Target Walleye/Ice email

Fish cleaning tricks, Shallow leadcore hack, Wind skews dive charts

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Today’s Top 5

How to make walleyes taste even better.

Few more tips you won’t find on the Food Network! ‘Cuz:

First one starts with making the right cut while you’re still on the water:

1. Bleed ’em out.

Bleeding fish is nothing new, but it’s something many still aren’t exactly sure how to do. Here’s Joel Nelson breaking down the process step-by-step. Check the color difference between the two fillets!

2. “Zippering” fillets.

Removing the bloodline, mud vein, lateral line…whatever you wanna call it…is easier than you’d think, and can take out the fishiest tasting part of the meat:

Now how ’bout a couple of tasty cuts you might be missing…

3. Walleyes have wings?

Do up some “walleye wings” at your next fish fry to really turn some heads:

4. Don’t forget the cheek chunks!

Pan-fried “walleye cheeks” sorta remind me of scallops. I know a few fish-heads that refuse to share these with guests lol. The chunks will dang near pop out on their own if you know where to poke your knife:

Speaking of walleye cheeks…

…here’s one I’d probably take a hard pass on! Must be something in the water at Ev Geniy’s secret Manitoba lake. #Mutant #ExtraProtein

He wouldn’t say where it was a caught, but have a feeling I know the spot:

When you should be pulling leadcore SHALLOW.

Leadcore is typically used to get crankbaits to dive deeper, but NWT pro John Hoyer uses it for a different reason up shallow. Check the full tip on TargetWalleye.com, but a few excerpts below. Yes, we ran this before, but it’s that time of year to learn up again…and maybe gitcha a blimp like this (no offense John):

> Leadcore allows me to run 4 lines at different distances from the boat while keeping the lures running in the same depth range. This keeps the baits from tangling when turning out and in on breaklines with many points. If the lines were all the same length they’d be crossing non-stop.

> I set the inside line with mono back 80′ from the boat…the middle two rods are rigged with leadcore and set back 50′ and 60’…the outside rod has mono 100′ back:

> For leadcore: I like to run 27-lb Tuf-Line MicroLead. It’s the thinnest-diameter stuff we can find — has way different dive curves than the average leadcore — and pretty forgiving on big fish.

> The clearer the water, the longer the leader. The visibility on Sakakawea was 2-3′, so we were running leaders as short as 10′ and basically power fishing.

> We run Berkley FireLine leaders anytime there’s debris, that way we can clear a fouled lure by snapping it [instead of reeling all the way in]. If there’s not much debris, we run 15-lb Berkley fluorocarbon.

> Most important thing in dirty water is for a fish to be able to find your bait. A crankbait hitting bottom is a trigger, and also is a constant noise to attract fish to you. I like the #7 Berkley Flicker Shads because they seem to deflect off bottom the most.

> When dialing in a color program on multiple rods, start with: one natural, one silvery, one firetiger and a purply one. That covers it all, then switch out the other cranks for the top-producing colors.

> I personally like using high-contrast colors like purple tiger, and firetiger once the sun comes up. Firetiger is just one of those colors you’ve always gotta have tied on.

Keep reading the full John Hoyer write-up here.

Do walleye whiten their teeth?

Ever seen a walleye with yellow teeth? Us either. Yet all those pearly-whites and no one wants to kiss ’em before the release…like our bass-head friends do *cough* Jimmy Houston *cough*.

Good thing Jimmy didn’t try to smooch-n-release this one:

Here’s a few toothy critters that’ve been keeping up on their teeth cleanings:

Gotta be one of my all-time favorite shots. Marc Tremblay (@wallyfishing_marc) probably should’ve just let this water-goblin keep that “midnight” color Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow Walleye Deep Diver. #Yikes

Derek Telgard (@dtelgard) taught this one to say, “Cheeeeeze!”

Mr. Walter’s daring David Shmyr Jr. to reach for that Bagley Minnow B. #T-Boned

This Venus ‘eye-trap chomped a 3.5″ Ripper (motor oil) on a custom Teardrop Jig built on a Gamakatsu 604 — all homemade using Do-It Molds. #Jackpot

Rory Sheesh learned that: walleye thumb > bass thumb. The blood on this one’s snoot isn’t the fish’s lol:

Better show this to a bassin’ buddy that can’t hang. 😉

Walleye hold fail of the day.

And it’s only funny when it happens to someone else lol. Sent in from TW fan Jeff B — givin’ him an A+ on the recovery. #FishFlop

News

Could be won a ton of different ways — lookin’ forward to it!

2. WI: Merc National tourney happenin’ Jun 7-9.

Believe a full field of 300 teams are already registered for this 41st-anniversary tourney on Lake Winnebago.

3. CO: New ladies 6-lb line class walleye record…

…for now. Kelly Joe Hall caught the 3-lb 13-ozer outta Puett Reservoir on a #10 Rapala X-Rap.

4. MN: UMD hockey coach wins Lake Vermilion tourney.

Including big-fish honors with a 9.12-lb Bulldog (tee-hee) to fatten their pockets by $15K.

5. CO DNR lookin’ for 18 conservation officers.

If I could think of a funny joke ’bout being a CO in CO, I’d put it here….

6. World’s fastest pontoon hits 114 mph (video).

Has three Mercury Pro Max 300x engines on the back.

7. AL: Here’s the new world’s largest fishing lure.

In Alberta, CAN:

Over 40′ long [!] and would probably still get bit by those pesky 18-22″ pike….

8. Last chance to enter!

If you haven’t already, please take just a couple minutes to fill out this Target Walleye survey and have a shot at winning a little pile o’ fishing lures! Click here to take the survey. Thanks for doing it and thank YOU for reading!

Tip of the Day

Crankbaits don’t dive as deep when it’s windy.

Ever been trolling downwind and caught fish, turned right around and couldn’t get ’em to bite? Might actually be some truth to blaming it on the wind, though it’s got nothing to do with your poor boat control lol. Learn ya some knowledge from Mr. Precision Trolling Data himself, Mark Romanack:

Mark knows his stuff [!] and has way more vids like this on his YouTube channel.

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

Stephen Roller (@sj_roller_fishing) has been Rapala Shad Rap’n after-dark walldawgs near Bemidji, MN…including this 30 1/8″ bruiser!

Sign up another fish-head!

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Check this stuff out!

Who is Target Walleye
Target Walleye — walleye during open water and all species during hardwater — is brought to you by Al and Ron Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-nuts like you! #fishheads
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
To send us walleye pics, ice shots or whatever, just respond to this email or click here to email us. Or post it on the Target Walleye Facebook page.

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