Hoyer’s jigging cadence tricks to seal the deal 🤫
|
|
|
Walleye hammer John Hoyer was recently up at Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba where he said he learned a couple of new tricks, and used one of his favorite standby moves to trigger some serious bites.
> Part of the fun of catching "greenbacks" is the fact that they bite some seriously aggressive presentations. Since the first trip 10 yrs ago, I worked on every possible move to trigger those giant marks into biting. A go-to move is ripping or purring the rattlebait when you’re not marking one. As soon as I see a hint of a mark on the flasher, I start moving the bait up in the water column, and shaking my rod tip, creating the perfectly timed/lifelike getaway move. If you only had one trick, this would be a good one.
> My friend Steve Nelson put me onto a similar move a few years back, except the finishing part was way more simple. On a day when I was getting denied because the fish had a 3’ ceiling [how high they’re willing to come up], he would mark the fish, get it engaged, and make one moderate stroke to purr or rattle the bait about a foot above the mark. That was it, stroke the lure once and hang it out to dry.
> I had to know why this worked so well...the conclusion I came to is the fact that a rattlebait will coast off center when used vertically. It’s a lot like the finishing move I use on a glide bait while ice fishing. Make a perfectly timed pop, and trust that the lure is slowly meandering back to center, 2 to even 3 seconds later.
|
|
|
> The final move is the free fall. This one took me a while to get confidence in and I actually started doing it after using the big flutter spoons that made Winnipeg famous. It all made sense after thinking of the ways we trigger walleyes in the boat. Fast fall rate and fleeing to bottom must be something that walleyes encounter while hunting. I use this move as a last resort, but it might be the best rattlebait move of all time. If the fish acts a little lazy or stalls out on one of the first mentioned moves, I instantly make the decision to guard the fall rate of the lure, right past the mark, planning on stopping about a foot below the fish. It is very rare that the fish doesn't inhale the bait if it is close enough when you drop down.
Can confirm = awesome tricks!
Btw Hoyer also said:
> One thing was certain. When you got a #7 Berkley Finisher tipped with a minnow head on the front hook, in front of a big fish, it bit every single time.
> ...quickly becoming one of my favorite walleye lures thru the ice. The attractive darting action gets their attention. The slender, easy to inhale profile – along with the belly roll while shaking the bait away – is basically a done deal almost every time when your timing is right.
|
|
|
Oh, and he also said: “Life is short...go to Lake Winnipeg! 🔥 No doubt!
|
|
Iowa has a new state-record crappie! 💯
|
|
|
Details from this great Bob McNally write-up on Outdoor Life:
> Micaiah Thompson and his friend Dan Ginn had other plans this Super Bowl Sunday. Instead of watching the game on the couch, the two fishermen decided to take five kids from a church youth group ice fishing. The group headed out that afternoon to the 85-acre Lake of Three Fires, which is located in the state park of the same name....
> “The kids wanted to catch panfish, and Three Fires is loaded with them.... They started catching bluegills left and right. But Dan and I were after walleyes, so we were trying for them with jigs and minnows. We had some tip-ups out, too.”
> The seven anglers were scattered around a tapering point in the lake that dropped from 3’ to 17’. Using sonar, Thompson was jigging around a deep brush pile he’d found that was loaded with fish.
Here's the exact spot he caught 'er from:
|
|
|
> “It was about 6 pm, full dark, and we were picking up to leave when I had a good size fish I saw on sonar come for my lure.... The fish missed it. But I had another green jig and a minnow deep down in a second hole nearby, and the fish hit that one hard.”
> ...rigged with 10-lb braided line and a 4-lb mono leader, Thompson worked in the heavy fish during a one-minute fight.
> “I thought it was a walleye the whole time, even when I got it up into the ice hole.... I didn’t have a flashlight, so Dan came over to help me get the fish up. Its mouth was so big we thought it was a walleye. Only when he put his flashlight on it did we know it was a crappie.”
> He was disappointed at first because it wasn’t a walleye. Then he realized the size of the huge crappie. They weighed the fish that night on a scale they had, which read 4.1 lbs. Because it was Super Bowl Sunday and most places were closed, they didn’t get the crappie officially weighed until 2 days later.
|
|
|
> The anglers originally wanted to keep the crappie alive, so they kept it in an aerated bait bucket filled with cold water. On Feb 10, after they had the fish weighed on a certified scale at a lumberyard, they realized the fish wasn’t going to make it and decided to keep it. The black crappie weighed 3.95 lbs, topping the previous Iowa record of 3.88 lbs that was caught in 2013.
