It looks like you’re getting it figured out just fine! What you boated in numbers and class of fish is what has been my standard for a decent outing trolling; almost to a “T.” Three to five of those 2013’s that all seem to be 19″ to 19.5″ cookie cutters of one another right now, and a ‘big’ that’s a 24.”
My year for big fish has been almost nonexistent compared to last year. My first outing on ML was Sunday evening of opening weekend (last night that “night” was allowed) and my first fish of the year was a 26.5″ that hit the crankbait like a ton of bricks. I had what I believed would have been the biggest walleye I’d ever caught on right before that—it pulled in like a giant log. Somehow during it striking my crank it missed or tried to stop after committing, and got a single hook from the front treble pulling open it’s gill plate on the side opposite the direction I was attempting to pull it in from. It came in the entire way perfectly perpendicular to the path of the boat not moving back and/or forth an inch. It’s back was skimming the surface with about a ten inch wake coming off both ends, making me very confident at first when it was waaaaay back that I foul hooked a muskie. It took 10-15 minutes to get it up to and then past the stern (again, did not move an inch in it’s trajectory) and as soon as it got almost to where I could try netting it (I was fishing solo) it did one head shake almost mockingly while staring directly at me about five feet straight abeam portside and….well, that was that. Bah-Bye!! I got as good of a look as you’re going to get of a fish you never boat and I estimated it to be 28.”
Fast forward fifteen minutes to when I actually do get on the board and boat my first ML walleye this season. I estimated that one to be 24″ as it was boat side right before netting it. It hit the tape and went 26.5″
It was early in the season, opening weekend, I wasn’t dialed in yet with fish eyes quite calibrated [valid excuses] and I became the first fisherman to underestimate the size of his catch for the first time in the history of fishing.
Dang….I worked Hard to repress that memory…really would’ve loved to land ‘the one that got away’ since I think it could’ve been a rare ML turdy-incher! Anyways after that I got a 25.5″ and then a 24″ and rounded out opener with a couple 2013’s and a couple misses.
My progression downward in size of walleyes I was hooking that day must have cursed me for the season because I haven’t got one over 24″ since….but I’ve caught a bunch of those. I bet I’ve caught 15-20 24″ walleyes this year. All right at 24″ too. Not 24″ and a quarter, not 23″ and 7/8ths….nope….dead nuts on 24.”
I haven’t even caught any 21-22-23-25-+ since opener. It’s been 2013’s and 24″s exclusively for me the entire summer trolling since opening weekend.
The point I’m getting at is I’m cursed or maybe it’s a bad year for big fish? My basin leadcore troll out around the flats absolutely sucked this year [if this was your first year to throw away or sell your set-up, it most likely wasn’t you and despite your early experiences sucking—it can be very productive at times [frequently].
After last year I truly believed I figured it out to where I was at the summit—not possible to get any more dialed in. I was absolutely jacked for the end of July into August leadcore bite. Before having the cruel bitch that can be ML when she’s stingy take me down a peg…a very large and robust peg.
The second weekend of August 2017 I had a buddy swing through and we fished four hours tops on Friday evening and boated a 29.5″ a 28.5″ a 25″ 24″ couple deuce-deuces, down to a handful of football like 17″s (2013’s). The next day we sleep in, hit the landing at noon, were off the water by 6pm because my buddy had to run to his cabin to meet up with his wife coming back from a high school reunion or something…anyways, considerably slower…probably because we basically avoided the peak bites but caught a half dozen or so fish including another 28.5″ a 23″ and the rest were 2013’s. Sunday is lost due to rained and wind. Monday I took off work to fish the river and got back to the cabin with enough daylight to where I got my parents out into ML for the first time ever and all that was left of daylight was the last hour. We boat five fish with the big being the fattest calibre of 27.5″ I’ve seen pulled from ML, my dad’s first ML was a nice 24″ and then my mom reeled in three football 20inchers.
There were other weekends where I boated more fish and also with some very nice ‘bigs’ but that is the weekend that I’ll always remember not just for the big fish but for how little time we spend and how half-ass we were fishing.
This year?
Well, let’s just say I trolled ’til I about rolled….for twelve hours the Saturday of that same weekend doing the same crap with the same set-ups swapping out every crank I owned to try and still got blanked. Never had one on. Never had a strike. Fairly brutal for the ego.
