Target Walleye/Ice email

Yeller belly walleyes, Modifying jigging baits, Poly blades in weeds

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Today’s Top 4

Wall-dawgs of the week!

Hunter Wojslaw put his client Tom on a 13-lb Lake Ontario fish of a lifetime! — that’ll test the drag on those Okuma Coldwater Line Counters. Said she grabbed a copper glow alewife” Michigan Stinger Spoon off 1 color of leadcore:

Matt Paul has been lighting ’em up [!] outta Wekusko Falls Lodge, MB — including this 31-incher walloped a Rapala Snap Rap:

Great shot from Luke Lovrek of a Rapala Shadow Rap eatin’ wall-dawg caught along a steep weed edge/dropoff:

How Kavajecz mods hard-bodied jigging baits for open-water fishing.

When Keith Kavajecz is feeshin’ hard-bodied jigging baits in open-water — like the Moonshine Shiver Minnow — he swaps out the stock treble for a big #4 Mustad Triple Grip. Looks goofy, but says it helps him to “fish cleaner” and land more fish. Check it:

Works for dogfish too:

Can’t get enough of these yeller-belly walleyes!!

These pics/fish are the ONLY ones I’ve ever come across — just can’t get them outta my head — need to see one in real life….

Jason Powers got this golden yellow walleye this year in Oneida Lake, NY. Even better is he got it 5 minutes after his 6 yr old son caught his first walleye ever.

The “golden ticket” was released and he is having a replica mount made of both fish for a memory that will last a lifetime:

Remember this St. Louis River walter that was eating too many Cheerios?

We’ve only ever seen a couple of ’em, but Jerry and John Nicholson doubled that in a single day…. They were pre-fishing for the Canadian Tire Angler’s Cup on Lesser Slave Lake, AB when they caught 3 [!] super-rare golden walleye:

Fish up there must be on a strict diet of “gold flame” Yo-Zuri Pins Minnows:

Only other person to ever catch more than one golden walleye was some chocolate-loving kid named Charlie something:

Catching walleyes during the mayfly hatch.

We talked with a few of walleye fishing’s top sticks to learn how they catch walleyes during the dreaded mayfly hatch. Yes, we ran this before, but it’s time to learn up again…and maybe gitcha a blimp like this (no offense Perry):

Perry Good:

> “I treat engorged walleyes like cold-front fish. I go for reaction bites with Jigging Rap or spoon. Or if I’m pulling spinners, I’ll speed up from 1.0-1.2 to 1.6-1.8 mph.

> “On a lake like Mille Lacs, it’s key to know which flats have the biggest bug hatches. If I see clouds of bugs on my electronics I don’t even fish it. I’ll move to the gravel bars where they don’t hatch.”

Tom Neustrom:

> “One of the things during a big hatch is go really light and run a stealth rig of nothing more than a splitshot and leech. I’ll either troll really slow or sit right on top of the fish….

> “The rig is simple: 4- or 6-lb Sufix Fluorocarbon with 32-38″ between a #4 VMC Octopus hook and the splitshot. On the business end, I use a smaller leech like a medium or large to emulate the larvae coming off the bottom.”

Ross Robertson:

> “I do things differently. I don’t compete with the mud buffet. I do downsize, but look for harder bottoms because there’s fewer mayflies. Even if it’s just harder mud bottom. There’s the spongy stuff and there’s compact, clay bottom. I go for the latter — areas where there’s less competition.

> “I’m either cranking or pulling spinners. I downsize blades and crankbaits, like going from Reef Runner 800s to Deep Little Rippers which are half the size. In terms of spinners, I drop one to two sizes in blades, like from #8 to #6, or #6 to #4 or all the way down to #3.”

Check the full write-up here on TargetWalleye.com.

Tip of the Day

Eric Brandriet pulls polycarbonate blades in weeds.

Polycarbonate spinner blades? Yup! ‘Cuz they’re super light, spin at speeds down to 0.25 mph, and don’t crash to the bottom of weeds like traditional blades can. More from Eric Brandriet of Dakota Prairie Angling on the Northland Butterfly Blades below:
> I use it from late May into June on my home waters of Big Stone Lake, on the MN/SD border — but it works wherever walleyes cruise emerging weeds.
> Ideally the weeds are tall enough for the walleyes to get down in them and ambush prey passing overhead — say 1-3′ weeds growing in 10′.
His blade of choice is a #2 Northland Fishing Tackle Butterfly Blade, on either a Butterfly Blade Super Death Rig, single-hook Butterfly Rig with a leech, or double-hook Butterfly Harness with a nightcrawler.
> Butterfly Blades are also sold separately for tying your own rigs. My favorite colors for early-weed walleyes are sunrise, silver shiner and cisco purple…pays to experiment as conditions and mood of the fish change.
> 3/4-oz Slick-Stick Bottom Bouncers sheds vegetation better than other bouncer designs.
> I use planer boards to get the rig away from the boat and spread out multiple lines. Adding 2′ of line between bouncer and board for every foot of desired running depth…if weedtops are 5′ down, I let out 8′ of line to position [’em] a foot above the weeds.
> Trolling speeds run from 0.5-0.7 mph. Recommend a steady pace to prevent rigs from falling into the weedgrowth.
> [Works best] with a moderate wind. Flat calm is less than ideal — too much wind stirs everything up so the fish can’t see your rigs….

Meme of the Day

Keep those priorities straight this weekend:

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

B-E-A-utiful gold bar Ben Hoxsie caught draggin’ a tube for MI smallies:

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Who is Target Walleye/Ice
Target Walleye/Ice — 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/Ice. 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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