Hope everyone had a blessed and safe Easter weekend with family/friends!
If you’re getting this Target Walleye/Ice email for the first time, a friend probably signed you up!
Today’s Top 5
Montana 15-lber caught!
Donald Rosin was fishing Upper Holter Lake, MT with guide Trevor Johnson when he caught (and released) the fish of a lifetime…a 15-lb Easter-egg basket that bit a Kit’s Tackle Glass Minnow (yellow perch) baited with salted sucker meat:
> Trevor: “The fish had an old metal tag in her lip, which means she was at least 15 years old. Still weighed just shy of 15 lbs even after she released a tremendous amount of eggs in the boat.
> “The fish flopped over 32” long and had around a 20″ girth…her head was the size of an NFL football. She was dumping eggs all over the boat so we struggled to get perfect measurements…her well-being was more important to us.”
Here’s an actual pic of the boat’s floor after the release:
Congrats guys!
Slower current = bigger walleyes.
Right when river ice goes out, the fish will be relating to the deeper holes in the channel. As the season goes on, there’s too much current to fish anything mid-channel. Sure some fish will be there, but usually just the smaller males.
Instead IDO’s James Holst focuses on the backside of river turns where there’s less current — big females use these areas as a highway to conserve energy as they work their way upriver to spawn.
Here’s the IDO crew using this tactic to whack ’em good on the Rainy River:
They rigged up every Okuma Helios in the boat with 10-lb (4-lb diameter) Sufix 832 braid, a 3/8-oz VMC Neon Moon Eye Jig paired with a BFishN Tackle AuthentX Moxi.
For sure a deadly combo!
Free boat. *Local pickup only.
Check this awesome screen snapshot from Ronnie Moore’s Humminbird HELIX:
Wasn’t that long ago fish symbols/alarms were the big thing:
Now with Mega Imaging we’re getting snaps like THESE [heart-eyes emoji]:
Simple fix to your boat’s 12V power outlet.
The 12-volt power outlets on older boats never seem to work…but it’s usually an easier fix than you’d think:
Jus’ make sure you kill the power first, or you’ll end up like Marv in Home Alone:
What people think we do….
Walleye fishing means something different to everyone:
Raise your hand if you’re reading this at work….
News
1. Ever seen these crankbaits before?
Short Shallow Divers from Bay Rat Lures. Looks like a pile of Easter candy:
A super unique wobble + some awesome colors = outfishing your buddies. We’re digging the look of ’em, and of course their color names. Clockwise from top L: sherbert, highschool, cheap sunglasses, glow green frog:
FishUSA has 31 colors of ’em in stock here. #Yummy
2. MN: Rainy River sturgeon regs summed up.
Click here for the chart. Not too many places in the world you can catch ’em.
Brett’s heading up this weekend to try and tango with a 6-footer…like this coulda-been state record caught by Taylor Schroeder:
3. MN: Zippel Bay ice-out pike tourney.
They catch some bigguns. And ice conditions deteriorated quickly, so they didn’t take the late-ice beating they usually would.
4. IA: DNR making 100 mil baby walleyes.
> “Around 1,000 quarts of eggs were collected…with a successful hatch rate at 70% per quart…that means approximately 94,500 fry per quart. Quite a haul!”
No wonder IA guide Kevan Paul can catch ’em on back-to-back-to-back casts….
5. Evinrude’s gotta new 8-yr warranty?
Thought it was already at 10 years on the E-Tecs? Either way that shows some serious #confidence.
6. BPS buying Cabela’s for $500 mil less.
Tired of all the hiccups yet? Though that’s chump change to Johnny Morris….
7. MI: New Zealand mudsnail invasion.
Sounded like a horror-movie title…until we heard they’re “barely distinguishable from a grain of sand.”
For those of you able to sneak into this fishing biz trade show. We’ll be there.
9. NPAA: Tips on how to land a title sponsor.
Think outside the box boat….
Did you miss…
Tip of the Day
Power fishing for early-season walleyes.
Here’s one of Tony Roach’s favorite ways to catch ’em fast in the spring. Full write-up here, few excerpts below:
> Pitching and ripping Rapala Rippin’ Raps around shallow rockpiles, sand flats and breaklines is ideal when water temps are 50-55 degrees. The keys are covering a lot of water and letting the bait fall on a slack line.
> While working it back to the boat: repeatedly rip it up off the bottom and then quickly drop your rod tip to allow the bait to free fall on a slack line.
> Watch your line because most of the time, those fish are going to hit it on the fall. That pause is their signal to hit it….
> Because early-season walleyes are usually found pretty shallow, pitching to them — rather than trolling for them — prevents spooking them with the boat. They’re up shallow feeding, looking for bait.
> When walleyes move out deeper (later in the spring) where the boat won’t spook the fish, you can troll or slip-drift Rippin’ Raps in 10-14′ on expansive flats. Then it’s more of a vertical jigging technique, but you’re still ripping it up and letting it free-fall back to the bottom.
> Because water in the spring is generally pretty clear, I like to use more natural colors. Use a lake’s forage to determine which natural-looking patterns to start with. If I’m not getting bit, I will start experimenting with brighter colors.
Tony likes the #5 and #6 Rippin’ Raps, and fishes ’em on 8-10 lb Sufix Braid with a 1-2′ leader of 10-12 lb fluorocarbon. Works.
Meme of the Day
It’s an awkward time of year for most of us…hang in there:
Today’s ‘Eye Candy
Welcome to Utah Gravel Lizards 101 with Julian Pinney — this one courtesy of a Rapala X-Rap. Not many places you can walleye-fish with a backdrop like this:
