Low Pressure Eyes – High Intensity catches

Anyone that has spent a ½ day or more with me in my boat knows I am a fanatic for a good crank-bait bite. The past few days have given me nearly all that a guy can ask for. A low pressure zone settled in over Wisconsin giving us low light intensity, variable light rain, and moderate winds. Just about the perfect recipe for an outstanding shallow water crank-bait bite. With a couple of days opened in my schedule, I hit a favorite of mine – Fox lake for what I anticipated to be steady action of short fish. (Fox Lake has a 3 walleye limit with a minimal 18” size). In addition to having a couple days to fish by myself and relax, I had a small box of some Koppers Live Target Gizzard Shad that I have been itching to try out. To “try out” is an understatement and was more like a work-out!

With south-west winds, it was merely a quick glance at the lake map in my Humminbird to pick out which points would be most wind swept. Contrary to others, I like the waves to be hitting a point at more of a 45 degree angle Vs. head on. My success has come more from fish stacking up in front of the wave action and along the seam/current generated out from the point. This pattern proved to be very consistent through out the multiple stops I made.

I started with a gold/black rattle trap (#5) as a search bait with a 7’ Quantum Superlite Medium/Fast spinning rod. Holding the boat in deeper water and fan casting from parallel to the shore to shallow water didn’t take long to zero in on the masses. By my 3rd cast I had a 18” eye slam a crank in about 3 fow along the edge of sporadic weeds. A quick follow up cast to the same location immediately produced a 22” walleye. With the shallow bite being where they’re at, I opted to make long drifts and motor back up wind by going out and up. This way I didn’t disturb the shallow flat with the prop wash.

I took advantage of these long drifts to try multiple presentations. Even during a good bite, eye’s will often show a preference of size, color, speed….by the way they strike a lure. Each pass I tried a different color rattle trap as that was without a doubt a hot meal ticket. Though looking at how each fish was hooked told a different story. The black/gold had the back hook in the corner of their mouth on each one. A chrome/blue, natural shad, and chrome black were all hooked by the thinnest of skin on their lip. But a pass with the Live Target Gizzard shad in Ghost/Blue really answered the question to what they wanted to eat. The hits went from a solid stop of the retrieve to a SLAM of wrist bending – drag pulling hits that just screamed MINE!!!! as they hit. Generally I look for a bait to be eaten. It’s nice to see two hooks well imbedded into the sides of the mouth. But this was without exception finding a bait that they wanted to inhale.

As I moved around to different locations, the size of the fish was the only thing that varied. This simple “Low Pressure Tactic” historically produces very well for me. Too often, we catch a few short fish and stick to that one spot hoping the big fish will turn on. When the conditions are right, it can pay dividends to move around. So the next time you see a low pressure zone settling in, keep the following in mind to try:
Look shallow amongst rocks and/or weeds, small shallow cranks in a small variety of colors, and pay close attention to how they react to your offering. The subtle change in color or size can make for some very aggressive and memorable strikes!

Good luck!