Target Walleye/Ice email

Mega slab found, Clear vs dirty Rap colors, Lake Erie freakazoid

Everybody give a warm fish-head welcome to Elliott Rods! They make absolutely incredible, high-end fishing rods — handcrafted in MN and founded by Gregg and Paul Thorne. Have personally tried a couple different ice models and things are legit. Can’t wait to set the hook with one of their all-new openwater sticks…I’ve got my eye on the 7′ 1″ M extra-fast (ES71M-XF) spinning rod for snap jigging with bigger plastics.

Today’s Top 5

MASSIVE crappie washed up on shore!

How crazy is this! Sent in from TW fan Parker Davis:

> Parker: “…went out crappie fishing today on a lake in southern MN. We came in after a tough day to find a 20-inch crappie washed up on the shore. Too bad it’s not still swimming.”

Here’s another shot to help you get your bearings:

Seriously can’t even imagine.

Someone get this dude some pliers.

Oh, and that’s a 10″ hole!

 

That’s @giannibalboa doing his best “Chubbs” impression:

 

Btw that fish was Gianni’s new PB pike weighing 30+ lbs. Congrats man!

What Bret Alexander’s throwing now.

One bite that’s been [fire emoji] is the Rapala Rippin’ Rap bite on Green Bay, Sturgeon Bay and connecting tribs. Guide Bret Alexander says it’ll “really start firing” in early Apr, and usually stay hot through the first 2-3 weeks of May.

Full scoop in this Rapala blog post, but a few quickie excerpts below on some of Bret’s favorite new colors and the setup he’s slinging ’em on for bruisers like this:

> To catch big walleyes now on Sturgeon Bay — and lots of them — throw Rapala Rippin’ Raps on rock-to-sand transitions on the deep side of breaklines where shallow flats plunge to 25-35′.

> “A lot of times, it’s critical to show fish something different, so it’s good to mix it up with colors. …was happy when Rapala added the new [custom] colors to the arsenal. We did really good on them last year up at Sturgeon Bay and Upper Door County.”

In deep, clear water on Sturgeon Bay his favorite’s are the ‘bad lipstick’ and ‘road trip’ patterns (top) in the biggest #7 Rippin’ Raps:

Likes the brighter ‘fruit bowl’ and ‘leprechaun’ patterns (bottom) where the water is more stained in Green Bay…near the west shore by Oconto, WI. He targets zebra mussel beds on 5-12′ sand flats with the slightly smaller #6 Rippin’ Raps.

Said he throws Rippin’ Raps on a 7′ 2″ M fast-action spinning rod with 10- to 15-lb Sufix 832 Advanced braid main line and a 12-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro leader.

Lake Erie egg-wagon caught!!

Get a (wide) load of Jim Menker’s PB walleye outta Lake Erie — a THICK 31.5-incher that scarfed a custom “bumble bee” color Bandit ran 60′ back. Released to get even more bigger-er…which is sorta tough to imagine:

 

Here’s an actual pic of the boat’s floor after the release:

Congrats man!

New planer board storage system???

Easter is comin’ up this weekend, so had to bring back this pic from walleye-nut Joe Knowles of his interesting way to store Off Shore Tackle treats:

 

Dang! Hope the Easter bunny visits my place too!

News

1. OOD editor John Kerr passed on, 73 yrs old.

Passed away peacefully on Mar 28 from complications related to cancer. John was inducted into the Canadian Angler Hall of Fame in 2010, and was the editor in chief for “Ontario OUT of DOORS” until he retired in 2012. RIP fishing brother.

2. ND revokes fishin’ tourney permits in Apr and May.

3. IA: Walleye length limit changes on the Mississippi R.

Extended the current length limits in Mississippi River Pools 12-20 to now include the entire Mississippi River in IA:

> All walleyes less than 15″ and between 20-27″ must be immediately released.

> Only one walleye greater than 27″ long can be harvested per day.

> Combined walleye/sauger daily harvest limit of 6 and possession limit of 12.

4. SIMMS is making medical gowns.

Love it! And those tiller guys/gals will be fighting for ’em after the fact lol:

5. OH suspends non-rez fishing licenses.

6. OH: Maumee River accesses closed.

> “The City of Maumee has shut down access points to the Maumee River, and Rossford is not opening the marina, but other Wood County entry points are still open.”

7. Record-high water levels expected for Lake Huron.

8. New “lavender ice” color AuthentX Pulse-Rs.

Yup, gonna need to add these to my arsenal:

9. OR: Boats still need to be checked at AIS stations.

AIS = Aquatic Invasive Species.

10. How to take screenshots on your Humminbird.

Talkin’ HELIX and SOLIX units. Definitely something I need to take the 2-3 seconds to do more often, ‘cuz we come across some strange stuff on under the water that’d be fun to share on the interwebz.

11. IA: Boat ramps still open.

12. Do you know EXACTLY how deep cranks are running?

Lot more factors go into it than you’d think, and the Troll Master Depth Calculator app can definitely take a bunch of the guesswork out of it:

13. UT: New law requires $20 non-rez boat launch fee.

14. Guess 150-HP electric outboards are a thing…?

Made by a Norwegian company called Evoy, supposedly expensive:

15. ALL Buck hunting knives on sale until Apr 17.

16. Lund Boats is going Facebook live…

…tomorrow (Apr 9) at 7pm CST. Their sales and dealer support director, Jesse Hanish, will be answering Qs and talking all things Lund.

TargetWalleye.com Highlights

Tip of the Day

Complete spring walleye fishing breakdown.

Back in the day they’d call this type of thing a “seminar” but there’s such a crazy amount of info packed in this Tom Boley YouTube vid that I’m calling it a “complete breakdown” instead. Tom does a killer job of talking (and showing) how he finds the best spring walleye locations, and then what he uses to catch ’em. The YouTube machinez needs more of this:

Quote of the Day

“If you can stick your fishing rod out and do a 360-degree circle, that’s the minimum distance you would need to separate yourself from somebody else.”

– That’s MI DNR’s Ron Olson talkin’ about how fisherpeople should “social distance.” Wish that concept ^^^ would apply year round to fishin’ spots lol…and if someone gets too close:

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

This Allegheny River slaunch came pitching shallow scattered rocks out of the current — on the edge of a flat in about 5′ — with a 1/4-oz Someday Isle Tackle Water Puppet tipped with a minner:

 

Closer look at that darty little treat:

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Friends of Target Walleye
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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