If you’ve never been up north, it’s quite a treat as it’s big water where there are hundreds and hundreds of icehouses on the ice, every size, shape and variety.

As a matter of fact, this year, the Zippel Bay Igloo made its appearance on the ice.

Resembling a large igloo, this large icehouse/bar is a big attraction as it has a full bar, big screen TV, tables and benches where you can not only eat a pizza, you have an opportunity to wet a line while enjoying your favorite drink.

The largest fish taken by anglers in the Igloo is a 48” northern that Desire, the young lady that runs the establishment took the first week in February.

Ice fishing is extremely popular on Lake of the Woods, part of the reason being that in the winter you’re allowed to use two rods and the limit for walleye and sauger is raised to eight (4 walleyes and 4 sauger).

Walleyes are the larger cousin of the sauger, reaching over 10 pounds with the average size probably being in the 2 to 4 pound class.

Walleyes are identified by their greenish gold color along with the white tip on their lower tail fin.

Sauger on the other hand are much more streamlined and more aggressive than walleyes. Primarily a river fish, the average size for sauger would be 1 to 2 pounds with a fish over 3-pounds being a real trophy.

Getting on Lake of the Woods out of Zippel Bay is easy as ice roads are plowed out onto the 30” of ice, allowing fishermen easy access to their houses.  Streets are all marked with street signs such as Perch, Big Fish and Walleye, making it easy for anglers to get to the right spot.

On this trip, we were filming with Nick and Deanna at Zippel Bay Resort. Joining us were Team Outdoorsmen Adventures members Larry Myhre, Sioux City, IA. and Jon Thelen, Crystal, MN.

Our plan was to start shallow in the morning, working deep during the day and then back shallow for the last light bite.

A cold front had rolled in the night before, which generally shuts the fish down or at least makes them a harder to catch so we knew that it could be a tough bite.

To combat the cold front, we went to live bait, (small hook, split shot and micro bobber) while downsizing our presentation using baits like the 3/16th Lindy Frostee Jigging Spoons.

We were using fat head minnows, going with the smaller minnows the majority of the time.

When using the jigging spoon, a whole minnow may be too much for cold front fish, so we went with a partial minnow (minnow head) as this worked best for us.

Every once in awhile, we’d drop down a Lindy Darter which not only caught a few fish, it also attracted fish into the area as several times our locators would light up below the darter and then our livebait rigs would take a fish.

We were fishing in icehouses placed over rock and rubble, fishing the shallower water on the top early and late and as the sun got brighter moving off the edge into deeper water.

Since it was such a lite bite, we needed to keep our live bait rigs at a minimum, going with a small hook, lighter split shot and a bobber.

When fishing cold front conditions, you want you bobber to verily float on the top of the water so that the fish feel no resistance when they mouth your bait.

I like to use a very small slip bobber, one that is just visible in the ice hole.

If you’ve ever had a fish pull your bobber down part way and then let go, that’s a pretty good indicator that your using too large of a float.

If all you have are the larger floats, you can add a larger split shot so that the float will suspend deeper in the water column.

A good locator is a must when ice fishing otherwise you’re fishing blind as all species of fish will move up and down in the water column and can be found a few feet below the ice at times.

If you’re fishing right off the bottom as many ice fishermen do and the fish are above you, you’re in for a long day!

Locators will indicate when a fish comes in under your transducer, which allows you to either bring your bait up or drop it down putting your bait where the fish are.

We all caught some nice fish and a lot of the smaller more aggressive sauger, which is a good sign for the years to come, as there will be a tremendous catchable sauger population in years to come.
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If you’re looking for a place to do some ice fishing yet this winter, Zippel Bay Resort will have icehouses out until the end of March.

We ended up taking home our eight fish limit on this trip and are patiently waiting for the soft water season when we’ll make another trip to Lake of the Woods, the walleye capital of the world.

For more information on Zippel Bay Resort and the excellent fishing on Lake of the Woods, go to www.zippelbayresort.com

Well there’s one “Triangle” that all outdoorsmen and women would love to be and that’s the Pheasant Triangle in South Dakota.