> “We had to wait until an official from the state came to positively identify it as a black crappie before I knew it was a record catch [confirmed].... My crappie was 17.8” long, and Dan caught another crappie earlier that measured 17.2” long – nearly as big as mine.”
|
|
|
Sounds like dude has his priorities right. 🙌 Huge congrats!
|
|
Is the “pinging” of your sonar spooking fish?
|
|
|
This whole deal became a hot topic once we really started to see how fish react on forward-facing sonar. Which includes watching ‘em turn around and swim the other way when we get too close!
Some folks absolutely swear that “live sonar” spooks fish.
|
|
|
I’ve always been in the camp of "don't ya think they're a little more worried about the 18-21' of noise-making stuff behind the FFS transducer?" 😅 The boat slapping on waves. Trolling motor whirring. Shadows. Bangs. Bonks. You name it....
That stuff can be a little more controllable when on the ice. But you’d still be absolutely shocked at how noisy you are to the fish down below.
I was out the other day chasing bluegills and crappies on a local lake. There were TONS of fish around. At times I’d have 10+ fish on the screen at once. And every single time I would take a step 👀 they would all spook. Even with 26” of ice! I’m not talking about jumping up and down, or even walking...I mean as little as the small adjustment you do to sort of posture up and get ready to set the hook when you see a fish coming up to your bait. Once I saw that a couple of times, and started to freeze completely still, they had no problem eating my VMC Tungsten Bullfly. 😎
Any-who.... I’m getting a little sidetracked now, so let’s tighten up.
Whether you believe fish hear sonar or not, check out this post from the Technological Angler breaking down what fish actually hear. Btw The Technological Angler, Dr Jason Halfen, has a PhD in chemistry from the U of MN and has authored 60+ scientific journals and knows boat tech inside and out. Few excerpts:
> Can fish detect sonar? Here's what the biological and behavioral science says about fish detecting sonar. In a word...NO.
> The vast majority of fish cannot detect the typical sound frequencies we use – from traditional 2D sonar all the way up to FFS.
> It has been well established...that most fish cannot detect sound frequencies higher than 2 or 3 kHz. Keep in mind that the lowest available frequency on common 2D sonars is 50 kHz.
> That story tells us what fish can't detect. What kinds of sounds can they detect? LOW-FREQUENCY noise. What creates low-frequency noise?
> Running outboard motors, trolling motors – especially old, creaky ones, opening and closing compartments, stomping around on the deck, digging around in the cooler, dropping a box of leadhead jigs on the floor.
> Low-frequency noise CAN be detected by fish and cause them to change their behavior. High-frequency sonar CANNOT.
Interesting, eh?
I know this won’t change the minds of some folks who swear by the “sonar wall” aka the distance where they continually see fish stop instead of coming all the way into their bait.
|
|
|
But I guess then maybe this is my way of saying to pay closer attention to some of the other noise variables you can better control. 🤷♂️
|
|
NWT is going to invitational format in 2027 👀
|
|
|
Haven’t seen much out there talking about it yet, but I spotted this interesting block mentioned near the top of the 2026 NWT rules (pdf).
Sorta sounds like they’re taking a page out of Bassmaster’s book, where folks can’t just pay to play in the Elite Series, they have to qualify by fishing their way into it:
|
|
|
It'll be super interesting to see some of the other changes NWT is bringing to their series as they’re “investing heavily to elevate professional walleye fishing.” 👍 Keep you posted as we learn more.
|
|
Walleye fishing lost and found 🔎📦🔍
|
|
|
If you lost a giant walleye AND your "pink lemonade" color Smithwick Perfect 10 Rogue on Green Bay 👀 then Jeremy Klaas is here to let you know what you missed out on.... Said he removed the souvenir and released the 29-incher for someone else to catch:
|
|
|
1. MN’s walleye season closes after this weekend 😔
The season runs thru Sun, Feb 22 (opens back up May 9, 2026). In the meantime, you can still get out chasing panfish and now bass thanks to the new catch-and-release season. Or burbot (aka eelpout) if you wanna catch something that reeeeally fights back hahaha! And that bite will just get better and better over the next 2-3 weeks.
