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Cranking for Walleye's
The world of walleye fishing has really opened up as anglers discover that crankbaits work in so many different situations. Ten years ago if you told a die-hard walleye angler that you were going to troll a minnow- imitating lure for early season walleye, he would laugh at you. If you told this person that you were going to go out over very deep water, tie on a plastic-lipped minnow imitator, add two ounces of lead onto the line, put it on a board that would pull it all away from the boat, and then troll it pretty fast, this angler would be rolling on the ground howling as he threatened to tell all the boys at the bait shop about your mental condition. No one's laughing now! We have discovered just how effective trolling crankbaits can be for walleye. It's not just open water situations either. Trolling cranks works on weedlines, and over bars and sunken islands for suspended fish in the Great Lakes as well as the western reservoirs. I'd venture to say that there's probably not a lake that holds walleye where you can't fool them by trolling the stick baits. When you troll crankbaits for walleye, you have to be willing to put in a little effort. Let's say that you see some walleye on the depth finder, spread over a sunken island. Be sure to note what depth these fish are at. It's important that you get the bait right into or above the fish. Remember, walleyes have eye's on the top of their head and prefer to look up. You need to experiment with how much line to let out behind the boat. Add weight to the line if you need to get the lure deeper than it's capable of running on its own. Try to match the shape and color of crankbaits to available forage. Walleye on a particular body of water might like a short bait
with a tight wobble. On another lake or reservoir the walleye might
prefer a long narrow bait that has a wide wobble. You have to experiment
until you come to a conclusion. My favorites are: the Who ever said boat control wasn't important when trolling didn't catch many fish. You have to plan your routes well to catch walleye. On a weedline, you want to be right on the edge. Get out a little too far and the bite may stop. On an open-water, suspended-fish situation, the walleye are relating to something-- the depth, the thermocline, or maybe bait fish. You need to key on that "something" in your trolling pattern to be sure your bait is where the fish will see it, and hit it. I use a Trolling boards is becoming a popular part of the crankbait trolling
presentation. Boards allow the angler to spread multiple lines out
instead of trying to run them all straight out behind the boat. Some
people claim that when the boat spooks walleye out to the side of the boat,
the boards direct the baits right into the walleye. Since boards
are so easy to use, I even incorporate them on smaller lakes. They
work. I use the It sure is amazing how many walleye anglers are using crankbaits these days. A lot of them are laughing about it too, because they're having so much fun catching all those fish. For more information regarding the methods or products mentioned in this article, call (608) 277-5555 or e-mail: tpuccio@aol.com.
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