Located in South Central South Dakota, this area has the habitat and crops that make it a Mecca for not only pheasants, but also for deer, grouse and turkey.

Hamill, South Dakota is located right in the middle of the triangle where Steve and Donna Kubik own and operate Antler Ridge Lodge.

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of hunting pheasants with the Kubik’s during the South Dakota Governor’s hunt and was really impressed by not only the pheasant hunting, but also the facilities and the area itself.

Last Spring, Team Outdoorsmen Adventures member Tom Mitchell and I had the privilege of hunting and filming a spring turkey hunt at Antler Ridge.

When we drove into the place, there were antelope along the road, pheasants everywhere as well as deer and turkeys, I just knew that this was a place that I wanted to be.

There were Lots of birds as both Tom and I filled our tags our birds during some of the strangest spring weather I’ve ever come across.

Sixty degree one day, five inches of snow the next morning and back to fifty degrees that afternoon.

The accommodations were fantastic as was Donna’s down home cooking, with all of us getting more than enough to eat.

Since we had such a great hunt there last spring, we decided to do a pheasant hunt this fall with a few of our sponsors.

Once again, we weren’t disappointed as the pheasant population of the Triangle was amazing.

No matter what type of habitat we hunted, there were huge numbers of birds as this area has the habitat that not only allow the birds to survive, but also to prosper and prosper they have!

We came in one afternoon and after a tremendous lunch, went out for a couple of hours, got our limit of birds and then back to the lodge for cocktails and another hug dinner.

The following day was the same, a tremendous breakfast, we walked or should I say waddled out to our vehicles and headed for the field.

Once again we had hundreds of wild birds flushing out of every field, slough, shelterbelt and draw we walked.

Because of the excellent shooting by our guys, were limited out before noon, had another unbelievable lunch and were on the road headed for home with an our eleven man two day limit of pheasants.

It’s an amazing place, excellent hunting, tremendous facilities and Donna’s unbelievable cooking.

If you’re looking for a truly great outdoor experience, I’d recommend Antler Ridge Lodge, check out their web site at www.antlerridgelodge.com

But try to tell that to the thousands of ring-necked pheasants that call this mixture of native grasslands and farm crops home.

Several were taking to the air right now and, with camera in one hand and gun in the other, I was at a loss for what to do.

As usual, I didn’t get the best effort from either.

“Who cares,” I thought. I’m just going to soak up the beauty of this land on an October afternoon on the Diamond A Ranch 14 miles north of Gregory.

A 2,000-acre hunting preserve owned by Jim and Andrea Olson, the Diamond A is not a diamond in the rough. It is a splendid, well-appointed preserve awash in wild pheasants, turkeys and deer.

Gary Howey, Hartington, Neb., and I met Gary Kubicek and Bill McPherson, both with Country Vet pet foods out of Sioux City, Gary’s brother-in-law Tom Jansen and his friend Kenneth Bird, both of Omaha, for a couple days of bird shooting.

We never did get more than a half mile from the lodge. We walked milo strips mostly and the birds were there.

It was the second visit to the Diamond A by Howey and me. We had hunted here last year, the first year of operation for Jim and Andrea, who farm near Homer, Neb.

The lodge sits at the edge of a small lake stocked with bass and bluegills right at the foot of one of the big buttes which line the north side of the property.

A small creek spills from the dam and runs along the base of the bluffs.

Tall piles of rocks at the top of the butte, placed there by Indians or early white explorers, was a signal to prairie travelers that there is good water below, Jim told me last year.

The rocks serve no purpose now, only an historical anecdote. However, an occasional coyote howl or sounds of turkeys gobbling in the timber, is a reminder that not all of the wild is gone from this historic area

I ‘d filmed a Mieke snagging three years ago, but we’d never had the opportunity to fish together as she hadn’t had the best of luck drawing a tag.

