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If you’re getting Target Walleye for the first time, a friend probably signed you up!
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It’s been a wild few weeks around here – just know I don’t mean to ignore anyone [!] and I’m sloooowly working on getting caught back up on messages:
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Annnnd, no…it’s not because I was fishing ALL weekend, why do you ask?
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Lol. Close as I’ll ever come to getting “hat hair.” 🤷♂️
And dang near needed hip waders to cut my grass by the time I got around to it, because fishing takes priority this time of year, of course:
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Few fishin’ updates from my end…
Had a couple of derbies on Gull Lake in central MN. Didn’t want to say much because prefishing was pretty dang good…and I feel like it’s bad tourney mojo to go blabbing about all the fish ya caught before any derby lol. BUT here’s a few different areas I had set aside for game day(s). #Loaded
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My wife, Amanda, and I ended up in 4th place in our local Walleye Wackers league with 5 fat “unders” (have to be < 20″) for 12.3 lbs. That’s 1 fish short of our limit, and didn’t have any of our 2 possible “overs.” We had the winning fishes on a couple times over but they just kept popping off for some reason…3 of those within 5′ of the net = heartbreaker. So let’s just say I now own a Clam Fortis Net that has a 110″ handle so no excuses if we’ve got to reach for ’em!
Then on Sat, I hopped in the Walleye Alliance’s Spring Walleye Classic with TW’s Nick Miltimore. Got my but absolutely handed to me by one of the best jig-and-shiner pitchers I’ve been in the boat with. He stuck ALL of our fish – including a fat 27″, and then a 24.5″, 23″, 23″, 21″ that had to go back since we could only have 1 fish over 20″ in this derby. I literally never caught a walleye that day.
“We” somehow still landed in 6th-place with only 3 weighable fish and cashed a check. Better yet: Beat my wife who was fishing in the same tourney with another partner LOL. Hopefully Nick wants to go fishing with me again someday…heck, maybe next time I’ll even contribute to the bag? 🤦♂️😂🤷♂️
Lots of lost fish and missed bites on my end in both of those derbies. Doesn’t matter if it’s a 20-boat local league, or a big 120-boat field…HAVE to fish clean to come out on top. Sounds like a good excuse for some more practice – gotta work on my hat tan line anyway….
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Who/what’s out here taking bites outta fishes?!
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This first one’s from Tyler Brick ( @brickfishing) who brings up a very valid point:
> “For some reason I feel like this fish has had a rough time spawning in its lifetime….”
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😂 Youch!
And TW fan Janice Ott caught this pair out of the same lake, but 1 year apart:
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Any fisheries folk have any ideas?
I asked my man Scruffles if he had anything to do with it, and he was all “well, if they take the first swing….”
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Tom Boley’s killer boat-positioning trick for pitching jigs.
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Talkin’ COLD-front walleye fishin’. Normally you wanna Spot-Lock so you’re casting back to the fish with the wind:
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But around the 11:30 mark Tom shows how he slides around the fish and sets up parallel to ’em during a cold front, so that he can watch Humminbird Side Imaging – while stationary – and make sure that every cast counts:
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Allows him to burst his trolling motor sideways left and right and see which way the fish are sliding, to stay on ’em. Worth a watch to hear Tom break this technique down – click the pic below to jump to that section of the video:
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Random thought of the day.
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Gotta say, I get a kick outta some folks mean-muggin’ in fish pics nowadays…like they’re not having any fun at all lol. I’m here to tell you it’s okay to smile in fish pics [!] just maybe don’t kick it up this many notches:
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Seen a whole bunch of THIS going on lately! 🤣
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Was snooping at some pics on their Instagram and it’s so dang weird to see a trolling motor on the bow of a boat and have ZERO cords anywhere. Of course most walleye folks run a graph up front so there’d still be some extra baggage.
But it all just got me thinking how one day – when we’ve got these kinda things coming out…combined with bluetooth and wifi – we are going to look back at photos of our rigs and be like WTHeck were we doing 🤣 running cords all over the dang place.
