Walleye and Sauger limits

If you really want to help the deep water fish survive to get to a spawning age QUIT using that thing called a trailor hook!!!!!! That thing I call a ENCHANTED TRAILOR .Most of your small fish come up on this gill hooked and anywhere else it can snag them. For some of you guys don’t know how to fish without one on!!!! By the way for some of you guys that’s the little treble hook you drag behind your lure to catch that SHORT BITER!!! It’s easy to say that 80 percent our better of the fish I saw caught over the weekend was on the cheater hook and all small fish. These fish would all be swimming if it wasn’t for this hook. Well just wanted to put my 2 cents in and vent a little on this subject. Good luck Steve

Hi Bass Bull….
I used to use a trailer hook quite a bit… Im not certain how much mortality it caused… some though…. there are times when they just cant help but suck that little hook into their gills…. what I DO admit is that I think its pretty undeeded… I have went to lighter lines (Pro V turned me on to the 4# fire line for vertical jiggin, and it works GREAT)…. and therefore lighter jig heads… I also use larger baits and hope for larger fish to bite… it has worked very well for me… do I miss some fish? yep… but I missed fish even with trailer hooks… after all they call it fishin… not catching… you cant get them all…..
why use a trailer hook they are not just potentially fatal for fish, they are also a pain in the rump to use… and maybe its just my imagination… but I think they cut down on the number of bites I get….

HI BB,
Is somebody out there telling me the little #12 stinger treble does more damage than the #2 or #4 hook on the jig you are using. Lawrence

I let the conditions (bite) dictate if I should use a stinger hook.To date,I have never seen any supported studies indicating that the use of stingers is killing our fish.Such reliable information would certainly sway a lot of people.I’m almost certain that the use of stinger hooks allow some people to enjoy the sport more by allowing them to catch more.What I mean by that is that there are people fishing with maybe physical limitations that do not allow them to control or react in the same way as others.Maybe some older folks have lost a touch of their reflexes.If a stinger hook makes the differance to those folks to keep them fishing,great.Until somone reveals some reliable information proving that stingers are causing a abnormaly high mortality rate,i’ll continue to use them as conditions warrant.

pulling the little buggers up out of the deep water kills alot more of them than stinger hooks ever will. so if you want to help them reach spawning age stay out of the scour hole! just my two cents.

I was amazed at a a tourney I directed in Alma two years ago how all of the tourney guys seemed to agree instantly when I mentioned that I would appreciate it if everyone avoided the deep holes that we all knew was full of sauger.
Flick knows where I’m talking about. Yes some did fish the 20 foot flat below and the 15-20 feet right on the back of the Wing dam but I didn’t see a single boat in the deep hole, and I was close enough to see it all the time. So there really was no doubt in any of our minds that everything that came up would probably die or at the least be injured. Lawrence

A friend of mine told me that he heard on the news that the DNR said that they are considering closing the winter fishing for one mile below the dam as 85% of the smaller fish are being killed by people fishing for them in the deeper water and that will hurt the future fishery big time. He only heard part of the news so he didn’t know just where they were talking about. Has anyone heard if this is just for Iowa or if Minnesta/Wisconsin is going to do this too? Thanks, Bill