Mississippi Lake Madness

This is where it's all going on. One can ask for advice or general information or simply chew the fat about fishing tackle, tips, and locations.
Post Reply
User avatar
eye-tracker
Gold Participant
Gold Participant
Posts: 1998
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:23 am
Location: Perth, Ontario
Contact:

Mississippi Lake Madness

Post by eye-tracker »

June 2nd,

Walleye spring to summer transition time so I headed out on the lake from 1 to 4 pm today and worked all the new weed growth as the surface temp was 76 -78 - perfect crankbait temp. The trick was getting the cranks to burn over the tops of the weeds. The fish would come up out of the weeds and crush the cranks.

We went 28 pike, 8 walleye in the short time we where out. All of the walleye where over the 20" mark with a couple coming in at more than 25".
Image

The hot bait for trolling at 2mph was the Bagley Small Fry Shad running far enough behind mini in-line boards to just stay above the weeds. In the image below a 25 cent piece is used to give you an idea of scale.
Image

One of those great days on the water with all the in-line boards going back at the same time and lots of shuffling to net the big fish first. I love it when you have to work your way through all the pike to get to some decent walleye, keeps the day interesting.

-Sheldon
Sheldon Hatch
Just a guy that likes to fish walleye
User avatar
Noodle
Participant
Participant
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:17 pm
Location: ottawa

Post by Noodle »

Wow.. you are the eye tracker!

Tried same lake from 6-8pm and all I can manage was 2 dinkie little pikes. Spent most of the time trolling with spoons and spinner bait. I guess I should have brought my crankbaits.

I tried the river inlet but was catching bass so I tried vertical jig in the deeper part of the lake. Either jigging doesn't work in this lake or I wasn't patient enough to stay at the same spot.

I haven't been able to catch any walleye yet. Maybe more reading on this species is needed.

BTW, shouldn't dusk be better timing for walleye than a hot mid afternoon?

<img src=http://f7.yahoofs.com/users/4459af17m95 ... EBdk2paPKZ>
<img src=http://f7.yahoofs.com/users/4459af17m95 ... EBwwxgGgUn>
User avatar
eye-tracker
Gold Participant
Gold Participant
Posts: 1998
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:23 am
Location: Perth, Ontario
Contact:

Post by eye-tracker »

Mississippi Lake is usually a mid day 1 to 3 pm bite once the water heats up. (Ask the tournament Bass anglers :wink: ) In the evening they move in very shallow and you have to work the inside pockets of weed-lines which makes trolling very difficult so I switch to pitching jigs with plastics.

The reason for trolling is the fish spread out all over the large flats covered with weeds. Once the walleye start to transition to summer patterns (warm water temps) the deep jigging bite is gone. Ripping jigs through weeds, weed-lines or casting them up on wind swept shores is the best bet. Also if you can find a few of the mid lake humps casting jigs and ripping them back over the humps may be productive.

I like to precision troll cranks, but it is not easy to troll in weeds and keep baits running with out fouling up with weeds, therefore I recommend the casting or trolling of jigs rigged weedless with a 3" twister tail.

Good luck next time out...if you see a 16ft Tracker DeepV on the water with a full windsheild with my name on the main motor (Sheldon Hatch) just pull up and say hello. I will let you know what is working for the day.

-Sheldon
Sheldon Hatch
Just a guy that likes to fish walleye
User avatar
wolfe
Diamond Participant
Diamond Participant
Posts: 7588
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2004 11:04 am
Location: Marietta, NY & Wolfe Lake, Ont.

Post by wolfe »

Hey, ET.

FANTASTIC!

I think I'll renew an interest in cranks for walleye. :wink:

W.
Thanks, Dad, for taking me fishing when I was a kid.
User avatar
Tip-up
Diamond Participant
Diamond Participant
Posts: 5247
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 9:25 pm
Location: Orleans, Ontario

Post by Tip-up »

You really hammered them Sheldon!