Since the border for South Dakota and Nebraska is the river, both states have a limited number of tags available with a drawing being held for those permits

Well this year would be different as we’d both received tags.  I had my resident Nebraska as well a South Dakota non-resident paddlefish tag and she had a non-resident Nebraska tag.

When I headed out the door that morning, I couldn’t believe my eyes it was only October 12th and everything was covered with a heavy wet snow and it was still coming down.

Being the optimist that I am, I just knew it would quit shortly and gone before I knew it.

The snow was already disappearing as Larry Myhre, Sioux City, IA. and I headed north to meet our guide Marlyn Wiebelhaus, Wynot, NE and Mieke.

Arriving at the boat launch, it was good to see that Mieke had made the trip down, as she was all ready to go.

Marlyn arrived shortly there after and we launched the boat, preparing for another great day on the water.

As we pulled up below the dam at Yankton, there was only one boat there and he was already fighting a fish

Since the season is only open in October, we knew that it wouldn’t be long before more boats would be showing up.

Since Paddlefish are plankton feeders, the only way to catch them is by snagging, which is a much different method than most fishermen are used to.

Marlyn snags a little bit differently that a lot of folks, those that cast out yanking and cranking their line, heavy sinker and hook back in.

Marlyn’s method is more of a gentleman’s sport as he simply has the snaggers in his boat drop off line until they feel that they have enough line out and their weight is on the bottom at which time, he slowly trolls through the area that holds the fish. The anglers keep yanking on their rods until a hook up is made.

Since fish generally face into the current, our best luck came as we trolled across the current, giving us a larger target to try and hook with our small treble hook.

Just as the boat started to move, I gave a yank on the rod and was immediately pulled up from my seat by a solid fish.

I fought the fish in to the boat and it measured out 34” just below the 35”-45” slot where the fish need to be released.

Marlyn indicated that that was a pretty decent fish to tag, but since we were filming a show I didn’t want to quit after one fish, so we decided to release it.

We hadn’t gone too far after my fish when just as Mieke pulled on her rod, lifting the weight off the bottom her rod bent over hard.

For a minute or so, we weren’t sure if Mieke had the fish or if it had her as she wasn’t gaining a whole lot on the fish.

It didn’t take her long to start gaining on the fish and when she did, a nice fish came on board, another just below the slot, which also went back in the water.

It seemed like every pass, one of us would hook up and bring a fish into the boat, several were small hammer handles while others we’re larger 40”-41” fish, those in the slot.

There’s some big fish out there as one that weighed 67 pounds had been weighed in at Captain Norms.

Mieke tied into one fish that she could hardly move and after a short battle, the fish decided that he had enough of this and broke her 40-pound line.

Looking around at the 8 boats that were now below the dam, it appeared as if everyone was doing well as it wasn’t uncommon to see one or even two anglers in a boat hooked up and fighting a fish.

Along both shorelines, there were numerous people fishing from shore and they too were having very good luck.

Throughout the year the paddlefish stack up below the dam and will stay there until there until boat pressure forces them down stream or over into the closed area in the fast water below the turbines.

We were finished in a couple of hours snagging a total of 14 fish; with the fish we tagged being just over 30” from the eye to the fork o the tail.

They’ll both be excellent eaters as once cleaned properly, and with no bones in their body, they are one of the finest eating fish around.

Snagging may be a little work, but once you tie into one of these powerful prehistoric fish, you won’t be disappointed as they are one unbelievable fish.

Hunting Season is upon us once again and the members of Team Outdoorsmen Adventures wishes you the best season of all!

North Carolina Archery Season has begun with many other states opening soon. A bow hunter is someone who gets to know his prey up close and personal. He is of the land and knows the patterns and movements of the game he intends to harvest.

This is what makes a great hunter out in the woods. “Make No Mistake About It!” That is exactly the key element in a bow hunters mindset he must be mentally ready and prepared for the shot.

The hunt starts before season when he picks his bow up each year. It makes sense to not take the shot if you have not completed your homework.

