Why feed slack?

I was watching a few episodes where the guys were catching walleyes. I noticed that rather than setting the hook once they felt a good hit they would actually pay out slack for a little bit and then set the hook. What is the reason behind this and how do you determine it’s time to stop paying out slack and set the hook?

Let them eat. Walleyes will usually hit the minnow then turn it around so they swallow it head first. Takes some time to do this, so on the initial hit the hook is usually not very far into their mouth. Think of it like lindy rigging. It all depends on the minnow size. It takes a while to get a 6″ sucker minnow down

So do you keep the bail open with a finger on the line, or just keep the drag light?

Nate Basinger wrote:

So do you keep the bail open with a finger on the line, or just keep the drag light?

are you jigging a full minnow of decent size, say small chub, big fathead or shiner? Or are you running full minnows on bobber lines/dead sticks?

tornadochaser wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Nate Basinger wrote:</div>
So do you keep the bail open with a finger on the line, or just keep the drag light?

are you jigging a full minnow of decent size, say small chub, big fathead or shiner? Or are you running full minnows on bobber lines/dead sticks?

I haven’t done much walleye fishing so my tactics are limited, but I’ll usually set up a dead stick/tip up with a full minnow in one hole and then jig with a full minnow in a different hole.

Nate Basinger wrote:

I was watching a few episodes where the guys were catching walleyes. I noticed that rather than setting the hook once they felt a good hit they would actually pay out slack for a little bit and then set the hook. What is the reason behind this and how do you determine it’s time to stop paying out slack and set the hook?

They were using IfishPros in the show. Might want to check out the post on this topic:

http://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/ifish-pro-3/

Basically fishing like a tip up with a rod and reel. The fish is taking slack line after setting off the flag.

-J.