Giant Wissota pre-spawn flathead!

I was joined today by three guests on a Lake Wissota walleye hunt. We had a so-so walleye day...a molasses slow morning followed by a reasonable afternoon. Decent afternoon numbers of slot fish and shorts, although the "overs" eluded us today.

Some of the trip highlights included the two 40"-class fish we had boatside. Mike Whittlinger hooked a small walleye about 5 minutes into the trip, which was promptly torpedoed by a 40"-class Wissota musky. Everyone had a chance to see it wallow and roll a few times before spitting out the tattered, quivering walleye and swimming away.

A few hours later, Ryan hooked a big rock that started to move. Well, 10-15 minutes later, we slid the Beckman under this Wissota supertanker flathead. 40" long and just shy of 35 pounds, this is the biggest cat that this walleye guy has been around in a long time. A few quick snaps with Ryan and the gang, and back she went.

Ryan didn't muscle this fish in with a crankbait and trolling gear. Rather, this Wissota flathead took a 1/8 oz Draggin Jig and a half-crawler, dragged over shallow rock in moderate current. Our ability to land this fish is a testament to the quality of the B-Fish-N tackle Draggin Jig (check out the cat slime still on the line!), the strength of the Cortland 8 lb hi-vis mono we're spooled up with (thanks Dean!), the quality of our St. Croix Legend Tournament 68MXF rods, and the smooth drags on our Shimano Symetre reels. Everything must work PERFECTLY to have a chance to land such an oversized, under-tackled fish, and all of this equipment performed flawlessly for us this afternoon.

And Ryan did a good job fighting her, too!

Congrats on your Wissota PB flathead Ryan....we'll shoot for a PB walleye next time out.

Pepin leadcore bite

There is a GREAT leadcore bite in progress out on Pepin!

I had a chance to take two of my graduating students out for the afternoon today. Our rain-shortened 4-hour trip ended with 9 nice 16-20" fish for the box, a thick 22" sauger released, and a bunch of shorts, goats, and stripers. Katie and Jon are shown here with a couple of 19-20" walleyes that they harvested for an upcoming graduation celebration.

There is fantastic water clarity in the middle-lower end of the lake.....I'd say in the neighborhood of 4 feet. That pushed our most active bite into 20-22', even with solid overcast, rain, and steady wind and rollers. Bright colors, 2.5-3 mph, in areas with good wind/wave action rolling in.

With temps just reaching 70, this bite should keep on gaining steam for a several weeks yet. Get out and enjoy!

Tournament tested tackle tip #3

Sometimes the simplest things make walleye fishing a little easier.

Competing in the FLW Walleye League event last week on Leech Lake made me dependent on my 60" Drift Control Wave Tamer to slow my Skeeter WX 1880 to a reasonable presentation speed in 20-30 mph winds and 3-4' waves. Under these conditions, my 60" Wave Tamer would slow the Skeeter down to a very nice 0.7-0.9 mph. Several days of drifting shallow flats so we could jig or rig meant lots of deployments and retrievals of my Drift Control drift sock.

One thing that I did to make my life easier (and easier on my co-angler partner on game day) was to make the spill line for my Drift Control a different color from the main line. You can see in the photo below that the main line to the bag is white, but the spill line is black. With two different color lines, you remove the guesswork from figuring out which line will spill the bag. In my case, black to spill, white to retrieve. With a little forethought, walleye fishing can be as easy as black and white.

For more information on Drift Control products, check out this link.

A quick Leech Lake update

I had a chance to spend a few days up on Leech Lake last week, preparing for and then competing in the FLW Walleye League event. It was my first trip ever to Leech, and it won't be my last.

During the pre-fishing period, I concentrated on relatively shallow water, 8-12 feet deep, in wind-blown areas. It wasn't hard to find those, believe me, with winds in the 20-30 mph range, gusting to 40 on Thursday. We were able to catch fish drifting jigs, live bait rigging and pulling spinners. My best bite for keeper fish (14-18") was on spinners, so that's what I decided to do on game day.

My co-angler Chad and I spent our day pulling harnesses behind bottom bouncers: 1.5 oz bouncers, speed 1.2-1.5, depth 10-13 feet. Our shallow bites fizzled out a bit since the wind was no longer pouring in to my pre-fishing areas, but moving deeper into some emerging weeds allowed us to contact the fish again.

We ended up weighing a tournament limit of 15-17" fish, which gave us some good points towards the championship but didn't put is in contention for the $$. With only two days of prep and no prior experience on the lake, I devoted my time to developing a numbers bite, rather than trying to swing for the fences. So, while our finish was nothing special, I am happy that I was able to find a reasonable tournament limit with just a short amount of preparation.

The photo above is one of the many 20-24" fish we caught pre-fishing and on game day. Beautiful fish, but given Leech's 18-26" protected slot, these didn't do us a lick of good on game day.

Thanks to my partner Jason Sullivan, my pre-fishing guest Dave Vollmer, and IDO staffer Ron "Sliderfishn" Bukovich for their help in preparing for and fishing in the tournament. For now, back to guiding...and then on to Bemidji in July!