The first task to cover is to inspect our bow for damages. Inspect it anyway, even if it has been locked in your case for the past year. If your string looks worn, it’s time to replace it. I like to replace my bowstring every two years regardless of the wear and tear on it. Strings will stretch over time. Inspect your arrows and anything else on the bow. Look for cracks, a bent arrow, torn or bad fletching or anything than could cause an arrow to fly incorrectly.

Make sure you oil movable parts of your bow with scentless oil. Wax your string each time you practice. Proper care of all bow hunting equipment is essential to success in the field.

Once all this has been accomplished you are ready to shoot again. Practice everyday no less than a month before season. I feel if you’ve put in shooting time every night till the opener you’ll be prepared physically and mentally for you shot at a game animal.

By this time your shot should become a repetition of steps that you do automatically without thinking.

Even at this point, here in North Carolina with a longbow season practice should be performed periodically during season to ensure your form and shot have not went south.

When the game animal is in front of you the less thinking you do the better. This brings me to a point on the many sights that are on the market.

Sights

Pin sights are nice because you have a pin for each 5-yard increment. In my opinion a pendulum site is better yet. They’re very accurate from 0 to 30 yards, compensating for the yardage and height, eliminating the thinking for you.

I’ve used these sights in the past and they’re easy to use. Savage makes one of the most user-friendly pendulum sights I know of.

Arrow Rests

There are also numerous types of arrow rest out there with a drop away rest being one of the most popular. I use one on my bow and like the fact that they do not interfere with the fletching or vanes of your arrows. This means you are have a better-tuned bow and consistent shot pattern over and over. I’m also a fan of the whisker biscuit. This arrow rest holds your arrow in place in any position for a shot. You do not have to worry about the arrow falling off in a hunting situation.

Noise Reduction

Noise reduction rubber components can be applied to help reduce vibration and shock of the bow, making it quieter.  Some bows have these installed when you buy them. Although you may not consider reducing the sound made by your bow a big deal, but it would be a major mistake if you don’t, especially on the slower bows.

If you have a bow that vibrates and makes a lot of noise when you shoot it, can scare the deer, as the noise made by the bow is what causes the deer to jump or duck when you release the arrow.   By cutting down the noise made by your bow, you’ll have a better chance to bag a deer and less of a chance of wounding one or missing a good deer.

Peep Sights

A peep sight is an inexpensive and very important piece of hunting equipment, one that every hunter should use. Peep sights allow you to line your eye with your bow sight, providing a 3-point reference aligning your eye, bow sight and the game animal.

Practice Targets

To fine tune your shooting before the hunt, it’s a good idea to shoot at game target such as a deer or turkey. Shooting at a lifelike game target mentally prepares you to shoot for vitals.

So, get out there and shoot, shoot, shoot!

Bow hunting has been a rewarding part of my year-to-year season for many reasons. Each time I harvest a good buck with my bow. I have an immense sense of accomplishment by taking game with archery equipment that I don’t get when hunting with a gun.

Learning about the game I’m after and getting this close to a deer creates some of the greatest hunting memories you will ever experience in your lifetime.

If your not a bow hunter and would like to start I’d recommend that  you visit a pro shop and have them set up a bow fitted to you.

Archery pro shops can help you find a bow that fits you perfectly and give you advise on what bow would work best for you.

If I could make one recommendation it would be to get a short bow that’s light in weight, which will make your shooting much easier as well as more relaxing. Allowing you to practice a little longer and in time, make you a better shot.

YANKTON, S.D. – The allure of holding a prehistoric fish which swam 50 million years before the dinosaurs ruled the world is hard to resist for Mieke Slaba, Wagner, S.D.

Each year she looks forward to pursuing paddlefish below the Gavin’s Point Dam with her father Gary Howey of Hartington, Neb.

Of course they have to be lucky enough to draw one of the 1,600 paddlefish tags issued annually by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. This year they were.

Mieke is not alone in her quest for paddlefish. Snagging is so popular that special regulations had to be put in place years ago to protect this valuable resource.

