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...on his dropshot because he "spends a good deal of time chasing both largemouths and smallies, which he says has taught him a lot about walleyes."

Oh, and obviously:

Here's more from this Virtual Angling post with Korey Sprengel talkin' dropshots and how he uses bass baits on 'em to catch pressured walleyes:

> "One of the cool things about fishing smallmouths up in Door County and Sturgeon Bay is I’m dropshotting a lot of the time. As long as I’ve been doing it I’ve caught loads of walleyes fishing the same method and...spots.

> "Seems like walleyes are attracted to the Berkley MaxScent Flat Worm and Flatnose Minnow. 

> "With the Flat Worm, I use a tan-colored bait and in the Minnow I use the smelt pattern. From early season all through June, I’m catching a lot of walleyes mixed in with smallies on those 2 baits."

Btw, Korey thinks the matte finish on the MaxScent baits is a big deal too.

> "I’ve cashed checks dropshotting on the walleye trail. Specifically, I’ve fished a dropshot the past couple of years on the Missouri River at Chamberlain and it’s put lots of fish in the boat for me. 

> "For example, on the Missouri River, I used Lowrance SideScan to see how the walleyes were situated on the sand flats.

> "I was using SideScan and then pitching the dropshot into the current to pass through the fish. It allowed me to suspend my bait off the bottom and get the neutral to negative fish to bite when a traditional jig and plastic or live bait was hard to control.

> "Instead of pitching a jig where you’re constantly trying to lift it off the bottom in current situations and keep it drifting back with the current, I’ve turned to a dropshot. 

> "If you want to position your bait 4-8-inches off the bottom you can do that and work things a lot slower, which often gets the bites."

Talkin' your transom (back) transducers and if anyone is gonna have their transducer dialed it's Dylan "on a roll" Nussbaum.

Here's a quick video tip on how to get your transducers level based on how the boat actually sits in the water (not just how it’s sitting in the garage) so you get the best image possible:

> "So basically, what I have going on here is some coins under this level to get this bubble up to where it's perfect. 

> "How I figured out how many coins to use was I went out on the water, had the boat sitting there in neutral. I put these coins up until it leveled out, and from there now I can bring it back into the garage and use the jack to get it up to where it needs to go."

> "When I come back here to my transducers, I can throw this level on, I am a quarter bubble off there [now] and that's to account for when you have the boat in gear...the back end is going to go down and the front end is going to come up."

- That's the goat Al Lindner in the latest Lindner's Angling Edge YouTube video, talkin' a Rapala PXR Mavrik 110 Jerkbait deal for walleyes that's not really casting it...but not really trolling it either. 🤔

They're "power drifting" breaklines with the wind and pulling the bait by hand so it sweeps forward, pauses, tips nose-heavy and hangs where clear-water walleyes can come up and smoke it.

It's one of those "simple, but you gotta do it right" things – and Al says the big key is not just bombing it out and letting it ride in a rod holder. Check out the full vid for more juice and keep it in your back pocket when you head out for ‘opener’ this weekend!

Had a bit of 🧃 from Ross "Big Water Fishing" Robertson last week but if you wanna see it in action, here's a vid from last spring where I got in the boat with him and watched the Lake Erie trolling clinic unfold. 😅

We were trolling some dirty water catching some tubby walleyes, and I popped my 31" PB at the time! Quick screen grab of ‘er from the vid:

Here's a bit from Ross in that vid on our crankbait choices:


> "East wind, they bite the least, something like that. But here's the deal – [Rapala] Husky Jerks. Neutrally buoyant, perfectly suspend. I like to stall these things. When the bite gets tough, go Huskies. We like to fish these on mono, too.

> "This bait will perfectly suspend around 50 degree water. Doesn’t get as deep, but much more subtle rattle and action. When that water's a little cleaner, Husky Jerks are your friend.”

Q: I know the Rapala Gold Miner 30 and the Down Deep Husky Jerk are both deep diving baits, big bills. What's the difference? When would you use one versus the other?

> "The Gold Miner 30 gets super deep...on mono on a relatively short lead. If I can get there with a shorter length, I'm going to have less tangles. It's less time in and out. One hundred advantages. They also wanted to have a louder bait. Think about the Rippin’ Rap. The Gold Miner 30 is like a trolling version of that.”

> "Sometimes [the Gold Miner] is not the deal. There’s more aggression [in the Gold Miner]. The times like that, we're going to get into the Husky Jerk. This is a much more subtle bait.

> "We were just talking about how there really are a lot of rules of thumb in fishing, but they always seem to be broken. We were talking about liking that louder rattle in this off-colored water and they just hit our Husky Jerk. Fish just want what they want. 

> "I'm not going to put 10 Husky Jerks out right now. But when it's tough like this, the bite's off, I always want to have a couple Husky Jerks out there."

Big things are happening every day in the walleye and ice-fishing worlds, and nobody seems to know about it. We're here to change that.

I recently posted a new "Top 5" video (episode 94) on our YouTube channel. Big thx to our friends at Sea Foam and Scheels for making this video series possible! We're having a ton of fun with 'em and hope you are too!! 👊 Here she be:

We'll be back atcha with WAY more walleye-fishing goodness on Friday! ✌️

National Professional Anglers Assoc.

MN-FISH

Target Walleye LLC

422 Laurel Street

P.O. BOX 541

Brainerd, MN 56401

 (218) 824 5026