[ad_1]
When fishing a sinking presentation, fine-tuning the autumn fee can assist you catch extra walleye. At instances, fish reply greatest to a gradual, delicate drop, however there are occasions when the commotion of a fast-sinking lure smashing right into a lakebed is what will get assaults from walleye. Right here’s what you could know in regards to the crash-bang strategy.
Begin in late fall
The start of the cold-water interval from late fall to early winter gives unbelievable walleye-angling motion. Fish are sometimes energetic and wanting to eat. Throughout this time, working a fast-sinking jig and plastic mixture, bladebait, or spoon alongside the ground is value attempting for bottom-oriented fish. This is applicable to casting and jigging from a ship in addition to fishing throughout early ice. Listed below are my ways particular to both boat or ice fishing.
Open-water effectivity
A heavy bait casts farther than a light-weight one and its fast descent will get into the strike zone with out hesitation. These traits assist cowl water, which is beneficial when walleye are scattered over broad flats, giant underwater factors, and different giant buildings.
Final November, I tied on a 5/8-ounce Rapala Jigging Rap for walleye scattered alongside a 16 to 28-foot drop-off. With the boat over deep water, I tossed the lure about 40 toes previous the higher fringe of the drop and onto a soft-bottom flat, then snap-jigged it up earlier than letting it plummet again to backside. This caught a number of walleye. Different fish hit because it was crashing down the drop-off, and loads of walleye tasted hooks when the lure pounded the deep mud flat on the base of the drop-off.
Rubbernecking walleye
When a lure hits a tender backside, it sends particles flying. Mud, sand, and weeds get stirred up once more when the bait is snapped up off the ground.
These disturbances appeal to curious walleye searching for straightforward meals, offered the water’s clear sufficient for them to see the disruption. To a walleye, a stirred-up backside would possibly reveal the situation of a susceptible baitfish. Perch create silt clouds when backside feeding. Regardless of what’s occurring in a walleye’s mind, the takeaway is, disturbing the underside with a bait attracts these predators.
Likewise, walleye might be drawn to the sound when a lure hits exhausting backside. Banging rocks can get dicey when fishing from a transferring boat, although. The heavier the bait, the extra seemingly it’s to wedge itself right into a snag, though vertically jigging usually yields fewer hang-ups than casting.
Lure velocity and weight
Brief, gradual to reasonable lifts can enchantment to less-aggressive walleye. Smashing the ground with a 1 ⁄2 -ounce bladebait as a substitute of a 3 ⁄4-ounce, is value experimenting with. Suppose fender-bender velocity.
Kamikaze-fast crashes mixed with quick, excessive lifts with a bait can enchantment to a walleye’s aggressive aspect and set off response strikes. A 3 ⁄8-ounce bucktail jig or swimbait is lethal in autumn when walleye are looking yellow perch and minnows on eight to 14-foot weed flats blended with sand patches and rock piles.
Including a pause
One other crash-bang presentation choice is letting a lure relaxation on backside for a pair seconds earlier than lifting it. Doing this just a few instances all through the retrieve (or when jigging on ice) is perhaps sufficient. In different situations, delaying the carry after every drop is what walleye need.
You gained’t at all times really feel the hit when briefly soaking a bait on backside, however you’ll actually discover the fish’s weight as you carry the bait once more. There are additionally fish that can violently pin the bait towards backside, sending a shockwave up the road. No matter how they hit, the end result is at all times one other hook-set.
A winter tip
Right here’s a bottom-banging tip for ice anglers — don’t overdo it on a soft-bottom. An excessive amount of pounding produces the equal of an aquatic sandstorm. It solely takes just a few hits to create huge, pillowy silt clouds and name in fish to your stationary place. After doing this, hold the bait up off the ground and proceed to jig. After the dusts settles in a couple of minutes, be happy to crash the bait into the underside once more. Common contact on rocky bottoms is totally tremendous. Range the cadence to study what resonates greatest with walleye.
From mid-autumn to the primary few weeks of the ice-fishing season, walleye are wanting to eat no matter they’ll discover. Crashing a bait alongside backside is a simple, efficient solution to get the eye of hungry fish and set off them to strike.
Initially printed within the Nov.-Dec. 2022 difficulty of Ontario OUT of DOORS
[ad_2]