Although the chance to catch a really big fish, Nebraska’s state record paddlefish weighs 93 pounds and was caught from the Gavin’s Point Dam tailwaters in 1998 by Kathy Reiman of Yankton, is undoubtedly one of the reasons. Another is that this fish is incredibly tasty, if you remove all the red meat from the fillets.

And in late fall, paddlefish congregate by the thousands below the dam, jammed up here during a prespawn migration urge eons old.

We joined Marlyn Wiebelhaus, of Wiebelhaus Guiding of Wynot, Neb., at the boat ramp on the Nebraska side of the river.

I was carrying the camera, Mieke and Gary would be doing the snagging and Marlyn would put us on the fish.

Which he did in short order.

Mieke connected first with a good fish. Too good as it turned out.

A slot limit protects the good spawners. All fish between 35 and 45 inches long, measured from the centerline of the fish lying flat from the eye to the fork of the tail must be returned. So her fish went back.

The regulations require the use of only one treble hook with a gap of 1/2 inch or less, so snagged fish can be released unharmed.

It didn’t take long for Mieke and Gary to fill their tags. There were other anglers on the river that day and it seemed no one had trouble filling their tag, even those fishing from shore.

Mieke is a middle school teacher at Wagner Community School. She’ll have a good fish story to tell her students and husband Matt who also teaches there.

And the fish that swam with the dinosaurs, still swims in the waters of the Missouri River.

WEBSTER, S.D. — A heavy overcast threatened rain and an occasional sprinkle emphasized that fact.

But when Tim Chandler, Watertown, S.D., guided his boat around the north side of Duck Island the graph lit up with arches signalling lots of fish below, thoughts of rain were forgotten. We attached number five Salmo Hornets to our trolling rods and began the search for walleyes.

We were on sprawling Waubay Lake, a walleye factory for the past several years.

It was once a duck slough but an infusion of water throughout northeast South Dakota in the early 90s turned it into a 16,000-acre fishing paradise

The lake more than quadrupled its size in the past decade and swallowed up many smaller lakes to create a massive fishery nine miles long and five miles wide.

It has receded somewhat from its high levels set in July of 1999. It has a maximum depth of 35 feet.

The lake once kicked out limits of five-pound average walleyes, but today that is only a memory. Tremendous pressure from anglers has resulted in a two-fish limit today with a minimum length limit of 14 inches and one over 20.

While the average size has declined, the number of fish has not, thanks to enlightened management by South Dakota fisheries.

There are good numbers of 15 to 18 inch walleyes and the chances of catching something in the eight pound range is good.

But on this day, the walleye didn’t want crankbaits. So, we switched to bottom bouncers and spinners with nightcrawlers.

We left the island and went to the nearby north shore and hadn’t trolled 50 feet when Gary Howey’s rod bent under the pull of a good fish which couldn’t ignore his firetiger spinnerblade and crawler.

We continued to work a couple hundred yards of shoreline and picked up our limit.

I was surprised that we didn’t hook up to any of the large perch for which the lake is also noted or a northern pike.

But considering the weather front we had run into we did well to even catch walleyes.

The day before we sat out a constant barrage of rain at the Travelers Inn in Watertown. We tried a preserve pheasant hunt but gave up because of the rain.

Our guide Tim Chandler, operates Glacial Lakes Guide Service and handles both pheasant hunters and fishermen on any of the lakes in northeast South Dakota.

Contact him at: (605) 886-8743 or Cell at: (605) 881-6448. His web site is: www.glaciallakesguideservice.com

From now till ice-up, walleye fishing on northeast lakes will just get better.

First place in that division was awarded to the Toledo Blade newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. Third place went to the Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper in Milwaukee, Wisc.

Myhre’s outdoor page received third place in last year’s competition.

In the “Best of Fishing” writing division, Myhre received second place for his story based on a trip into northern Ontario, Canada, entitled “Giant Northerns on the Fly Rod.”

