Deep leadcore bite still going

Went out Saturday in hopes of putting my kids on some big walleyes. A buddy and I were out last weekend and had done well trolling but didn’t stick with it and boated 6, so I hoped we could at least match the numbers and maybe get some “Best Yets”. The Pond gave up her bounty and my kids are hooked.
We ran 2-leadcore and 2-downriggers. The lead was run out 150′ with a Minnow-Rap and 130′ with a tail-dancer, both with a 50′ floro leader. The riggers ran at 22-24′ with a shad-rap 50′ back from the ball. Tried to stay between 29 and 34 fow and 2.2-2.8 mph GPS. Fished from 4:00 till 8:00pm and went 6 for 9. Heres the bigger ones, 5.9, 3.5, 18.25″er and my sons best at 7.3 lbs. Poor kid got a bloody blister on his thumb from cranking 200′ of line in, but he wouldn’t give up.

Thats always awsome when the lil’ ones get the biguns.

glad ther were entertained, makes for a better trip.

I was thinkin bout’ riggin on ML, did they hit behind the ball or were the lead lines better? -Mark

The bigger fish always seem to go on the leadcore, but if you want to put fish in the box riggers are the way to go. I can see why the lead works for the bigger fish, spookier, wiser, more stealthy, but I am not really sure why the smaller fish go for the riggers. Alot of the time I run all Shad-Raps because I know they work, but with the extra rods I’m going to experiment as much as possible.
I’d say definetly give it a shot. If you have the gear, might as well use it.

Great Job! Can’t wait to get back up there. 1 more week.

Thanks for the report and great job getting the kids involved!

Great report and pics. What was the water temp? Were you fishing on the flats or away from them?

thanks for the report – from the look on the kids faces you made some excellent memories there!

We were out in no mans land. We never got with-in half a mile of anyone fishing, so we were well off the flats. We did catch a few on top of the flats near Garrison a couple weeks ago though. Surface water temps were in the low 70’s.

Nothing much better than seeing the kids with fish!

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Nothing much better than seeing the kids with fish!

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I agree, and said the same in my original post. There was no reason to delete it. The following is meant to be helpful and with good intentions.

I gave a different option for weighing the release fish, and did so in a nice, helpful manner. Simply stated, rather than slicing a hole in the jaw of a fish your intending to release and weighing them off the jaw bone there’s a easier way that doesn’t cause permanent damage and will cause less stress to the fish. It can be weighed in the net, I believe that scale has “Tare” on it allowing one to weigh the net, push Tare and it will zero out. I say this in hopes it changes the way some may choose to weigh their release fish.

Sorry if this hurts anyones feelings, it’s not intended to. It’s stated with the best intentions, not only for the OP but anyone that may read it and for the future of the fishery.

BIRDDOG

No hard feelings. I’m just trying to get a picture of my five year old with the biggest Walleyes he’s ever caught. Was a little concerned about him sticking his fingers around it’s gills, I’m sure you understand. And you know how girls are, I’m just glad they wanted to go in the boat at all, much less hold some slimy fish.

Truth be told, I usually get a length and girth and figure out the weight, rather then trust a scale which has been banging around in the boat. You can see in the pictures it’s not even on. The scale measures pounds and ounces and the graph I use figures it in pounds and tenths of a pound.

By the way, a single puncture hole will heal. I wouldn’t “Slice” a hole in any fish. The worst, most stressful, thing I’m doing to these fish is catching them. I know for certain that putting a fish in a net, tearing up it’s scales, fins and tail is doing much more long term damage then one hole in their lower jaw. But you want to take it out of the net, do the tare weight and then replace it in the net. I can’t see the benefit.