WTG :P
User avatar
Bottoms Up
Bronze Participant
Bronze Participant
Posts: 116
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 8:21 pm
Location: Ottawa

Post by Bottoms Up »

Myself and 2 buddies plugged a 1pm till 7:30pm shift on the Walleye hunt on the Mississippi Saturday with no luck. managed a ton of hammer handles but no Eyes were caught. Worked weed edges all over the South end of the Lake but couldn't bring any over the side of the boat. Had one hooked on a small crank over 10 feet of water but lost it boatside. Not sure if the full day of rain had something to do with the bite not being on or if our jigging or cranking was off ??? Anyways a full day on the water sure beats not fishing at all ........ Hopefully next time out the fish will be a little more aggressive !
Last edited by Bottoms Up on Sun Jun 04, 2006 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
mikemicropterus
Bronze Participant
Bronze Participant
Posts: 411
Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:33 am
Location: Franktown
Contact:

walleye

Post by mikemicropterus »

:D Last week went out on Mississippi for a couple of hours mostly after 4pm and within 20 minutes had three in the boat. Went with a customer, one night and at my second spot he got one. We were only out for less than an hour. Classic spots, current breaks while jigging; in fact I jigged one up in front of boat that was trolling. 8) Lots of rockies and a couple of crappie. By myself so no photos unfortunately but next time. Good keepers and they tasted great. :oops:
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. Henry David Thoreau

Read my Blogs on http://www.worldfishingnetwork.com/auth ... rstorm-ca/

Listen to Podcasts on http://www.spreaker.com/show/lanark_county_confidential
User avatar
eye-tracker
Gold Participant
Gold Participant
Posts: 1998
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:23 am
Location: Perth, Ontario
Contact:

Re: walleye

Post by eye-tracker »

mikemicropterus wrote::D Last week went out on Mississippi for a couple of hours mostly after 4pm and within 20 minutes had three in the boat. Went with a customer, one night and at my second spot he got one. We were only out for less than an hour. Classic spots, current breaks while jigging; in fact I jigged one up in front of boat that was trolling. 8) Lots of rockies and a couple of crappie. By myself so no photos unfortunately but next time. Good keepers and they tasted great. :oops:
Hello Mikemicropterus,

Sounds like you are onto a good jig bite.:wink: That is one of my favorite ways to catch walleye once I find them stacked up in an area.
Fishing current breaks, wondering if you had been fishing a stretch of the river. Or did you fish the river ends of the Lake at Carelton Place or Innisville. I wish we could fish the Innisville end as the male walleyes would be stacked in the deep holes in the river...but the MNR have it designated a fish santuary until the first Monady in June. :cry:


-et
Sheldon Hatch
Just a guy that likes to fish walleye
User avatar
Scum Frog
Silver Participant
Silver Participant
Posts: 854
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:34 pm
Location: Carleton Place
Contact:

Re: walleye

Post by Scum Frog »

eye-tracker wrote: I wish we could fish the Innisville end as the male walleyes would be stacked in the deep holes in the river...but the MNR have it designated a fish santuary until the first Monady in June. :cry:


-et
I wonder if that will change with the new regs coming out in '07?
User avatar
dana
Bronze Participant
Bronze Participant
Posts: 477
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2002 1:02 pm

Post by dana »

ET,

An afternoon bite would do me fine due to being 1.5 hrs + from Miss.
how deep do your over the weeds lures dive?

Some day i gotta find somebody i know who would like to fish walleye rather than waiting for bass season to open..everyone i know are
bazznutz...whether i'm a bass nut or not..i like walleye better..

thanks for your experise.
i have two older inline planers too..
just never used em

dana
User avatar
Fishhawk
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2620
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 8:41 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Post by Fishhawk »

Thanks for that ET - I can see another run on mini planer boards is coming, and tiny shallow-running cranks. :lol:
Fishhawk
"gotta run like a madman bye thanks see ya good luck"
User avatar
CDF
Bronze Participant
Bronze Participant
Posts: 131
Joined: Thu May 27, 2004 10:12 pm
Location: Barrhaven
Contact:

Post by CDF »

Sheldon,

I really enjoy reading your posts and your technical approach to fishing.

I was at the Kashwakamak Lake this past weekend, looking for walleye. Deep lake...The jig approach didn't work :shock:

Funny at the lodge, there was a walleye magazine - I read an article on locating walleye by Takasaki (spelling ??) - time of year indicated to look for weed grown (cabbage preferably), so next day we managed to find some grass and in the end we boated 2 walleye dragging worm harness over and through the weeds. Was a hard fish...

Would love to hook up sometime to learn from the master... :wink:

Tks,
Cman
Post Reply