Al Lindner doppelganger, Science of bigger baits, Figure-8 walleyes

That’s the headline from Gord Pyzer’s Outdoor Canada write-up talking why you should go big (baits for walleye) or go home.

> Liam and I were out the other day fishing for big northern pike and we couldn’t escape from the blasted walleye. We were casting 5″ Rapala Super Shad Raps for the big toothy critters, but the walleye were beating them to our baits and hammering. And I mean absolutely slamming them. …it was also not the least bit surprising.

> Many years ago, when I worked with the ON MNR, my office was close to that of Dr. Peter Colby, one the brightest minds in the walleye world. I’d often head up to his office…and drive him crazy with questions. And that is when I first learned that walleye will go out of their way to target specific-size prey items, like yellow perch, suckers and ciscoes, based on their own body size.

> Understand what I’m saying? All else being equal, big walleye prefer big food items, and bigger than most walleye anglers can imagine.

> …I remember telling Peter that I had caught a particularly large walleye while I was casting big baits for northern pike and muskies. I thought it was a total fluke that a fish most anglers target with small jigs and lures would attack such a massive bait. But he told me it was the rule – not the exception. Then he gave me a copy of his synopsis, that I treasure to this day, and flipped to the diagram below that he had produced showing the sizes of forage fish eaten by walleyes of different lengths.

> …by the time a walleye reaches a modest 17″ in length and couple of lbs in weight, it is already eating 5-6″ baitfish. But the real eye opener is when we extrapolate the trend lines out for 30″+ trophy-size walleye. They’re devouring 7″, 8″, even 9″ perch, suckers, ciscoes and whitefish.

> It’s something to consider this weekend, when you tip your little 1/4-oz walleye jig with a finger-length shiner, chub or dace minnow.

Fascinating, per usual, Gord!

I came across a pic on Stefan Samuel’s Insta profile that I assumed was an incidental walleye catch while chucking around big swimbaits for largemouth:

But went over to check out the rest of his IG and it was no fluke, dude is straight-up dialed!

Sounds like he’s a couple hours north of Toronto. And he said that big swimbaits have out produced snap-jigging and trolling so far this season – sure as heck looks like it!

How insanely cool is that?! 🔥 LOVE it, man!

I also came across this post from Blake Tollefson who’s been seeing some greedy waldos over in WI too:

> Blake “Don’t underestimate what a walleye will eat. This walleye had no problem eating a 4″+ jerkbait and then proceeded to puke up a 10″+ walleye in the net.”

All this seriously makes me want to completely switch-up the way I #TargetWalleye lol.

First: Walleye-junkie Parker Butler was fishing in the Brainerd Lakes Area when he got a walleye to eat boat-side on the figure-8. Said he watched it go into the turn and roll over his Rapala X-Rap right at his feet. And that it was “just a little practice for muskie opener this weekend!” 😳🤣

Reminded me of a wild video from a few years back that I was forwarded from Fishing Hall of Famer Perry Good. The guys were catching walleyes figure-8ing big #18 Rapala Original Floaters – that’s a 7″ [!!!] and 11/16-oz bait. Can’t make this stuff up!

Spoiler alert: They don’t just catch one….

Left me speechless…which doesn’t happen often lol #Wowza

Some super interesting details in this Walt Matan MidWest Outdoors write-up on how he wound-up fishing with a stranger he met in the fish-cleaning shack, and learned some cool tricks for weed walleyes.

Should definitely hit Walt’s full write-up here – cool story! – but a few excerpts below:

> …buys ‘crawlers in bulk, packs them in bedding and keeps them in his beer and bait fridge in the garage. Then the night before going fishing he pulls out the ‘crawlers he needs and puts them in a can full of iced well water in the fridge overnight. These crawlers will pump up into supercrawlers, twice their normal size. However, they are only good for the next day’s fishing – then they shrink up.

> …his secret weapon: a 5/32-oz homemade jig painted hot pink with his wife Betsy’s nail polish. He slid the supercrawler on the hook nose-first and fired a cast to the weed edge.

> “You want to cast about 2′ into the [coontail] weed edge and [purposely] get the jig stuck in the weeds. You reel up until the line gets tight and then jiggle it until the jig pops free. That’s when they strike.”

Walt said he was finally getting bites once he started doing this technique, but missed a half dozen fish…while cleaning-shack Joe had already netted 3….

His other trick (after getting a bite) was opening up the bail and letting ’em eat the crawler for a 10-Mississippi count: One Mississippi, two Mississippi…ten Mississippi. Boom.

They proceeded to stick 2 dozen walleyes in 6 hours on an interesting technique that just might work on your local weed-dwellers.

At first it was just Tom Boley’s flannel get-up that caught my eye:

But then when Lindner’s Angling Edge posted some ‘throwback Thursday’ pics yesterday – with black-and-white photos from back when stringer holds were popular – I couldn’t get over how much Tom looked like a young Al Lindner lol:

Maybe it’s just me 🤷‍♂️ all I know is both of those fellas can catch ’em.

1. ON/MN: We’re thinking of you folks dealing with flooding! 😫

> “From Lake Vermilion on the southeast to Lake of the Woods on the northwest, the entire Rainy River watershed is flooding, with water levels topping the 2014 flood and approaching 1950 flood levels, the worst on record.”