Drift Control drift socks in moving water, part 1

You may be under the impression that Drift Control drift socks are tools designed exclusively for the lake angler. If so, you may be surprised to learn that I carry Drift Control drift socks on every trip I make to the Mississippi River. There are two specific river presentations for which Drift Control drift socks are particularly important boat control tools: dragging jigs downstream in the presence of a downstream wind, and anchoring for precision casting in the presence of an upstream wind. Drift Control drift socks will help you manage these two tricky boat control situations, and in doing so, will put more fish in your boat.

Dragging jigs is a particularly effective presentation during times of seasonally low flows. In the summer, this period often begins in late May-early June, and continues on into August. During the cold water period, jig dragging often commences in earnest in late November, and remains effective until the spring thaw causes river flows to increase dramatically. One of the standard jig dragging presentations is the downstream drag, in which the angler points the boat downstream and uses a Minn Kota bowmount trolling motor to pull the boat downstream, just faster than the current speed. In summer, this downstream speed is often 0.9-1.4 mph, while in winter, this speed is normally slower, in the 0.5-0.9 mph range. It is critical that the angler manage boat speed while dragging downstream, in order to keep the dragged jigs in the strike zone, just inches off the bottom. If the boat is moving too fast, the jig will soar over the heads of bottom-relating walleye and sauger; too slow, and the jig bangs into the bottom constantly, and will eventually be lost to a snag. Consider now the common circumstance of dragging downstream in the presence of a downstream wind. Anything more than a gentle downstream breeze will cause the boat to move too fast, lifting the jigs out of the strike zone. This is where Drift Control drift socks can help you regain control of your boat. Rather than orient the bow of the boat directly downstream, turn the boat so it is perpendicular to the current/wind. Now, deploy a pair of Drift Control drift socks on the upstream side of the boat: one near the bow and one near the stern. When the bags open and fill with water, they will act as a “brake” to offset the extra boat speed generated by the wind. This is effectively the same use that Drift Control drift socks see in a live-bait rigging situation on a wind driven lake. It doesn’t matter that the water is moving in a river; the Drift Control drift socks will prevent the wind from pushing you downstream too fast, and will help keep your dragged jigs in the strike zone. It is best to deploy a pair of Drift Control drift socks rather than just one, so that your boat remains perpendicular to the current/wind, rather than spinning around a pivot point that would be provided by a single Drift Control sock.

Drift Control drift socks in moving water, part 2

Anchoring and precision casting is a highly effective year-round presentation for river walleye and sauger. Whether targeting the edge of a sand flat for pre-spawn piggies, a deep hole in a river bend for sumo sauger, or a wing dam for a summer mixed bag bonanza of walleye, smallmouth, white bass, or whatever else the river will offer, “throwing the hook” is something that all river anglers must be comfortable with in order to maximize their catch rates. Most river anglers will anchor off the bow of their boats, even with or above their casting target. In a calm day or in the presence of a downstream wind, the boat will normally maintain its position relative to the casting target. However, in an upstream wind, the wind will catch the stern of the boat and cause the boat to pivot around the anchor line, moving the boat away from the casting target. Even a gentle upstream wind will cause the boat to swing side-to-side, changing casting angles, causing snags, and generally making the angler’s bait presentation less effective. This is another situation where a Drift Control drift sock can help you regain control of your boat. When anchoring, the use of the Drift Control drift sock is quite simple: anchor off the bow of the boat as you would normally, and then deploy a single Drift Control drift sock off the stern of the boat. The sock will fill with water moving downstream, and will help to anchor the stern in position even in the face of a stiff upstream breeze. With the boat remaining in position, your casting angles won’t change, you’ll experience fewer snags and tangles, and your presentations will remain as effective as possible. The result: more fish in your boat, because you have regained control of your boat with a Drift Control drift sock.

Where should you install your GPS antenna relative to your transucer?

I am just beginning to rig my new Humminbird 997 side imaging sonar/GPS combo. An important consideration during the rigging process is the placement of the external GPS antenna and the transducer. It is commonly believed that these two pieces of equipment must be placed as close together as possible for optimum positional accuracy relative to a particular feature observed by sonar. However, this is not the case.

It is important to remember that GPS position measurements are not exact. There is error associated with the measurement. For example, older generations of GPS receivers often had position errors of 10-20 meters. What that means is that a measurement with that much error placed your antenna (in your boat) somewhere within a circle with an area of 3378 square feet (for a 10 meter position error)....you're not sitting on an exact point, but rather you're somewhere within that big red circle shown above. A very rough position measurement, indeed!

Humminbird now offers a high-accuracy GPS receiver, the AS GR-50 that boasts an impressive 2.5 meter position error. In other words, a position measurement with the new Humminbird receiver places your antenna (boat) within a much smaller circle of possible locations. That circle (shown in purple above) has an area of 211 square feet....more than 90% smaller than previous GPS receivers. You can't argue with the math; Humminbird receivers determine your GPS position with a much higher degree of accuracy than other GPS technologies.

So, back to the original question. Do you need to install your GPS antenna in close proximity to your transducer? The answer is no. The accuracy of even a very good GPS measurement, like the one that the new Humminbird antenna provides, is such that a few feet between the antenna and the transducer will make absolutely no difference. Pick a spot to mount the antenna that has the most unobstructed view of the sky, and mount the antenna there. Don't have the antenna blocked by a windshield, by the locator's head unit, or anything else that might interfere with reception of those satellite signals beamed from so many miles above.