Fishermen are creatures of habit. If the word gets out that walleyes are biting on white jig heads tipped with green three-inch twister-tails and minnows, these baits and lures are the only ones most anglers will use.
When the fish fail to respond to these specific offerings, many anglers crash and burn. I've seen it happen a hundred times; anglers get brain freeze when choosing alternative fishing lures and presentations.
Tournament pros characterizes this attitude as fishing memories. Most of us take the easy road. If that route doesn't produce, we console ourselves with statements like "the fish must not be biting today."
What worked yesterday should be considered as nothing more than a convenient starting place tomorrow. Putting too much stake in one lure or one presentation is bound to lead to disappointment when it fails to produce. And it will sooner or later.
What walleyes hit last weekend has roughly a 50-50 chance of being useless during the next fishing trip. As anglers, we conveniently overlook the fact that predicting what walleyes will strike on any given day is a tossup. The best we can do is offer game fish a variety, and hope they like our choices.
That's why most serious walleye anglers never leave the dock without the bait, lures, terminal tackle, and other angling accessories needed for a variety of presentations. We're lucky as walleye anglers: the types of lures and other tackle we need are nothing compared to the hodgepodge of gear and gadgets bass anglers lug into the boat.
The Big Three of Live Bait
Everywhere walleye fishing is popular, live bait dominates the scene. Whenever I walk into a bait shop, I check out the quality of their leech, crawler, and minnow selections. Call it a force of habit, but I learned the hard way that walleyes seem eager to eat the bait I forgot to bring.
This problem is solved by lugging along all three common fish baits whenever possible.
A few years ago while fishing near White River, Ontario, I let my stubbornness cost me a memorable outing. After checking with the local bait shop, I learned that the hotspot was where a major spawning stream poured into the main lake. Although the bait shop owner suggested using minnows, I ignored his advice and decided to fish with crawlers I'd brought from home. After all, if the fish were biting so good, crawlers should do the job just as well.
I spent several hours watching other anglers pull in one fish after another on minnows before I swallowed my pride and made the long trek back to the bait shop.
The shop owner greeted me with a big "I told you so" smile. Embarrassed, I purchased a few dozen minnows, gulped at the price, and hastily made my way back to the lake.
With the help of some lively minnows, I caught fish almost at will for about 30 wonderful minutes. Having the right bait really did the trick until an afternoon cold front complete with rain and high winds put an end to the fun.
Early the next morning I was on the water with plenty of minnows. Unfortunately, the cold front had the fish in a state of shock. Even though I had the right bait, fishing was tough and I couldn't help kicking myself for wasting most of the prior day. Since that painful experience, I've learned my lesson and always carry a supply of crawlers, leeches, and minnows when live bait fishing.
The Toys of the Trade
Outfitting yourself with tackle is half the fun of fishing. My wife claims that fishing lures are my toys, and it's difficult to deny her claims. Lures are fishing tools, that a great deal of pleasure is derived from purchasing, accumulating, organizing, and using the toys of my trade.
It never hurts to experiment, but sticking with classic lures and presentations is good advice for anyone learning the walleye ropes. Freelance angling techniques are best left for those days when nothing seems to work or those rare moments when everything works.
A serious walleye fisherman should carry, at the bare minimum, a selection of leadhead jigs, live bait rigs, jigging spoons, spinner blades and components, bottom bouncers, slip bobbers, and crankbaits on every fishing trip. Not to mention a spool of line for leaders, various sized split-shot, three-way swivels, cross-lock snaps, barrel swivels, single hooks, snell floats, line clippers, wire cutters, pliers, hook file, and a partridge in a pear tree!
These items are the bare minimum. Organizing all this tackle can become a mammoth undertaking. No single tackle box is capable of holding an adequate supply of these items without being roughly the size and weight of a blacksmith's anvil.
The most convenient way to coordinate most fishing tackle is to divide the different types of terminal tackle into several small boxes. Jigs go in one box, slip-sinker rigs in another, bobbers in a third, and spinner fishing components in yet another.
The clear utility boxes made by Plano, Flambeau, Fenwick, and others are ideal for tackle organization. The boxes are roughly eight inches wide by 12-inches long, and come with a variety of inside compartment configurations.
I keep my jigs in a box that features 24 two-inch square compartments. Each compartment receives a different size and color jig for easy identification and removal as needed. Jigging spoons, crankbaits, and other larger lures go into boxes with larger space divisions.
Each plastic box is conveniently stored in a canvas tote that holds six, eight, or more boxes. When it's time to go fishing I load the tote bag into the boat, and will be equipped with all the tackle needed for almost any walleye fishing situation.
Quantum has two sizes of canvas tackle bags that come complete with properly sized plastic storage boxes. The small bag is ideal for jigs, rigs, slip bobbers, and other small terminal tackle. The larger bag holds hundreds of crankbaits and other bulky lures.
The system is portable, takes up little space, nothing gets left behind, and it's easy to find needed items. Using the small plastic boxes makes economic sense; half a dozen of these containers cost less than larger tackle storage systems.
I like saving money, but most of all, I enjoy having quick access to the angling goodies needed without cluttering up the boat with piles of unnecessary and bulky tackle boxes.
My tournament partner Mike Norris uses a similar system. Instead of storing his gear boxes in a canvas tote bag, Norris uses a Coleman cooler as a storage compartment. The cooler is waterproof, strong enough to be walked on, and doubles as a convenient seat when a cushion is added.
In Part Two, we'll look at the specifics of tackle selection.
Copyright (c) 1997 Mark Romanack. All rights reserved.
Home | Library | Fishing | Freshwater Fishing