How Beau Schilling breaks down lake 🕵️♂️
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In case you haven’t noticed...Beau Schilling has been absolutely tearing it up everywhere he goes 🔥 and the 19-yr-old is currently leading the National Walleye Tour AOY race. Here's his finishes so far:
- Lake Erie: 4th
- Lake Oahe: 3rd
- Bay de Noc: 5th
- Green Bay: 3rd
The dude hasn't finished outside of the top 5...that's insane!
We caught up with Beau to see how he breaks down these new last FAST and catches these big 'ol derby grade walleyes. Here's Beau:
> "I look at a lot of maps and compare and contrast it with bodies of water we've been to that set up similarly. But a lot of it is just covering as much water as you can while you're there.
> "If you're fishing for fun, it's not a super big deal. But if you're fishing to get a couple big bites a day, and the bite is tough, or there ain't that many big ones around...covering water is definitely a key part in that. Learn how to run your trolling motor on 10....
> "Once you find a pattern, you mimic it across the body of water. If you find them on a ledge in 25' running along the river channel or whatever the situation might be, you try to duplicate that somewhere else."
Q: When you're covering water, how are you doing it efficiently – finding stuff that matters?
> "I'll pick an area to cover that day and say, 'I'm going to run this, this, and this.' I'll put the trolling motor down and put the big motor in gear pushing me along.
> "You're trying to figure out where they're sitting. Are they in 25', 40' or suspended over 80'?
> "You're [also] looking at water temp and trying to find something you can duplicate. Do they want the shoreline the wind is blowing into or where it's blowing out of? Do they want 71-degree water? Do they want a ledge or a flat?
> "You've got to figure out something small and then replicate it somewhere else – once you find that, there's a lot less water to break down."
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Q: How are you using LiveScope while searching?
> "When I'm looking for fish, I run it at like 120-130'. I'm just trying to find fish. Once I get into a decent amount of fish, I'll pull it way down to around 75'."
Q: So when you find fish are you not having to cast that far for 'em?
> "Usually you're casting 20-40', but sometimes you have to cast farther depending on the situation.
> "Some of these bites this year, we say the fish need a 'runway'. They need more time to build up before they bite."
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Mooch Minnow + a ‘crawler is all you need? 👀
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If we're gonna talk lake breakdowns with Beau, we gotta talk baits...so here's Beau with his 1-2 punch that he takes anywhere he goes:
> "It's between a 1/2-oz jig and plastic and a 3/16-oz jig and crawler. Those are probably my go-tos.
Typically runs a VMC Redline Series Tungsten Swimbait Jig for plastics and he’s chucking a VMC Tungsten Moon Eye Jig for ‘crawlers.
> "My favorite bait is probably a 1/2-oz jig and a [Rapala CrushCity] Mooch Minnow. But with the events we've fished this year, the past 2 tournaments have been all jig and crawlers."
Q: What separates the Mooch Minnow from other minnow plastics?
> "You look at a lot of traditional plastics and they're split-tail or whatever they may be. The nice part about the Mooch Minnow is you can miss fish, reel it back in and your plastic is still sitting there with the tail on it [thanks to it being made of Super TPE material].
> "That T on the tail has some really good action. It's just a good bait no matter where you go. It's really hard to beat."
Quick look at the subtle action of that unique tail design:
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Q: How are you working the Mooch Minnow?
> "That's why I like the Mooch Minnow – there are probably 10 different ways you can fish that plastic.
> "You can make super-long casts and reel it over them. You can make short casts with quick pops or get really snappy with it.
> "The best for me has been reeling really fast with small, quick pops – just short pops as you're reeling. But there are so many different ways to fish a Mooch Minnow. That's probably why it's one of my favorites."
Said he throws a lot of whites, and then the green pumpkin chartreuse pepper and sungill colors. Know you’re running the right program when they’re eating it like this:
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Q: Do you have any special approach with a jig and crawler?
> "I always try to get them to take it vertically first. I never try to take them on bottom right away. If they don't eat it up and I can tell they still want to eat something, that's when I'll send it down.
> "I shake my crawler a little more and pop it a little more than average. I'm not moving it as slow as everybody else.
> "I try to be a little more aggressive because when everybody's throwing a crawler, they're letting the crawler do more of the work. I'm always trying to show the fish something they're not seeing from everybody else.
> "But there's nothing super crazy. It's just about covering a lot of water and casting at a lot of fish."
Q: Are you dropping the bait on their head or bringing it to them?
> "A little bit of both. If they're killing it and you're pretty confident you can catch them, usually on a good bite you're dropping it right on their head.
> "On a stingier bite, maybe you roll it over from behind them or show them something different."
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Keep doing your thing, Beau! 🙌
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Why Hoyer gets his Champ Swimmers vertical ↕️
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I was perusing Facebook and caught John Hoyer red-handed doing a bass fishing podcast – we'll forgive him but only because he dropped this juicy tip on the IKE Live pod. 🧃
> "I learned this pattern almost by accident, using a 1/2- or 3/4-oz jighead in 8-12' of water with a 4.6" Berkley Champ Swimmer.”
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> "If it's cabbage, or really anything you can rip a bait through, I'll throw that bait out and let it free-fall about halfway down the water column. You're not trying to touch bottom. Then you just rip it straight up.
