WalligatorGetter
05-23-2010, 12:35 PM
Well, we finally got a little bit of a southeast wind yesterday and that was all it took to crank things up at the Ford. After it being dead calm with that gin clear water for so long the fish didn’t hesitate to get active when that little 3 foot surf hitting the shore stirred things up a bit.
We headed down south after leaving the Ford expecting to fish near Round Island, but there were a few boats there already so we avoided the traffic and headed further south to troll the first break out from shore.
We started out trolling crawler harnesses in 20-25 feet where I had marked some fish the other day, but that failed.
At that point we could see that there was a pretty decent surf hitting the shoreline so we thought the fish might be feeding in that shallower water. We re-rigged with crankbaits and headed in to troll the shallows. And within 20 minutes, it was obvious that we had made a good choice because we caught a pair of nice 25 inch walleyes in that short time, with the sun high in the sky besides!
After that the fish just continued to come. We probably caught another six or eight nice fish in the next couple of hours before it got dark, and the action didn’t slow up after dark either. We ended up quitting just before midnight after boating 18 nice walleyes. 18 walleyes between 7 O’ clock and midnight, that is some pretty fantastic fishing! And when you consider the average size of the fish down that way it is even better. I would say that average size was right about at 24 inches. Our biggest was about 27, although we caught three that topped 26, and our smallest fish was 21 inches – the runt of the litter for sure! If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have caught anything less than 23.
After all seriousness about fishing and trying to catch fish had gone away, I even put on a bait that I nicknamed “The Tuna Tamer” to see if I could catch a fish on that. It is a big Bomber, saltwater series, Long-A magnum. I would guess it to be about 6 inches long, and the big nickel plated hooks on the thing are made out of wire as thick as a medal coat hanger. Anyway, that thing was only in the water for a couple minutes and I caught a nice 25 inch walleye on it. I might just have a new favorite walleye killer!
Anyway, now that the bragging session is out of the way,:rolleyes: here are the details. We were trolling in 7-11 FOW between 7 and 8.5 miles south of the Ford on the first break out from the shoreline. The fish really seemed to be everywhere. No one spot seemed to be any better than the next, just anywhere along that shoreline. And I’m sure that Round Island and the first finger south of the Ford were cook’n too. We were trolling at about 2.2 mph, and I would say that the best bait was a orange and black ThunderStick at 70 feet back, but again, the fish just weren’t fussy. We caught them going 1.8 mph. We caught them going 3mph. we caught them on those thundersticks. We caught them on different color thundersticks. We caught them on a purple Husky Jerk. We caught them on that Tuna Tamer. It just didn’t seem to matter.
We headed down south after leaving the Ford expecting to fish near Round Island, but there were a few boats there already so we avoided the traffic and headed further south to troll the first break out from shore.
We started out trolling crawler harnesses in 20-25 feet where I had marked some fish the other day, but that failed.
At that point we could see that there was a pretty decent surf hitting the shoreline so we thought the fish might be feeding in that shallower water. We re-rigged with crankbaits and headed in to troll the shallows. And within 20 minutes, it was obvious that we had made a good choice because we caught a pair of nice 25 inch walleyes in that short time, with the sun high in the sky besides!
After that the fish just continued to come. We probably caught another six or eight nice fish in the next couple of hours before it got dark, and the action didn’t slow up after dark either. We ended up quitting just before midnight after boating 18 nice walleyes. 18 walleyes between 7 O’ clock and midnight, that is some pretty fantastic fishing! And when you consider the average size of the fish down that way it is even better. I would say that average size was right about at 24 inches. Our biggest was about 27, although we caught three that topped 26, and our smallest fish was 21 inches – the runt of the litter for sure! If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have caught anything less than 23.
After all seriousness about fishing and trying to catch fish had gone away, I even put on a bait that I nicknamed “The Tuna Tamer” to see if I could catch a fish on that. It is a big Bomber, saltwater series, Long-A magnum. I would guess it to be about 6 inches long, and the big nickel plated hooks on the thing are made out of wire as thick as a medal coat hanger. Anyway, that thing was only in the water for a couple minutes and I caught a nice 25 inch walleye on it. I might just have a new favorite walleye killer!
Anyway, now that the bragging session is out of the way,:rolleyes: here are the details. We were trolling in 7-11 FOW between 7 and 8.5 miles south of the Ford on the first break out from the shoreline. The fish really seemed to be everywhere. No one spot seemed to be any better than the next, just anywhere along that shoreline. And I’m sure that Round Island and the first finger south of the Ford were cook’n too. We were trolling at about 2.2 mph, and I would say that the best bait was a orange and black ThunderStick at 70 feet back, but again, the fish just weren’t fussy. We caught them going 1.8 mph. We caught them going 3mph. we caught them on those thundersticks. We caught them on different color thundersticks. We caught them on a purple Husky Jerk. We caught them on that Tuna Tamer. It just didn’t seem to matter.