while others might hang on and swim along with the bait in their mouths for 15-20 seconds without actually eating it. Seems like forever, but if you pick up the rod then the fish is likely to let go.

Anyway, that's how I was taught. After awhile you'll get a better sense for it, and can nurse the bite a little faster and do the rps sweepset when the time is right.

[BleacherBum28]

I should have added more info. The hits I get stumped by are solid thumps and feel nothing and when I check the worm is chewed or in half. As powerdive states, most fish I catch just seem to be there and have hooked themselves. When do you leave the tap tap alone vs. Play it a little (drop rod etc.) in hoping walleye mouthing it?

I think I run slower than you and rps - probably no faster than 1 mph. (Gps graph speed jumps too much and don't have a real speedometer). I feel the speed is part of the problem as the fish does not have to be aggressive to get it, but also feel slower speeds that still spin the blades help with neutral fish.

I follow your posts alot. Do you ever run Aberdeen hooks to help save your harnesses?

I love this side and the info you all share is wonderful... Thank you.

[rps]

BB28, Scott and Mike are excellent fisherman and the descriptions they give are spot on. Both use rod holders more often than not. When I was self teaching from reading, I learned crank bait trolling first and I hand held my rod. When I began to learn crawler fishing, I continued to hold the rod. Although I will now sometimes set a second rod in the holder, I primarily fish one rod and hold it. After time, you begin to learn the different feel that bluegill (machine gun) small bass (1,2...1,2...1,2) and catfish (hello, I am here to take your rod away from you) have. The surprises are the carp and gar.

Most of the time the walleye show up, especially when your bait has paused because it hit a limb or rock then bumps loose. The bite my original tip was discussing was the heavy feeling, mouthing, run at the same speed as your troll with the bait in its mouth bite. Those you must wait out, or give line as Scott (F&F) discusses, and stick only when the rod loads up. As Mike (PD) describes, I use 7 and 7'6" long rods rated as medium power with moderate action, so there is considerable give in the top half. I try to wait for most of that flex to bend, then I sweep.

Good luck!

[powerdive]

BB28, the only way to win on those swing-and-miss hits is to immediately stop the harness movement (or at least slow it down) and hope he comes back for the rest of that tasty morsel. The problem is that the fish has hit aggressively, bitten the crawler in half, and is no longer attached to your bait. Since you're drifting and not hand-holding, you'll need to immediately put your TM in reverse. Sometimes, they'll come back and hit again, even picking the harness up off the bottom.

Question: you are using a 2-hook rig, right? If you're not completely insane and fishing in gnarly timber like rps, you might try a 3-hook harness. Or, another trick Old John showed me for combatting short strikes: on a 2-hook harness, pin the crawler at its midpoint on the front hook, pin its head on the trailing hook, and let the tail run free. It shortens the profile without losing "meat" appeal, and actually simulates a crawdad to some extent. Works.

One last thing to try on short strikers--rps does this. Separate the spinner blade from the hooks--move it an inch or two up the line. You can take the beads up with it, leaving about a 2" gap, or move just the blade, or simply add more beads to get the flashing blade further away from the business end. Hopefully, that will make the fish strike the worm higher.

[powerdive]

Do you ever run Aberdeen hooks to help save your harnesses?

I don't. However, the best article I've ever seen on tying harnesses includes a section on using Aberdeen hooks that you might find interesting. Keep in mind that the article is quite old in internet terms, written back when there weren't a lot of pre-tied rigs on the national market, but its info is still spot on today. I still tie according to the author's (Mike Giamportone) examples:

http://www.walleyesinc.com/walleyeinc3/howtotie.html

If you prefer the pre-tied, Bass Pro's "house" rigs use Aberdeen hooks:

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-XPSWalleye-Angler-Walleye-Rig-Double-Hook/product/1208070512108/?cmCat=CROSSSELL_THUMBNAIL

[Feathers and Fins]

Building on Mike just said you can also thread your hook 3/4 of the way in the worm coming out midpoint between the tip of the tail and the clitellum this will prevent most fish from touching the worm without getting the hook in them, just pull the worm over the eye of the hook and up the line.

I use spinning reels for pulling crawler harness systems for the simple reason when I see a tap tap I can flip the bail giving instant slack which has put a few more eyes in the boat. If you hit an area that it happens frequently you may want to drop a single hook down with a piece of crawler and see if its bluegill if it is leave the area (

the only exception to this is spring, then I would catch 3 or four in the 2 to 4 inch range and pin them on a hook ) My biggest walleye on beaver 13.4 came from that trick, spring walleye and any type of perch in the area seems to be the key for monster eyes.

[Feathers and Fins]

Oh and Randy, the Spoon bite should be going in the next week on Beaver, they are starting to sit on channel edges picking off shad cruising from the channel to the shallows which means its time to break out the XPS and go to work. 1/2 and 5/8 oz are the killers in silver. If you're in Rogers stop by HLS and pick up a few you wont be unhappy.