"May is one of my favorite months to chase river walleye!"
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...is what Tommy Kemos posted a few days ago so we gave him a call to make sure he was telling the truth and he sho-nuff was! 😆 Here's 5 Qs with Tommy on his fav type of fishing:
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1. This week you posted on Facebook that May is your favorite month to fish rivers. Why is that?
> "May is a great time for river fishing – the fish have spawned pretty much throughout the country and are in recovery mode, where they start switching into feeding mode.
> "As the water temps warm up, the fish become really active. Typically, those first areas to warm are shallower, which is conducive to a more aggressive bite.
> "They'll start migrating downstream from their spawning areas, but they'll set up on shallow clam beds, sandbars and things that warm quickly during the day. Those are also areas where they can get down out of the current a little bit and let the food come to them.”
2. When they start sliding out of where they spawn, how far is "out?" What's your gauge for where to start looking right now?
> "Typically, I look for them at funnel points – whether it's where the funnel empties out or where the funnel starts. [Those are the] high-percentage areas.
> "The fish will use the current to migrate downstream from their spawning areas. When they get downstream to those funnel areas, a lot of times they'll hang up there and slide up onto any shallow structure around those funnel areas to feed.
> "They'll try to get in position where they don't have to use a ton of energy chasing food down, but they still have a good ambush point.
> "A lot of times, hard-bottom stuff diverts the current. Clam beds are often not in the main current – they're in secondary current. Again, those are good places where fish can feed easily.”
3. What's the difference in how you're targeting them in this phase compared to when they're spawning or fresh out of the spawn?
> "There are a variety of techniques that work really well, which is why it's such a fun time of year. You can catch them however you want.
> "Jig dragging is a really effective way to catch them this time of year. That's just a 1/8-oz jig with typically a leech or a small piece of crawler.
> "Crankbait casting also starts coming into play. A #5, #6 or #7 Flicker Shad is a great bait for casting."
4. When you're fishing crankbaits and leeches, is there a certain depth you're targeting, or is that relative to the river?
> "It's relative...but you could be talking anywhere from 2-8'. It seems like anything deeper than 8' isn't as good.
> "They seem to like being shallower than 8', and I think a lot of that has to do with light penetration and the bottom heating up.”
Follow-up Q: With the light penetration deal, do you find them in different areas in the morning or at night?
> "Typically, we're talking about river water with pretty dirty, dingy water. They aren't quite as shy to too much sunlight as clear-water fish are.
> "Typically, late morning is good because it gives that water time to warm. It still gets cool at night – a lot of times the bite first thing in the morning isn't great....
> "The bite typically gets better [throughout the day], usually peaking within an hour or so of dark."
5. On those spots you're fishing, is there anything else you're looking for, like bait presence, certain water clarity?
> "The biggest thing is looking for transition areas where the bottom goes from one thing to another.
> "Whether it's sand-to-rock, sand-to-clam-bed or even mud-to-rock, those fish will be all over the clam beds and rock bars.
> "A lot of times, the best fish on those places will be positioned on the edges – whether it's the inside or outside edge.
> "A lot of times there'll be a current seam where the main current butts up against those different structures. That's typically how the best fish on it will set up."
Follow-up Q: What are you doing to find those transition areas and bars?
> "100% side imaging. I'll go to areas that look like they should be right, and then side-image them to look for the key areas or see if those key areas even exist.
> "Sometimes they can be really big areas, sometimes smaller. But, side imaging is for sure the best way to locate those."
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> "I use a Garmin GT36 transducer for my side imaging [and] I'm using a Garmin EchoMap Ultra 2 126 at the console.
> "I like to run my side imaging at 90'. I feel like I get a much better look at the big-picture at that 80-90' range, I can see really clear in less than 10' of water – walleyes set up on those structures, as well as other fish using it.
> "When I start fishing, I'm not only keeping an eye on that, but I'm also using LiveScope so I can see individual fish as I'm working through. As the current changes, the fish will reposition, and with LiveScope you can see that in real time.”
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Tommy Kemos’ top 3 river baits/setups 💯
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Ya got the fishing juice, now here's the baits Tommy's using to put 'em in the boat!
He said the only way to catch 'em is to have this many Berkley baits:
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Ok maybe not, but if he could only have 3 baits out there on the river, here's his podium:
> Jig dragging: 1/8-oz standard round-ball jig with a leech or small piece of crawler, 7' ML F Fenwick Elite spinning rod, size-30 Abu Garcia Revo SX and straight 8-lb Berkley Trilene XT mono in the “solar” color.
> Why mono: "The absolute deal for jig dragging is 8-lb high-vis XT. You'll catch way more fish with mono than braid. Mono floats, so the line is pulling up on the jig, and it gives you a little bow in the line. When fish bite, because you're drifting with the current, you want to have a little shock absorber."