7. Max Wilson hopped on the JMO Podcast.
If you’re (somehow) not familiar with Wisconsinite Max Wilson, he’s a young-gun walleye pro that’s built a STACKED tourney resume in the last half-dozen years: NWT champion, multiple MWC team of the year, US Predator Team, and now he’s also fishing the Head2Head Pro Walleye Series where we get to watch him LIVE on game day.
Some folks call him the Mike Iaconelli of walleye tournament fishing (lol) because he’s super “passionate” and always seems to catch ’em. Keep doing your thing, dude!
8. WI: Rule change would extend walleye C&R limit on Minocqua Chain.
9. ND: Make sure to report any jaw-tagged walleyes caught.
> …biologists tagged hundreds of walleyes in two ND waters earlier this spring [Rice Lake in Emmons County, and Antelope Lake in Pierce County] to determine exploitation and harvest in these popular fisheries.
10. Father’s Day is coming in 🔥!
So what do you get the fisherman that’s already got it all?
For sure recommend checking out Rapala’s new R12 Heavy-Duty Lithium Fillet Knife Combo. Been using it since last winter and am seriously impressed – the thing cuts like absolute butter!
Has 80 min of continuous runtime with one of those little lithium ion batteries (comes with 2) which means you can fillet fish anywhere and not be stuck next to an outlet. And it’s 2x the speed and 3x the torque of standard fillet knives, so it can make anybody (even me) look good at cleaning fish.
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Yup, this is real life…we’re giving away ANOTHER MotorGuide Xi5 wireless bow-mount trolling motor! 🤯 A walleye-chasin’ machine with Pinpoint GPS to keep you locked RIGHT on the spot – you’re welcome, control freaks….
Takes just 10 seconds to enter below – can share the link you get for bonus entries. 👊 Good luck!
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Cover water vertically and horizontally. 👀
From Parsons and Kavajecz is this great throwback The Next Bite TV write-up:
> Early summer is a transition period: Fish are past the post-spawn period and are moving into more summer patterns. Traditionally this can mean tough fishing, but covering as much water as possible can help you catch more walleyes.
> Spread lures out both horizontally as well as vertically. Walleyes can be tight to the structure, or suspended in open water. It really depends on the particular lake….
> In open water, get those baits out from the boat using Off Shore Tackle Side Planers. These boards are ballasted so they run true in the roughest conditions, and even sit upright when still in the water.
> Spreading lures vertically sometimes means using methods that allow lures to run deeper than they normally would. This is a common practice this time of year since we’re typically using smaller-sized lures that are not designed to dive very deep on their own.
> In open water it may mean adding a weight in front of the lure, like an Off Shore Tackle Guppy Weight on an OR16 Pro Snap to gain more depth. Or in situations where we are trolling structure, we often incorporate leadcore line to get the baits to the desired depth.
> Shad-style baits like the Berkley Flicker Shad are great where the fish are feeding on stuff like shad, perch, crappie and similar forage. In lakes where the walleyes are feeding on things like smelt, cisco and alewives we opt for a longer bait like Berkley Flicker Minnows.
> Walleyes normally feed “up,” meaning their feeding zone is above where they’re positioned. If you mark fish suspended 25′ down over 35′, run your lures just above them at 20′.
> Fish relating to structure and hanging tighter to the bottom are another story. While running lures just above these fish can trigger a few to bite, many times these fish are better triggered by running lures right in front of their faces.
Keep reading here for way more info from The Next Bite crew.
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“When the dorsal fin goes up and the gill plate flares out, it’s time for a walleye to fillet you!”
– Man, am I ever feeling @petebowman_fishing’s caption under this pic of a finned-out Bay of Quinte razorback:
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Went thru a half bottle of New-Skin Liquid Bandage last weekend patching up the phalanges 😂. If you haven’t used it before I’d 10/10 recommend picking some up.
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Sign up another fish-head!
If you’re forwarding Target Walleye to a friend who loves to walleye-fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we’ll take care of it! (We won’t sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.)
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Friends of Target Walleye
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Who is Target Walleye
Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Jay Kumar, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
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Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He’s in it now, but still can’t answer that question…. Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a “fishing degree” at the time…. Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com
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