Take Advantage of Fishing Opportunities
By Bob Jensen - July 1, 2010When you start out your day of fishing, it's important to have a game-plan in place. If, for instance, walleyes are to be the quarry, you should have a rod rigged with a Roach Rig. Live bait is almost always a good summertime bet for walleyes. Check out some deeper water structure. Keep a close eye on your sonar for fish activity. When you find some walleyes, work your rig through them. Maybe you'll get bit, maybe not.
If you work your bait through several schools of fish with no action, try something else. Maybe a spinner behind a bottom-bouncer pulled quickly through the fish will trigger them into eating. Maybe a crankbait worked through them will do the trick.
Maybe not though. If you're dead-set on catching walleyes you can keep trying other techniques. But if you just want to get bit, now would be a good time to switch species. Many of the best walleye lakes are also good for bass or bluegills or pike. If something pulling on the end of your line is the goal, tie a different bait on your line and head to a different area of the lake. A weedline would be a good place to head to. The weedline is home to all species of fish, and often the fish on the weedline will be aggressive biters.
If you've reached the point where you just want to get bit, tie on an eighth ounce Lip-Stick Jig-Worm and add a four inch Gulp! or Power Bait in a worm shape. Anything that swims along a weedline will eat this combo, including panfish, bass, pike, even those walleyes we were looking for in deeper water.
If the bite is good, go to a larger worm, something in the seven inch size range. You probably won't get as many panfish pecks with the larger worm, but you'll also probably catch bigger fish. You should go to the next size larger jig also.
If you like to jig for walleyes, this is a good way to practice doing so. Watch your line carefully as the jig falls along the weedline. Much of the time you'll just see your line "jump" a little. Reel down and set the hook: That "jump" was caused by a fish eating your jig-worm.
Eight pound test is about the right size line with the jig-worm. Try Trilene TransOptic if you want to be able to watch your line the best. This line is easy to see above the water, but is almost invisible to the fish.
For most of us, just getting bit is the reason we go fishing, and most of the time you will get bit along the weedline. And you never know what might bite your bait on the weedline. It just might be a few of those walleyes you couldn't get to bite in the deeper water.