2 days

[lmt out]

20 hours ago, Smithvillesteve said:

I just got back home from fishing 2 days at Stockton Lake. We tried trolling crankbaits and bottom bouncers with spin rigs and a worm. Not much going on with either tactic. Fished from 2 pm till 9 pm. Main lake area. The bottom bouncer technique was a pain in the butt for me and my partner. Lots of hangups, even though when i went back and got on the other side of the hangup it came right off. Lots of line twist!! Caught a lot of blue gills and some small smallies. No walleyes. With Lmtout catching 60 in 6 hrs monday i dont know what i was doing wrong. I used the trolling motor and didnt have a clue to the mph. Went slow enough to tick the bottom in 15 fow. Gave it a decent shot. Couple of hours each day. I was catching smallmouth casting my jig off points so i stuck with that. It was sunny and hot with hardly any wind. Not real conducive to walleye fishing. Any advice? Tips? Clues? 

Do you have a depth finder that has  mph on it that is how I tell how fast I am going.  It is absolutely crucial to be going very close to the 1mph area.  Another thing I pay very close attention to detail..  What I mean by that is how I hook my night crawler on the hook  it doesn't matter if its the front middle of back part of the crawler but I uses a two hook system on my harnesses and hook the first hook trough the end of the crawler  then grab the crawler and stretch him a little and take the second hook and insert it where ever it meets his body. Then I pinch the crawler of about a 1/4 behind the back hook.  The idea is I want the crawler as straight as possible when moving.  I have seen people wad the crawler up on the hooks like you are cat fishing.   Be flexible and everyday is different very rarely do we catch walleye in the same spot.  Maybe the same general location but they move one day catch them in this spot the next day they r 200 yards down the bank.  I believe wind affects them quite a bit.  Last week all of our fish were 8 to 12 ft in very windy conditions.  Yesterday 18 to 20 ft.  It was just a gentle breeze.   Is the way I fish the only way to catch them absolutely not.  There are a lot of great fishermen on here that catch them many different ways.  Many guys troll cranks and do very well.  I am just not smart enough to learn it.  And those crank baits r expensive. 

[lmt out]

16 hours ago, mikeak said:

Maybe we could take up a collection and get limit out and his wife to give a seminar. I do ok drifting with a bottom bouncer in a rod holder and jigging a spoon when the wind is right. when dead calm i have a little trouble motoring with a bb. and usually just go to trolling.I'm finding these corp lakes to differ from where I used to fish. Here,I do just as good through the hot part of the day,especially if theres some wind. The other thing I've been surprised by is how shallow the walleyes can be caught during the day. I've had the most success fishing the breaks to deeper water around flats. I need to try fishing the points more.

   Mike

I will tell what I know just ask.  lol  I may be retiring in a couple years and the Wife and I are considering opening a bed and breakfast and a part time Walleye guide service around Stockton. 

[top_dollar]

1 hour ago, lmt out said:

I will tell what I know just ask.  lol  I may be retiring in a couple years and the Wife and I are considering opening a bed and breakfast and a part time Walleye guide service around Stockton. 

Id hire ya.  

[Smithvillesteve]

Ok, some good info offered here. My depth finder does not have a mph. I have a handheld Garmin i need to get out and see if it has one. I went slow enough to tick the bottom. With bright skies and little wind i backed out to the 15-20 fow range. My spin rigs have one hook. I usually hook the worm a couple of times and leave a half inch of trailer on him. Havent bothered using a worm blower. There is a snap swivel on the end of the bottom bouncer and i hook the loop on the spin rig through there. We were using 2 oz bottom bouncers. Spin cast reel with 8 lb mono. RPS: I had the pleasure of meeting you at the OA tournament. I would love to take you up on your offer. I got some guys coming down to my place next week on Pomme to play some golf and take the pontoon out. I am on vacation in August 10 thru 20. Wife loves me to take her to the Rockies! But i got some free time in there. Thanks again for the info you boys are willing to put out.

