Walleyes kick Rootski’s Butt

Up at 3:30, on the road at 4AM, on the lake by 6:30. We started on the sand by Wealthwood at the bas of the 15 foot break and immediately started seeing fish. I stuck a small perch, then a 6 inch Walleye, and then 5 minutes later the flag went up on the tip up and up came a fat 25 incher And that was it ! We spent the next 10 hours moving, changing presentations, and getting frustrated. We moved all over the north end of the flats on the north end, and we marked a bunch of fish. But here’s what would happen: Jig jig jig, a-ha there’s a fish coming up off the bottom (as seen on the FL-8). Then the fish would take a good look, and then swim away. We tried vertical lures. We tied horizontal lures, We tried different colors, We tried holding it still, We tried wiggling it in their face, We tried slowly dropping it or slowly lifting it. We tried big stuff, We tried small stuff on 2 lb test line. We tried minnow heads, We tried minnow tails, we tried waxworms. We tried monnows on a bare hook. Nothing!
I’m not going to complain about catching a 25 inch Mille Lacs Walleye (which you know was a pig) but it was frustrating to mark fish all day and not stick any of them. OK Bobber, Scott, Derek, Lip Ripper: Was it just an off day or did we miss something?

Rootski

I just got back from the pond myself, I found much of the same, however, we got some of those picky eyes to take a small crappie minnow on a plain chartruese hook. I did start out on the flats, mostly working the “BOOT”, but soon moved over to Big Point where a couple of guys I know have their big houses. 23fow, small rock w/BIG rock only about 20 yards away. Action was great from about 3 to 6pm then slowed quite a bit.Nothing real big until midnight when we landed a nice 28″ out of my uncles big house. We did get a lot of perch with the occasional jumbo mixed in. Sometimes the pond can get real stingy, then like the alarm went off…the bobbers are burried!

Steve,
Sounds like just an off day of negative fish, and there is not much you can do about it, except SNAG them. Next time same areas could be gangbusters as YOU know.
Hope to hear more of your travels this year.
Jack..

Rootski, we had much the same action on Gills and Crappies. We had more fish than ever come through our holes…fly up to the bait…give it the finger and swim off. Three of us ended the day with 2 nice crappies and two nice gills.

Weather?

New Years Hang Over?

It was probably the smell of cut bait on CA’s hand, plus the way he holds his mouth…

Rooski,
I hope it wasn`t because you had gas on your hands or something like that..I`ve noticed that as time goes by in the ice season,the walleye tend to bite much better in the dusk & dawn windows.The fish you graph from 9am.to 3pm.become sniffers or shall we say tourists.The only thing to do is look for active fish like perch (the key is to get away from other people)other wise thats the way it is on the pond.
jiggle-jiggle

I agree, your best bites for walleyes are sun up and sun down. Sometimes you can get on a hot bite of smaller walleyes during the day in the mud. But I usually chase perch during the day after the dawn bite is over and then start fishing eyes again before dusk.

I give you lots of credit for not just sitting in a house all day looking at a hole. Mille lacs is alot of work in the winter, had you gone back to your starting spot in the evening, you probably could have eaked out a few more eyes.

Also its tough to say what you were marking on the flasher. Many times I have seen large shiner minnows, suckers, even smallmouth on the camera. If you think they were stubborn perch, try some raw chicken skin next time.

Hi Derek,

We did go back to our starting spot before we left. We caught a nice fish there in the morning, we marked a lot of fish there, and it was a lot easier to get off the lake in the dark from there. The only downer was that the road was plowed right over the steepest part of the break! Anyway at dusk we stopped even marking fish, they were just gone. Another mystery on the big lake.

I don’t think we were seeing all perch based on the size of the mark on the vexilar and I did try waxworms and tiny jigs just to see what might be down there. Same story, they’d sniff and then swim away.

Thanks for the advice!

Rootski

Rootski, I was up there for new years and had the same results. We ended up with 3 eyes 1 over and 2 under and 5 pout ???? if the eyes were hitting anything like the pout we would have done pretty good. Whole fatheads on small spoons cought the eyes and the pout hit every thing else Good luck if you get back up. We should be up in a few weeks to try agian.