> Why a cheap jighead: "For that technique, the cheaper the jig, the better – you go through a lot of them. With the mono and lighter rods, you don't need a super-stout hook. I prefer a lighter-wire hook that will straighten out on snags. It's typically not a big-fish pattern – it's just a catching-a-lot-of-fish pattern."
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Crankbait casting: #5, #6 or #7 Berkley Flicker Shad, ML fast Fenwick Elite or World Class, 8-lb high-vis Berkley FireLine to a 1-2' 12-15 lb Berkley GinClear fluoro leader.
> Why that rod: "You want that soft tip so there's a little give when a fish strikes, and you want a high-quality rod that's really sensitive so it transmits what that bait is doing along the bottom. A lot of times with a really sensitive rod, you can feel if a fish is pushing your bait or if a fish misses it."
> Why the Flicker Shad: "It has a real tight action. It's not super aggressive. The water temp still isn't crazy summer-warm yet, so even though the fish are getting aggressive, they still want something a little more subtle and natural. That coffin-style bill does a nice job deflecting off cover, which is what triggers bites a lot of times."
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> Why size 30 reels: "That size is a common denominator. I like the larger-diameter spool. I think it handles a lot better, whether you're using mono or braid."
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A $44K reward-tagged walleye was caught...but doesn’t count! 😩
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Every year during Iowa Great Lakes Walleye Weekend, 10 walleye are tagged and released into the IA Great Lakes chain (Big Spirit Lake, East Lake Okoboji, & West Lake Okoboj) with big $$$ on the line if someone registered for the event were to catch one of ‘em....
And someone did in fact catch one of those tagged walleye worth $44K, but unfortunately they were left with the ultimate fish story instead of the massive payday....
> A tagged walleye that WOULD have been $44,000 was caught in this year’s tournament, but there’s a bit of a snag....
> “On the rules sheet, all tagged fish, all fish, must be alive. So that fish was not alive. Unfortunately the folks fished until 4:00, 4:30 in the morning, went home, took a nap, got up to clean fish, oh crap, we’ve got a tagged walleye!”
Woof! 😩 That’s one expensive walleye dinner lol.
There’s no pics ‘cuz, understandably, the people didn’t want to be recognized. Can you even imagine?!
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Tony Roach doesn’t get it twisted 😮💨
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You've heard me preach about the "spin of death" when you're ice fishing – when your bait starts spinning and the fish just give you the ✌️. But that same problem can happen under a slip-bobber too, especially with cold-water mono, line twist and a bait that's supposed to sit still.
Tony Roach’s secret weapon for combating that has been the VMC Sniper Swivel, but he does some OCD line prep before he ever ties one on. Here’s how he keeps his slip-bobber setup twist-free, from this Dialed In Angling Podcast:
> "[Normally], I like to condition my monofilament line. How I go about rigging my mono on my rods is very meticulous, and I do it every single time, because I don't like kinks in my line.
> "I put my monofilament [in] warm water – not hot water, but warm water – in the sink. I start spooling it on my reel through my rod.
> "What I do is I run that line then off of my spool, like either in my house or...[the yard] is a great area to do that...and I kind of string it out on the grass, then I kind of reseat that back on the spool again.
> "When I get out of the landing, before I take off, I run that monofilament behind my boat, and I run out almost the entire spool of line behind the boat – not quite to the knot – and I kind of just almost let the motor pull out any twists that you'd have in there. It sort of stretches that mono, and then I reseat it back on my spool.
"When [you do all that, you] know that your presentation is not down there, sitting there, spinning or doing something weird.
> "VMC came out with the Sniper Swivel. This is a weighted swivel that you're going to want to use with your bobber rods this year.”
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> "What I love about Sniper Swivels is you don't get any twisting in your line, you don't have any of that memory issue like I just talked about.
> "It really helps with that, but it also simplifies your presentation, where you don't have to deal with split-shot.
> "I like...putting a 1/16-oz jig or even a plain hook, sometimes about 18” to 2’ – maybe 2.5' leader under the Sniper Swivel.
> "I commonly use a 1/16- [or] 1/8-oz, especially in the shallow water.
> "I like putting a bead above my swivel, just so that my bobber is not pinching down on my swivel itself."
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Do big walleye need to find their own food? 🤨
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Great Lake Finesse's best selling color is that 'matte 309' (above) and it blends right in with the bottoms around the great lakes area...but have we ever wondered why those kind of natural colors work so well? I mean, think about it, everything walleye eat are made to blend in.
