It has been a viscious cycle of storms and strong winds for the past couple of weeks, but surpisingly, the walleye action south of Pt. Augres down to Pinconning is still producing good catches for the few anglers still out there trolling. I saw less than a dozen boats on Saturday, and a good friend told me only a half dozen were in the area he worked today.
While we are still marking a lot of fish in the upper 12 feet of water, they AREN’T the ones providing all the action. Success is now coming while trolling 2-ounce inline sinkers anywhere from 50 to 65 feet back behind Off Shore In-Line Planer Boards. The best trolling speeds have been 1.5 mph or less. Most captains are now adding bottom bouncers to the mix as well. We are running at least two off the stern corners every day with good results, and some charter captains are also running a couple additional bottom bouncers off their planer boards. Saturday, we took one walleye over six pounds and another right at 7 1/2 lbs. using these tactics.
Harness blade size and colors has been a bit critical of late with purple, antifreeze, and patterns with pink being the best on size 5 spinner blades for the last few days.
More and more yellow perch are now becoming part of the daily incidential catch. Also, good perch reports are filtering in from west of Bouys One and Two. Word has it that good perch fisherman are catching 25 or better apiece in the 8-10 inch class. Once consistent perch fishing picks up, a lot of anglers won’t even bother with walleye trolling any more.
Today’s Tip: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” Set lures throughout the entire water column–top to bottom. Somewhere in between there will be active fish. This is also a good time of year to troll from shallow water to deep water and visa versa instead of sticking with normal summer trolling patterns. More experimentation to find the right lure color is also more critical, and don’t be afraid to change trolling speeds from time to time.
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Capt. Terry R. Walsh
www.termarcharters.com