Long story short, don’t get discouraged if you max out at 24″ this year. I’m right there with you but still holding out hope I can change my narrative for 2018 by adding the caveat, “…until fall arrived and everything changed.”
P.S. precision trolling is a science like all other outdoor related ones—a very inexact one. Don’t let all the technical crap and terms and dive curves and charts about dive curves and charts about the charts of the dive curves intimidate you and lead to overthinking it. I didn’t know jack back when I started. Maybe I still don’t but of I can regurgitate enough of the lingo now to qualify myself into potentially not being a total moron. It might be very likely, but there’s a small but significant enough chance that it buys me a few second pause when talking to someone that’s really good at trolling.
When I started trolling ML it was out of 14′ boat with a 10hp, no electronics of any kind, no way to check my speed (guarantee I was going 5mph plus most of the time) and I caught enough fish to keep me coming back. I thought I was a freaking genius for putting a 6′ snell/leader (proper term??) of clear 10lbs mono off a 2oz bottom bouncer and tying an sr-7 to it.
I caught a walleye within a hundred yards of the landing the first time I tried the new rigging set up that I was dumb and unaware enough to believe I was the first one to ever think of that. Crude? Perhaps. Will it produce? Trust me, you’ll catch fish…and you know what? With all the dead snail and zebe shells I can’t seem to keep off my hooks for some reason even when several feet off the bottom….well, you might not be the only that tries it out; “again” in my case. It worked great as a stopper keeping your crankbait clean by catching most the vegetation when it’s floating around heavy. That is another advantage to snap weights too. I use off-shore red line clips with assorted weights from an ounce up to 3 ounces. I really liked those RC trolling weights Tutt’s carried a few years back, haven’t found them since. Anyways, the clips are what are pivotal. Pick your poison for what type of lead you connect to it. Figure 5′ an ounce up to maybe 7′ if you go real slow.
Oh yeah, the slower you go—the deeper your bait dives. A lot of people [myself very much included] always figured it’d dive deeper the faster you went, and finding out it was the exact opposite was a hard concept to understand. It’s an important one to understand. You don’t have to at first, just trust in it, and you’ll gain understanding of it over time.
Walmart has magna baitcasters with line counters for $50. You’ve already got baitcaster rods…swap the reels on a couple of your beefier ones. Add a couple rod holders. Buy a couple off-shore planer boards—they’ve gotten ridiculously expensive for a molded piece of plastic some foam and weight and two clips on it….but don’t buy anything else! Saving yourself $20 to spend $100 in tylenol for all the additional headaches isn’t a win.
Less than a couple hundred bucks and you’ve got all the ‘essential’ tools to get you going.
I didn’t see a kicker on your boat and I’m not sure what make/model/thrust your trolling motor is so I have even less idea what speeds it can pull you, and for how long.
1.9 to 2.3mph is what the by the book trolling guys are going to swear to for range of speed to go. In my opinion if for some reason your trolling motor can’t get you there, or it can for only a couple hours….well, great start trolling at a couple hours an outing. If by changing prop pitch and diameter you can drop your lowest speed above idle down info the 3.5mph range? Even then you’ll catch fish. You’ll be limited on the selection of cranks that will still run with a decent action at that speed but you can get your set-up where it’s productive. Don’t forget that dropping the trolling motor adds drag and drops your speed a decent chunk. Trolling motors can turn 360—that means you can have your bowmount turned back and going the same direction your outboard is pointed—this will drop your speed a lot. It will not hurt anything. You do not have to steer your trolling motor….set it straight back, adjust the speed to where you need it to be in order to work against your outboard for desired speed. I’ve figured out plenty of ways to slow down boats that go 5mph plus barely tapping it into gear. Almost forgot that option—tapping your throttle back and forth from neutral to barely being in gear. It sucks, but if you really want to try trolling without buying a proper kicker—it’ll certainly work. I’ve seen it work where the stopping and starting movement triggers fish better than a constant preferred speed for the bait.
Keep it easy when thinking about it—all you’re doing is getting a bait to where it’s presented to fish doing what it’s designed to do. Presenting crankbaits to ML walleyes means finding a way to get them close to the bottom generally going slow enough for them to display their proper action to elicit strikes [hopefully].
We’re not constructing and deconstructing a nuclear bomb here! And if you try something and fail miserably, try again. If you fail the next time? That’s what God invented beer for. 
I now ordain you a ML precision troller! Congrats and good luck! Just like life, it’s more about the journey than it is reaching your desired destination.
