When the water is high the hand line bite in the spring really shines !! And the weather really cooperated over the past 3 days. Early last week I was looking at the weather for Thursday and with clear skies and temps in the low 70’s I know a day of vacation from work was in order.
When I arrived, water temps were in the upper 40’s and the clarity was incredibly clear. With the cleaner water I was planning to pull more natural baits like Perch,Black and Gold,Hot Steel and Purpledescent.. this picture is om my daughter Allie and her boyfriend Josh…they were very quick learners and were able to put these to nice males in the boat.
What i found was the exact opposite…the first few fish came on Hot Steel and nothing on the other natural colors so with a couple of quick changes I found that Fire Tiger and Orange and Gold were the Hot colors !! Orange and Gold was getting so many fish I put two on the same hand line set up and within an hour had my first double of the year !!
Handlining, for those of you that have never got the chance to do it,with a little information you could be on your way to pulling some very aggressive males this time of year, with fish up to 23″, and several in the lower 20’s.
Trolling speed is very critical. I was using my electronics to keep me at a specific depth, moving in and out depth ranges more so than moving forward.This type of fishing allows you to keep your baits just off the bottom at all times no matter what depth changes you occur.
These male walleyes are up on the rocky current swept shorelines taking care of business. With the water temp and the daylight changing every day, it signals them to move in and look to fertilize the billions of eggs tucked into all the nooks and cranny’s of the bottom. Putting a small stick bait in front of them is just to hard to pass up. I the years that i have hand lined I had yet to catch a female during this male dominate area but yesterday I was enticed a real nice 26 incher still dropping her eggs, so with a fey quick pix she was put back to finish her business…
This bit should last another week give or take so if you get the chance to get in on the fun, I’m sure you will enjoy every minute of it !!
I love this time of year…theis bite is nothing short of fantastic !!! Here are a couple more pix that I took over the past three days out..
Here are a couple more I took…Allie even cooked brats on the grill on the front of the boat on Saturday,,,I wish I would have taken pix of that…
Nice job Dave. I wish I could have made it down there Friday.
Yep, me too….nice fish ecnook
Cool write up Dave. Like that pic of the bucket keepers
Stay on em
Great report and pictures Dave.
I saw many, many boats both above and below Victory on Friday pitching the bank on the way to Cabela’s – you should have waved – 
I was on the Harley. 
Great report Dave! I picked up two handline reels yesterday, I’ll be out Tuesday to try ’em out.
Awesome report Dave.
Great pics!
Nice write up EC! A fascinating technique I aim to familizer myself with in due time. There are a couple of stretches on 9 where I think this would be more effective than pulling traditional 3-ways.
Now the question is. When’s an IDO episode on handlining coming to a theater nearest you?
Grillin on the boat and catching fish, life is good Bro
Great pic’s
Business as usual! Good report, good pics and super fish.
Charlie