> "If it's cabbage, you're ripping it to clear the cabbage, then letting it free-fall as fast as it will. About halfway back to the boat, I'll find bottom once, then give it a couple more rips and let it free-fall again.
> "The bait is literally falling straight down, and it is so powerful on smallmouth, largemouth, pike and especially walleyes. I won a musky tournament doing it. It's probably my #1 favorite crossover presentation of all time.
> "The reason it works so well is something I learned ice fishing for perch.... When you see a perch, or even a smallmouth you've lost, turn straight down and head for the bottom, that [vertical] orientation means danger. They're fleeing.
> "For whatever reason, predators in our freshwater lakes recognize that same straight-down orientation of a paddletail. When that bait falls straight toward the bottom, they pounce on it like I've never seen."
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My arms are already sore just thinking about snapping, but worth it! I believe he's typically running a 7' 2" medium heavy, fast-action Fenwick World Class for this technique = extra oomph.
Btw he keeps his lunchbox nice and full. 🥵
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“Metallic Yellow Perch” ain't the only 🔥 jerkbait color….
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Sometimes I tell myself it is because it's always tied on – and that color on the Rapala PXR Mavrik just flat out catches 'em! BUT here's a few other tasty, perchy colors in the Mavrik (aka day-saver) lineup:
Ozark Delight:
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We don't throw gold baits enough...?
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And I mean even in clear water. 👀
That 'metallic gold' PXR Mavrik in the last item reminds me of this recent Jay Kumar's BassBlaster post I came across.
Gold baits – chatterbaits, jerkbaits and cranks have been tearing it up on the pro bass side of things all over the country this year – even on places like the St. Lawrence River, NY and then that post had this map and I was like "duh!"
Everything brown or dark brown is where they've found golden shiners:
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So maybe gold is actually matching the hatch way more better-er than we thought in some cases.... 🤷♂️
Doesn't just have to be gold hard baits either – can get a little gold-esque with softbaits like the new Berkley Lab Series Minnow in phantom herring, wakasagi and highland shad. 👀
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Heard it's THE only thing this guy throws...
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Champions Tour walleye event coming to Gull Lake, MN!
The Classic Bass Champions Tour will be running a catch-weigh-release format WALLEYE tournament on Gull Lake (in the Brainerd Lakes Area) on Tues, Sept 22.
This tournament is a catch-weigh-release format where every fish over 2 lbs counts towards the total weight, and all fish are recorded by a boat marshal via their Reel LiveWell App. The top-finishing individual will take home $15K!
The field will be capped at 50 boats. Registration is now open right here – looks like it’s already about half full.
It was super fun following along on their live leaderboard during their first test-run event on Mille Lacs, and gotta say the Classic Bass crew did a killer job of kicking out photos and videos on their FB page throughout the day. 💯
Allan Nistler won the inaugural ‘Champions Tour’ walleye derby on Mille Lacs with 70 lbs 9 oz during an extremely stingy bite in heavy winds – huge congrats again, man!
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In case you missed it, they put out an A+ video covering the Mille Lacs Champions Tour event that's worth hitting up:
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Such a cool format. REALLY hope to see them host more walleye derbies in the future!
Such a cool format. REALLY hope to see them host many more walleye derbies in the future 🤞 which is exactly why I'm all about supporting this next one any way that I can...including signing up to fish it lol. Can't wait!
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Don’t forget to get a little “snappy” on ‘em...
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Summertime walleyes can seem fussy 🤷♂️ but sometimes it’s actually our fault for not giving ‘em what they want..or more so how they want it.
Quick story time:
I was out on a local lake last week. Only had a couple hours to fish (and wasn’t seeing much of anything out deep) so started snap jigging a plastic along a shallow weed flat that was adjacent to deep water – looked very similar to this One-Boat Network App screenshot:
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Instantly caught a dinky little 11-12” or so walleye. Figuring there must be others around, we started picking apart the area with all sorts of live-bait offerings: Dropshot w/ a nightcrawler, slip-bobber with a leech, light 1/8-oz jig and crawler, etc. Didn’t get another bite, so kept on working down the weedline with the live stuff...but never caught another.
If they won’t eat a ‘crawler or leech, then they’re not going to eat anything, right?
Wrong.
I finally pulled the plastic back out (not sure why I put it down instantly after catching a fish) and ended up getting whacked again, but this time it was a solid 18-19” walleye.
Felt like a bozo since we just wasted half of our fishing time working slow with live bait, when in reality the fish wanted something moving fast!
For me that something was a 1/4-oz VMC Neon Moon Eye Jig paired with a 3.4” Berkley PowerBait The Champ Minnow (HD purple smelt):
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It’s not as big, heavy, or snappy as what you see lots of folks throwing for Great Lakes caliber fish...but this is an average lake, with average fish, where a lot of time bringing in just a few “eater” size walleyes can land you a check in a local walleye league.
So for all of the “average” that we had going on, I would consider this a pretty fast + snappy bait for the situation. Especially in just 7-11′ or so.
We ended up catching baker's dozen in less than 1 hour of snap jigging, which is pretty dang WILD for around here on clear, pressured waters!
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So long story (slightly) short(er): There are some days/times when walleyes want to eat something that’s moving faster – especially this time of year. Crazy enough, if you make them chase and work for it, you might just get more bites than dangling live bait in front of their nose.
Thank YOU so much for reading! 👊 Back 'atcha in a couple....
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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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