[eagle1584]

I think it's important to find what works for you and the only way to do it is practice.  I learned how to walleye fish in MN as a kid and it was all finesse stuff.  Ultra light rods, small jig heads and minnows.  I use a lighter approach to bottom bouncing at Stockton that works well for me as I don't like really heavy tackle (outside of jigging spoons)

I tend to prefer trolling cranks for walleye because I like to cover more ground.  When I do use a BB I use a 3/4 oz or at most 1 oz bottom bouncer and run a bit slower, usually between .4-.7 mph.   I tie my own harnesses too so I add a small float or 2 to most of my harnesses to keep the hooks and bait just off the bottom.  It seems to keep from getting snagged as much especially at slow speeds. 

I just got back from a week in Northern MN and fished with some guys that introduced me to the Lindy Lil' Guy harness.  The float works just like a crank bait and has amazing action.  We trolled them at 1.2-1.4 mph on 2 oz BBs and had good success on them.  Kind of the best of both worlds.  Can't wait to try them at Stockton with how good they bite cranks although they are a bit pricey.

http://www.lindyfishingtackle.com/lindy-lil-guy

As lmt out said they move around a lot depth wise.  Stockton is a bit quirky and doesn't always follow what you think you know about walleye.  Cover a lot of ground, change depths a lot and when you catch one try to figure out why it was there. 

[rps]

6 hours ago, lmt out said:

May I ask what the easy thing is?  It is getting very expensive buying new spinners.  Our best point we have been fishing is very rocky and we hang up quite often. 

The easy thing is what many people do -> they only fish sandy and gravel flats. While those can hold huge numbers of walleye, places with timber and big rocks the size of wash tubs or cars can hold quality fish too. And, as I said, I tie my own spinners as one of my hobbies.

I wrote about the "different" things I do in an article Phil has posted. If you have not read it, here is the link: http://www.ozarkanglers.com/white-river-walleye-on-worm-harness/

 

[Darntheluck]

Had a great trip this weekend limiting everyday on walleyes. fishing 16 to 18 fow dragging BB 1.04 to 1.38 mph. Went through 16 dozen nightcrawlers because of the bluegill brought home at least 30 nice ones as well as a dozen catfish.

[Walleyedmike]

11 hours ago, Smithvillesteve said:

Ok, some good info offered here. My depth finder does not have a mph. I have a handheld Garmin i need to get out and see if it has one. I went slow enough to tick the bottom. With bright skies and little wind i backed out to the 15-20 fow range. My spin rigs have one hook. I usually hook the worm a couple of times and leave a half inch of trailer on him. Havent bothered using a worm blower. There is a snap swivel on the end of the bottom bouncer and i hook the loop on the spin rig through there. We were using 2 oz bottom bouncers. Spin cast reel with 8 lb mono. RPS: I had the pleasure of meeting you at the OA tournament. I would love to take you up on your offer. I got some guys coming down to my place next week on Pomme to play some golf and take the pontoon out. I am on vacation in August 10 thru 20. Wife loves me to take her to the Rockies! But i got some free time in there. Thanks again for the info you boys are willing to put out.

Do you have a garmin or some sort of GPS unit in any of your vehicles? You could plug that into a 12V plug in your boat and just use it for measuring speed. I'd recommend  switching to two hook harnesses. Unless they are some kind of slow death type harness, they are intended for leeches or minnows. Kind of the rule of thumb for bottom bouncers is one ounce per ten feet of depth. I usually use 1 1/2 or 2 oz bouncers as I rarely fish deeper then 25'. The spincast reel isn't the greatest set up for bouncing, I guess i'd recommend pinching the line between your thumb and index finger to let line out slowly until you start ticking the bottom. Set the reel and drop your rod tip after a few seconds to see if you can feel the bottom. If not, let out a little more until you do. Stockton Lake has a good walleye population, but it can be a very humbling lake too. Keep after it, it feels pretty good when you start figuring it out. Don't get caught up in comparing your days on Stockton to lmt out's. He's an anomaly, some kind of walleye whisperer or something. I think he's part Sasquatch and was kicked out of the tribe due to his lack of hair.  

WM

 

[lmt out]

Haha Mike you r to funny.  I was not kicked out for lack of hair it was my big mouth.  And I shaved my hair and married a hot chic to fit in amongst you humans.  You should see how many razors I go thru in a month.  Hey what's am anomaly????  Lmao should I be offended.  (just kidding in know what it means my family calls me that all the time.)

Ed