Few other things to keep in mind:
Border waters have different seasons and regs, so look them up! For example: The walleye/sauger season on Lake of the Woods runs thru Apr 14 (pike and bass never closes). It has different regz because it’s a border water with CAN. The bite has been great! I think it always is lol.
You’ll need a new MN fishing license starting Mar 1. They’re good until the last day of February of the following year.
2. MN: Reminder to comment by Mar 5 about walleye limit
3. SD: AFTCO Walleye Throwdown, Lake Oahe, July 25-26
Out of Akaska and held alongside the South Dakota Walleye Classic and Festival. The biggest walleye weighed in during the 2 days wins a brand new Ford Maverick! I also like that they’re doing 8 bi-hourly cash payouts for the largest walleye caught during each period.
Register by June 30 and you’ll receive a $200 AFTCO gear pack, getting the full value of your entry fee back.
4. Wisconsin Fishing Expo is Feb 27 - Mar 1
Btw I saw that Wisconsin's own Jason Przekurat will be inducted into the Fishing Hall of Fame at the Expo on Sat, 2/28 at 3p. 💪 Well deseverved!
5. MN: Crappie caught in 24'+ have high barotrauma death
> The highest rates of mortality were associated with fish caught from deep water, and ranged from 50% in deeper water to 10% in water shallower than 24'.
6. Biggest scam in the history of bass tournaments?!
Wild story that's happening right now. 🤯
7. MN: GRAHA derby had to a lottery system
The Grand Rapids Walleye Shootout on Pokegama fills up each season and always has a waiting list. I believe the folks who fished it the year before get priority, and spots only open up if a team drops out. Well, so many folks hopped on to register for those few remaining open spots that they crashed the site. So organizers had to do a lottery to fill ‘em fairly.
8. Duane 'Dewey' Hjelm 🤝 Nork Lithium
9. John Bretza new Okuma VP of product development
10. Andrew Gritzbaugh is new Grundens CEO
Worked at MeatEater and most recently Grunt Style.
11. Rapala CrushCity The Jerk now on Scheels
It was a Canadian bait last year, now migrated to the US. 😁
|
|
|
> This fork-tail jerk minnow takes the baitfish profile to the next level, featuring precise details and a tail that quivers with the slightest current or rod twitch. Its erratic, darting action – whether rigged on a worm hook, moped on a jig, or set on a drop shot – makes it irresistible!
It’s made of that awesome "Super TPE” material. I had the chance to use it last fall and it was awesome for snap jigging.
12. Garmin marine revenue up in Q4 📈
> Net sales in the marine segment increased 18% in the 4th quarter to $296.9 mil, driven largely by increased plotter sales. Gross and operating margins were 52% and 18%, respectively, resulting in $52 mil of operating income.
> For the year, the marine segment posted $1.2 bil in net sales, a 10% increase over 2024.
10% in a down economy is pretty strong.
13. Yamaha FY '25 revenue about flat but income down
Revenue down 2%, operating income down 30%:
> The company cited tariffs among the reasons for the declines, noting that it has already paid $354.7 mil in tariffs in 2026 compared with $111.6 mil for all of 2025.
14. CO: Rusty crayfish found in Little Thompson River
Sounds like not the first time they've been found in the state. Btw here's what one looks like if you’re trying to match the hatch:
|
|
|
And the winner is...drum roll...awkward pause...drummer continues to jam...okay put the drumsticks down dude:
🎊 dres******83@gmail.com 🎊 you win dude/dudette!!
Of course I also sent you a private email. Time is running out to respond to that message directly to claim your prize, otherwise our giveaway app will get to randomly draw a new winner. I’m looking forward to hearing from you (ASAP)!
|
|
|
Those of you that didn’t win: Thank you for entering and for taking time out of your day to read these Target Walleye emails. 👊 We’ll have another giveaway coming your way soon....
|
|
|
"Both will be great in a few years."
- Funny comment under this FB post with Wade Olson showing us why a lot of folks call little walleyes "cigars" hahaha!
|
|
|
Thank YOU for reading! 👊 Have a great + safe weekend!!
|
|
|
Sign up another fish-head!
If you're forwarding Target Walleye to a friend who loves to walleye fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we'll take care of it! (We won't sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.)
|
|
|
FRIENDS OF TARGET WALLEYE
|
|
|
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!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