I’ve had buddies up there sandbagging for nearly a week straight trying to save what they can. Can’t even imagine. Thoughts and prayers to all those impacted.

2. US: 52 million Americans went fishing in 2021.

According to preliminary data from the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation’s (RBFF) 2022 Special Report on Fishing:

> Down slightly from 2020, fishing participation exceeded 50 mil for the second time in 14 yrs, posting gains over 2019 and supporting a 6-yr upward trend.

Few other details:

• 12.9 mil youth (ages 6-17) went fishing in 2021, up 14% over 2019.
• 4.7 mil Hispanics fished in 2021, up 7% over 2019.
• 19.4 mil women went fishing in 2021, up 8% over 2019.

3. MN: Interesting fish-diet study results.

Held over 3 yrs on 10 different MN lakes, and looked at the stomach contents of walleyes, muskies, northern and largemouth.

Btw perch and sunfish made up the majority of walleye’s diet.

4. MN: AIM championship is happening right now on Lake Miltona.

It’s a 2-day derby and they’ll be posting updates on their FB page.

5. Lake Erie: Where have all the perch gone?

Who’s gonna get the blame: Walleye boom, habitat degradation, round gobies or algal blooms??

6. WV: Albright Dam (Cheat River) might be gone next year.

> “Fish, particularly walleyes, have moved upstream from Cheat Lake through the Cheat Canyon, and they’re now stopped at the Albright Dam. Removal of the dam will allow the walleyes to move on upstream.”

7. IL: The end of ‘Asian carp’ is coming?

But not how you think. The IL DNR wants a new national name and brand for Asian carp to make them sound tastier:

> Asian carp is mild-flavored, flaky, freshwater fish, caught in Midwestern waterways. Its place is among the most popular white fish: more savory than tilapia; cleaner tasting than catfish; and firmer than cod.

> What we need now is a name that is as appealing as its taste, so more people will eat it and in the process, restore our waterways and protect the Great Lakes.

> Join Chopped champion Brian Jupiter of Frontier and Ina Mae Tavern and 13x James Beard Award-winning journalist Steve Dolinsky as we unveil a new national name and brand for Asian carp [on Wed, Jun 22 at 11am cst].

8. I thought this video was a joke…

…but now I’m not so sure. 🥴 It’s a review posted by Canadian Tire where the product tester, Merv, is using the spinning reel upside down the entire time lol.

9. BRP has a new marine group president.

> Karim Donnez has been appointed president, marine group. With the acquisition of 3 boat companies since 2018, BRP aims to become a key player in this industry….

10. Dick’s sales were down, but not really.

> …reported net sales of $2.7 bil for the first quarter, down 7.5% from the same period last year but up 41% against 2019.

11. FishUSA has 20% off Northland Tackle today.

Of course jigs, spinners, etc 👍 but don’t forget that includes their new Rumble Series cranks too:

12. OH’s free fishing weekend is Jun 18-19.

13. Skeeter’s Jeff Stone now will oversee G3 rigs too.

> In his new role, Stone is responsible for manufacturing, operations, marketing and sales for Yamaha U.S. Business Unit subsidiaries G3 and Skeeter Boats.

> During his tenure as senior VP, Stone helped Skeeter grow its market share from 8% to 20%.

Alaska man hooks a pike, flips his rowboat, loses the rod, steals a pedal boat, finds the rod – and lands the pike.

And if there weren’t pics, no one would believe him hahaha:

Tom Boley’s early-summer spinner pattern.

If you’ve got scattered, transitioning walleyes (one here, one there on Side Imaging) it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be casting at ’em…you can be waaaay better off covering water with spinners to get in front of as many snouts as you can.

Here’s how Tom Boley covers water with the new ACME Tackle Rattlin’ Walleye Spinner Rig – believe it’s the first-ever crawler harness that rattles – when there isn’t a juicy spot-on-the-spot:

Btw Tom said in the comments he was running ’em at 1.4 mph.

“HOW ARE MORE PEOPLE NOT DOING THIS!?!?”

– That’s fish-head Jared Pokrzywinski talking how he’s been fishing for almost 40 years and just had the single best day of walleye fishing in his entire life…fishing an area that somehow still flies under the radar: Near Hecla Island on Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg.

Obviously Lake Winnipeg is no secret, but the majority of folks hit the famous south shore near the Red River…whereas Hecla Island is roughly 40-50 miles north. He’s calling it “the biggest secret in all of walleye fishing on the continent.”

Bold statement! But then also consider the fact that they caught 100+ walleyes in just a few hours [!!!] and had multiple Master Angler walleyes (28″+) including fish over the magical 30″ mark. Sheesh!

The day after that post ^ they went back out and already had 50 walleyes before noon, all of which were over 20″ and caught vertical jigging, and said there was “not another boat in sight!!!”

Oh yeah, and did I mention they’re that ridiculous emerald green 😍 that you’ll only find swimming in Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg?

😳 Ridiculous!

The 3″ Berkley Ripple Shad does it again…and again and again! 💯 Ryan Harrenstein said that Bob crushed his PB walleye 3x in just 24hrs on Little Bay De Noc. With the biggest being this 29.5″ bruiser:

He caught it on the “Uncle Rico” color, which basically throws itself:

#Could’veGonePro

National Professional Anglers Assoc. 

MN-FISH