short lining for pool 9 eyes

I did not fish pool 9 on July 6th–but every other day from 7/2 thru today been catching between 6-10 legal walleyes per trip (releasing most of ’em), keying on water less than six feet deep and fishing current breaks with either a Lindy rig and willow cat or a 1/8 ounce slo-poke jighead with half a crawler threaded on like a Mr. Twister…targeting primarily areas in Minnesota slough away from the crowds.
Catching a few fish pulling JSR-FT #5 and Wally Diver CD 5 in red along the 6-9 foot breakline…but the real QUALITY fish have been with less than four feet of line out in a finesse presentation essentially right under the boat which only works if the fish feels zero resistance.
Several factors seem to be in play for consistent success. One is time of day. fish are most active between 5-10 am and again 7-9 pm
With the Lindy rig I’m using a 24-30 inch leader, #4 hook, 3/8 RATTLIN NO SNAGG sinker and small willow cat, working the bait along steep sandbar break from 1.4 into 4.2 ft. of water.
This is best accomplished by anchoring up. Bite shuts down when you make any noise such as running the livewell or leaving the electronics on. These fish are right under the boat and really spooky!
About 70 percent of the ‘eyes on the Lindy hit when bouncing the RATTLING No Snagg off the bottom a couple of times.
With the jig I’m threading the crawler on just like you would a plastic tail, using a HALF crawler and leaving about an inch of bait trailing behind the bend of the hook so crawler is naturally in line.
The whole secret seems to be “sensing” the jig travel along the bottom, barely in contact with the bottom but touching–and NO resistance from line drag.
Most other folks working the area are picking up a fish now and then drifting around and trying to remain stealty and vertical. Most of these fish are barely legal–if that–the fish tucked tight against the break are about 90 percent legals with an average of 17-19 inches.
Believe these quality eaters are oriented here because this is the best available habitat where they can feed from a point of shelter with very little effort.
I’m not that good a walleye stick, but have been a serious student of life for the past 53 years. One thing I’ve learned is THE BIG DOG GETS THE MEAT. Seems like this applies to wallies too…especially when you tease ’em with a willow cat right in front of their face.
Gonna be guiding on some inland waters all next week, so won’t be able to beat up the walleyes in upper pool 9 Hope this info helps y’all get hooked up. Please just keep enough to eat.
Special note to Lawrence Ecklor–Hope ya got your motor running! The guy who towed you in caught a nice limit of fat ones with me the next day. have you tried those new Chomper tubes?

Ted:

Thanks for your very detailed and informative post. I fished 9 today, primarily below Lansing. We caught a 12″ sauger fairly quickly, then it was slow going for the rest of the day; with only one 19″ eater for the table. I opted to stick with the trolling and we trolled, and trolled, and trolled… (you get the picture)

We fished from 7:30am-3:30pm or so. The sauger nipped a fire-tiger JSR-5 and the walleye hit a blue-shad JSR-5.

When the sun came back out, we shot up to DeSoto and it was pretty dead, only one other boat was out. I trolled a few passes along the rip-rap on the Wisconsin side and then up a ways into Desoto Bay; with no takers. We worked a couple of wingdams too, but it was just not meant to be today.

My buddy Ron joined me, and he’s even newer to walleye fishing than me; he had never seen a walleye or sauger. At least I was able to catch one of each to show him.

Next time you’re working hard at a trollathon you might consider some of the WEST channels south of the Lansing bridge—especially 1/2 mile down the main channel from the ramp on the East side of the big bridge, and the next channel east of there.Although that JSRFT-5 Rap has been a killer, don’t overlook the baby CD-5 Wally Diver in red pattern. Methinks the crankin’ pattern in the running sloughs will be slowing a tad soon with warmer weather. Time to drag a crawler on a spinner. Maybe.

Great posts guys. I wish I had more time to fish. Why must we work anyway, can’t Bush get me a tax cut big enough to retire on?