Myhre also received a second place award in the “Outdoor Scenic Color Photography division for his photo of a giant swallowtail butterfly with wings spread over a purple coneflower wildflower.

Myhre has written outdoors stories for the Journal since 1973. He retired as editor of the paper in August of 2007.

The Association of Great Lake’s Outdoor Writers, established in 1956, is a nonprofit professional organization of outdoor communicators. Over 200 media and corporate members attended the conference.

There’s no better time than right now to chase walleyes in the Big Traverse Bay area of Lake of the Woods.

That’s what Gary Howey, Hartington, Neb., and I did for a few days last week.

We fished out of Zippel Bay Resort which has been our headquarters site for both open water and ice fishing forays on the big lake.

Zippel Bay is on the south shoreline just a few miles west of the mouth of the Rainy River.

The bay itself hosts spectacular fishing for ice-out northern pike as well as perch and walleyes year around and, we’re told, bullheads.

But the walleye gets our nod and we chose to spend a couple of half days fishing for them with Nick Painovich, who with his wife Deanna own and operate the resort.

Painovich is a downrigging machine, and the back of his 30-foot launch, one of about four he has at the resort, sports six electronic Cannon downriggers.

And, he was anxious to show us a new crankbait which he was testing.

“Lindy will be coming out with a new Shadling crankbait next year,” Nick said. “I’ve been testing them, and they are really good.”

We were soon to find out just how good.

Nick let the boat chug along at about two miles an hour while he set out three lines.

We had not gone very far when a rod popped up, signalling a fish on.

I cranked in a nice, 19-inch walleye and we dropped it into the livewell.

The walleye/sauger limit on Lake of the Woods is six with no more than four walleyes. Any walleye measuring between 19.5 and 28 inches must be released.

The sauger are so thick here you will have no trouble putting together two good “eaters.”

Nick’s game plan for walleyes is pretty simple. He uses a good crankbait (and the new Lindy Shadling is really hot right now) and lets out about 30 feet of line before attaching it to the release at the downrigger ball.

The best flats are at 30 feet right now so he stops the counter at 23 feet, figuring the bait will dive about another five, putting him just above the bottom.

It’s a good system, but if you don’t have downriggers you can troll with snap weights or bottom bouncers. Before long the fish will be a lot shallower and along the shoreline.

In the three years we’ve been fishing out of Zipple Bay, we’ve never had to go more than a few miles from the mouth of the bay to catch fish.

It’s all location, location, location, but if you want to make long runs, fine.

I’m just saying you don’t have to do that here.

I have never heard or read about any scientific or biological evidence of either of those theories. I do know this: Fish are cold-blooded creatures that must eat to survive. The warmer the water, the more they need to eat. The reason anglers aren’t catching has little to do with whether the fish are feeding. Believe me, they are eating a lot. Walleyes put on most of their weight during this time.

Smart anglers have good success during those “dog days”.  At walleye tournaments, throughout the Midwest, anglers continue to weigh hefty limits of fish. That leads me to believe most anglers simply aren’t applying the right methods to catch fish during the warm water periods.

What typically happens during mid-summer is that the baitfish population explodes. There are abundant dining options for walleyes.  Forage is plentiful, so walleyes can be selective. The key is to “trigger” fish into biting. Pick up your speed, and switch tactics.

Thermocline.

One of the first things I do this time of the year is to look for thermocline. Deep clear lakes often form layers of warm and cold water separated by a silt layer. Warm temperature periods with little or no wind can accelerate the formation of a thermocline. Move out over deep water and turn the sensitivity up on your sonar. You should be able to identify the depth that the thermocline exists if any. We have also witnessed this cloudy silt layer on an underwater camera. Typically, walleyes and other gamefish will prefer to stay at or above the thermocline. Finding that depth is often a key to finding feeding fish.

Locations.

Once you have determined the depth of the thermocline, if any, the next step is to search out locations on a lake map that offer walleyes the best concentrations of baitfish. Deep humps and mid lake structures tend to be best.