Here's mastermind behind Great Lakes Finesse, Dan Miguel, on why he tries to imitate that:
> "When you get a color that very much blends in with the environment, they seem to hit that a lot better.
> "I'm a firm believer that you want the fish to feel like they found the bait rather than make the bait be so obvious to the fish.
> "...sometimes you make the bait too obvious to the fish, and that turns them off, especially bigger pressured fish. They want to feel like, 'Ah, I see you, I got you." Makes sense! I guess if we're not throwing a jighead minnow, we need to work on blending in with wherever we're at!"
Btw, you can check out those au naturel GLF colors and finesse-y profiles here at Scheels – they have a ton of really fishy-lookin’ stuff! 😍
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3. ND: How Devils Lake is changing....
> ...a lot of that flooded timber that we’ve seen for years, and years, and years on the lake is starting to deteriorate and the ice is starting to take it out, so there’s a lot more vegetation in the lake than there used to be. I think that’s where a lot of the fish are, and as an angler, they’re hard to catch in the weeds.
4. OK stocking 26,000 walleye fingerling in Lake Hefner
Btw in case you’re curious like I was...
The Oklahoma state record walleye is 12 lbs 13 oz (30-3/8" long x 19-1/2" girth) caught May 8, 2004 by Kerry Carter at Robert S. Kerr Reservoir...which is in the eastern part of the state just maybe 30-ish minutes from the Arkansas border.
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5. NY: Some interesting Lake Erie walleye population factoids
> The walleye catch rate 11 walleye/trip was the best in the 38-year survey, with 2 in 5 anglers getting their 6-fish limits.
> ...resource managers estimate there are about 77 million walleyes in Lake Erie.
6. MI: Saginaw Bay perch survival rates 📉
Been hikes in reproduction, but they aren't surviving. A combination of the exploding walleye population + disappearance of alewives = could be to blame:
> ...the predominant food sources for walleye, until 2003, were gizzard shad and alewives. Upon the disappearance of the latter, walleye began feasting heavily on YP, to the degree that perch are now the main species they consume. Gizzard shad remains a close second, and walleye also feed on a mix of such other species, as rainbow smelt and various shiners.
> ...believes that the prior abundance of alewives created a predation buffer, of sorts, to protect [yellow perch]. The walleye diet can change throughout the seasons, so he thinks that the high volume of gizzard shad consumption is more so a fall phenomenon. “I don’t think they’re there most of the time;” as such, walleye are feeding mainly on YP. In other words, regardless of walleye also preying on fish besides YP, it doesn’t appear to be enough to provide the buffer that existed in the past.
> The perch are eaten by almost every other predator species, as well, but because there have been so many walleye in the bay in recent years, they are having a greater influence on the high mortality rates of YP.
7. MN: Hoyer celebrated ‘opener’ on Mille Lacs
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> It took us a while to find the fish...I wasted a lot of time in 6-10’ of water. Once we started pushing out deeper into 14’+, we started to find them.
> Of course I wanted to catch every fish on an artificial bait, but unfortunately it was not that easy. With clouds of perch, shiners, and tulibee all over the place, I quickly realized it would be a tougher bite.
> A 1/4-oz jig and shiner seemed to be the best...also caught a number of fish on leeches. Sunset was kind of fun with a Berkley Stunna Plus 2 jerkbait. I did catch my 5 biggest fish of the weekend on that bait.
> We ended up with 25 fish and a beautiful 9 fish limit on Saturday. Sunday, the fish were biting better and we had 30-35 fish in 3 less hours.
> The lake is in amazing shape right now. Super healthy fish, a perfect-in-my-mind 3 fish limit, and lots of perch for years to come.
> Next stop, Lake Oahe for the National Windy Tour!!! [😂]
8. ON: Atikokan Walleye Hatchery "open house" tomorrow
Learn about the life cycle of walleye. Free hot dogs are always nice 😎 but potentially getting to watch walleye fry hatching in real time – yes please!
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11. MN: State-record sturgeon caught
An 80-incher?! Caught last month in Four Mile Bay on the Rainy River.
Speaking of Rainy River sturgeon...check out this magnificent specimen spotted where the Rapid River dumps in! 🤯 A golden sturgeon?!
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“Ladies, this right here is evidence that Dan Spengler is literally a catch.”
- That’s a funny comment talking about Berkley bait designer Dan Spengler, who might just own the record for the most number of Fusion19 treble hooks (crazy sharp!) to get buried in human skin:
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His product testing is truly hands-on lol.
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Sending ‘er off with a little ‘Fish-Flop Friday’ action courtesy of TW reader Jared Harvey. 😂
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Have a great + safe weekend and good luck out there! 👊
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FRIENDS OF TARGET WALLEYE
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Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jay Kumar, Chris Philen, 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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