WalligatorGetter
06-22-2010, 09:14 AM
I’ve been playing around fishing walleyes in the Stonington area this year and am pretty impressed by what I’ve seen. I would always prefer to fish for big walleyes rather than the little dinks in the upper bay whenever possible. However, I don’t always have the time to make the 45 minute boat ride in a 16 footer out of the Ford River.
When I don’t have the time to make it down to the Ford, I’ve been launching out of the Esky harbor and heading across to the Stonington side. I usually fish quite a ways out from the shore and the first break. I guess you could say that the area I fish is the north most part of the Shoals. It really is the same reef. It’s just further north than most people talk about -- usually between Deepwater Point and Eleven Foot Shoal. It is a good place for people like myself who only have access to a small boat. It is just a very quick skip across the bay -- less than five miles most times.
Anyway, I pretty much just cruse around in 20-30 FOW until I mark some bait balls. I don’t always mark the actual fish, mainly if they are suspended up from the bottom which is usually the case. However, if there are bait balls, there should be fish nearby.
Once I locate the area, I just begin trolling with as many lines as I can legally run. Spinners and deep-diving cranks both work well. However, I always prefer to use the cranks whenever possible because, with the fish that widely scattered, you need to cover lots of water, and I tend to troll twice as fast with cranks.
Deep Tail Dancers and Down Deep Huskies are my baits of choice. If the fish are on the bottom, the Tail Dancers 90 feet back nail um. If they are suspended, the Huskies 80-110 feet back get most of the action.
As for the fish, you don’t get many, but they are about as big as they come. The other day, we caught two fish that were 23 and 28 inches and lost one that looked like an honest 30 right in back of the boat. Yesterday I fished for a couple hours before the storms came through and caught two fish that were 26 and 28 inches, and that’s with only three lines out.
Anyway, good fishing to all!
When I don’t have the time to make it down to the Ford, I’ve been launching out of the Esky harbor and heading across to the Stonington side. I usually fish quite a ways out from the shore and the first break. I guess you could say that the area I fish is the north most part of the Shoals. It really is the same reef. It’s just further north than most people talk about -- usually between Deepwater Point and Eleven Foot Shoal. It is a good place for people like myself who only have access to a small boat. It is just a very quick skip across the bay -- less than five miles most times.
Anyway, I pretty much just cruse around in 20-30 FOW until I mark some bait balls. I don’t always mark the actual fish, mainly if they are suspended up from the bottom which is usually the case. However, if there are bait balls, there should be fish nearby.
Once I locate the area, I just begin trolling with as many lines as I can legally run. Spinners and deep-diving cranks both work well. However, I always prefer to use the cranks whenever possible because, with the fish that widely scattered, you need to cover lots of water, and I tend to troll twice as fast with cranks.
Deep Tail Dancers and Down Deep Huskies are my baits of choice. If the fish are on the bottom, the Tail Dancers 90 feet back nail um. If they are suspended, the Huskies 80-110 feet back get most of the action.
As for the fish, you don’t get many, but they are about as big as they come. The other day, we caught two fish that were 23 and 28 inches and lost one that looked like an honest 30 right in back of the boat. Yesterday I fished for a couple hours before the storms came through and caught two fish that were 26 and 28 inches, and that’s with only three lines out.
Anyway, good fishing to all!