On the water, look for inside pockets in weeds. Often there will be hard bottom areas of gravel or rocks that do not support much weed growth. These tend to be fish magnets. If you find walleyes in one of these areas, you can be pretty certain that here are other spots just like it, in the same depth range, that will also hold fish. I prefer working over the top or through a school of walleyes, if I can find one, versus trolling mindlessly all over the lake.

Trolling.

Walleyes will chase fast moving lures during this time period. Trolling techniques will out-perform slow moving live bait tactics. Many times walleyes will be suspended well above the bottom. I have caught walleyes ten feet below the surface, suspended over 40 feet of water. Many new methods have been developed by tournament anglers to catch these willing feeders.

Some of these new methods involve using planer boards that move your presentation out away from the boat to keep from spooking these high riders. Planer boards are relatively inexpensive and easy to use. Some states allow more than one line per angler. Planer boards will help you spread out your lines.

Line counter reels are a must for trolling in my estimation. They allow precise line measurement for lure placement and make it easy to duplicate successful patterns.

The smaller line counter reels work well with small diameter super braids; while the larger models are necessary for lead core line.

How fast do you troll for walleyes? Most anglers stay in the 1.5 to 2.5 mile per hour range. I have done much better this time of the year by picking my speed up to 4 to 5 miles per hour. We have caught most of our largest walleyes, the last few years, speed trolling for northern pike.

Spinner Rigs.

I don’t need to explain these rigs to Missouri or Columbia River anglers. Spinner rigs have been a staple for many years on reservoirs. They work well in natural lakes at this time of the year as well. Anglers typically use heavy bottom bouncers out ahead of a wide variety of beads and blades. When walleyes are in shallow water, spinners with bottom bouncers will trigger a “reaction bite” from finicky fish.

Tournament anglers have come up with some very innovative ideas applied to the old standbys. One that I have seen work very well is a clip on weight system. Anglers use clips normally used on planer boards to attach weights ahead of their spinner rigs to reach walleyes higher in the water column. By using line counter reels, you can experiment with different depths, and the length of your set back lines until you find the right combination. When you hook a fish, reel up to the weight, un-snap it, and continue to land the fish.

Crankbaits.

Trolling crank baits has evolved tremendously over the past few years as well. The huge variety of crank baits available at your sporting goods retailer can be daunting. Which ones do you buy, and for which applications? Unless you own a gold mine or an oil field, you probably don’t want to buy one of every size and color. Besides, most lures probably catch more anglers than fish.

In general, the larger the lip compared to the body size, the deeper the plug will run. Other factors such as rattles, and lure shape also play a role in choosing the right bait. A favorite color of many walleye anglers is the fire tiger pattern. Shad and perch colors often work well no matter where you fish. Reservoir and Great Lakes anglers like trout patterns.

The best advice I can give is to “match the hatch”. Often by zooming in on baitfish schools you can get an idea of what the fish are feeding on. The only way to know for certain is to open the stomachs of fish you are cleaning and see what falls out. You may be very surprised. Also look in the bottom of your livewell. Often, I have run back to the bait shop to find something that looks like what fell out of the fish’s gut.

Getting the right size lure down to the right depth is the next challenge. You can save a lot of time by picking up a copy of Precision Trolling by Mark Romanack. (www.precisionangling.com). Mark has provided charts for most popular crankbaits that match lure, line weight, and boat speed to determine the depth the lure will run.

As you troll, watch your sonar closely. Use the zoom feature of your sonar to keep an eye out for high riding fish. Open water walleyes can be at almost any depth in the water column. Baitfish schools are easier to find than predators. Change lures or line length to present your bait at the depth of the best concentrations. Mark schools on your GPS so you can return to them.

When you hook a fish, put a Mark or Way Point on your GPS. After a short period of time you can establish a Trail that will bring you back over the active, biting fish.

Before purchasing a whole bunch of gear, book a trip with a fishing guide that can show you what you need to be successful. www.ifishmn.com