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Narrow down the choices with notes
PWT pro from Powell, Wyo. Now is the time to plan for this year's fishing trips. We have great walleye fishing all over this great country so picking a place is not hard. Look at the calendar and try for the peak fishing times and hope Mother Nature helps out. What do I do after I get there? Even as a pro we face this question at each and every spot we go. Bait shops give some tips but usually they work with the local guides or pros to help them out. So how do we figure this out? Believe it or not it all actually starts on our home waters. If we have done our homework right and have taken the notes that we should (yes I said notes). Then we have one up on everybody else. I hadn't taken notes since I was in school. But if we stop and think about it, each and every time we go walleye fishing, it's a little bit like going to school and having a lesson. So if we have a fantastic day on the water, we need to record everything about that day so that we can match it wherever we go fishing -- and the notes will even help us again next year back on our home waters. As much as we think we can remember everything about that day, it doesn't happen. So let's eliminate the guess work and shorten up the pre-fish time and get to catching fish quickly. That's why we refer to those notes. As a pro, we only have so many days to prepare for a tournament so we need to not waste that time. Vacation times or weekends as the only fishing times limit everybody else, too. Why not spend that short amount of time catching fish rather than searching for the correct pattern. It's not as complicated as it sounds and it will only take a few minutes to do, yet it saves several hours of time on a new lake or reservoir. So what do we record in our notes? Time of year: If it's around the spawn, this really makes it easier since all the fish are bunched around the spawning areas. Walleye location is predictable at this time of year. But what about the summer time? This is where the notes really come into play. Walleyes in the summer can show up anywhere at anytime -- but what caused that to happen. Location: Was it a reservoir, natural lake or river? Sometimes the patterns that work for aggressive fish on reservoirs and rivers will work on natural lakes as well and the same patterns on natural lakes can work when the walleyes don't seem to want to cooperate on reservoirs and rivers. Was it on a main lake point and where at on the point? On the tip, the sides, the top or the inside turns. Was it on a break, flat, and hump or where the fish suspended? Conditions: Was it cloudy or clear, the air temperature and water temperature? Was the barometer rising or falling? Was the water clear, stained or muddy? Wind direction and speed, which helps, determine calm or choppy water conditions. Pattern: Were we trolling crankbaits or casting them or trolling spinner rigs with crawlers, minnows or leeches and how fast? Was it jigs and did we do rip jigging, snap jigging, swimming, lift and drop and just dragging them and what was on the jigs? Or was it a Lindy rig and how long was the snell. What size and color was the hook and what bait? Was it a slip bobber? And at what depth was the most successful on that given day. Write down anything you can think of about that day that might help you to remember when you get that new lake and begin to fish. After several years of doing this you will have quite a library to refer back to. Once we are at the new lake, we can check out the conditions and find a match somewhere in our notes and hopefully narrow down the pattern quicker. It may take a different color or style of crankbait, for example, but we know from that great day we had back home that the conditions match up to at least start with a crankbait pattern. What about all the different patterns I mentioned? Only worry about the pattern that worked the best on the good days on the water. Start with that pattern first and if it doesn't work, then experiment from there. Still sound like we are back in school? Well, the best way I look at it is that when I fish for walleyes and I go to a new lake or reservoir, it's going to be a new lesson each and every time trying to figure out how to catch walleyes, so let's make class a little easier. Look at the conditions and find them in the book and then it's time to take the test. How well I do depends on how well I take notes. | |
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