The lack of ice has been killing me but late at night with the right wind the walleyes have been moving in to feed really shallow and off steep drop offs. There are a few spots in my area I can hit in a given night and am often success full with F13s or lately I have been even using Shiver minnows and ripping them back.
F13 is a big bait. They trying to eat it or mate with it? LOL!
F13 is a big bait. They trying to eat it or mate with it? LOL!
when you retrieve the bait really slow I have had eyes come from come up and smack it right off the surface. Sometimes in 20+ feet of water.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>SuperDave1959 wrote:</div>
F13 is a big bait. They trying to eat it or mate with it? LOL!when you retrieve the bait really slow I have had eyes come from come up and smack it right off the surface. Sometimes in 20+ feet of water.
Not really all that big when you look at what an eye will eat. I’ll have eyes breech the surface hitting baits in this size range when the water temps are 38-40ish degrees. If your ever in the Lake Geneva area, stop in at my buddy John’s place ,The Pier, and ask to see his collection of #13’s. Pretty impressive to see how many walleye teeth are embedded into the baits. He trolls until he is literally iced in. Seen him out in dangerously cold weather trolling and he puts the smack down on big eyes with good sized baits. This includes Geneva being partially frozen over. If he can get a boat in and break ice, he’s there.
Have seen those eyes tackle some pretty big plastics to. Had a guy in my boat one might pitching 8″ shad plastics. Good thing he was with as I only caught one that night to the dozen he caught.
randy how fast would you troll those f13 this time of year and i would assume husky jerks would work also!
randy how fast would you troll those f13 this time of year and i would assume husky jerks would work also!
I’m not a trolling guy, so couldn’t tell ya. I vary my retrieves to figure out what they want. Sometime faster than would think and other times pause not go.
Casting stick baits on the river at night slow to no movement is the key. Crank three time and let it sit. Painfully slow. Some nights it like bobber fishing. Results can be good like this 10# plus that can caught last weekend on a husky jerk.
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I’ll second the jerks, big ones. Casted plastics for 15 min then threw on the clown from Mikes reports of them hitting. Caught 2 immediately. Also second the dragging, mine were in about 2′ of water, but I was reeling just fast enough to give it a wobble and keep under the surface.
Used the F13’s and comparable Husky’s many times in July & Aug in deep water with eyes suspended. They would crush the bait and its easy to see what color they preferred by all the teeth marks in certain colors. Great bait!
I would have to agree that F13’s are not that big of a bait. After you catch a few on F18’s or Husky Jerk 14’s, you will quickly come to realize an F13 is nothing more than a good snack. The old rapala “Husky” was (and still is) another really good night time stick bait.
And I would never leave for a night fishing trip in November without the #9 shad raps.
In late February and early March, stepping down to the F11 or Husky Jerk #8 can be a good bet though.
As for retrieves, they can be all over the place but like Mike says, there are nights where painfully slow retrieves with dead stops for 10, 15 or even 20 seconds can be the trick.
And hits can be anywhere from a crushing smash to nothing more than the slightest tick.
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Interesting you guys mention pauses. Curious if you guys are anchoring and casting them back, so the bait is still wobbling with current?
In my case, more often than not, the bait is not wobbling on the pause.
We usually are anchored and spots have a little flow. Last weekend they where hitting some as they drifted sideways down river. Just pecking the baits. Looking forward to giving it a try again this weekend. Flow will be up a bit from last.
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