I took some notes while watching the FLW tournament aired yesterday on FSN. Since this was Lake Michigan and the Bays de Noc, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from the show. This body of water is vary similiar to the types of fishing that we do on Erie, so you can pick and choose things to try.
About the only thing that I had not heard before was a comment from one of the anglers. Althought not sure of the source or accurracy, the statement was made that walleyes will eat every four hours. This could be true, looking back at all the times I have been on Erie, often a hot morning bite will be followed by some down time. Then again, right around 11 or Noon, the bite might seem to pick up again. Its quite possible that this was a pretty true statement.
One of the first things I do when I see a video or television show is take a look at the equipment being utilized by the fisherman on the show. Ok, besides the obvisious like Lowrance units, what reels were the pro’s using. Well of the 10 finalists that were shown on the tube, I only saw one guy using Okuma linecounters. That means the other 9 were using Daiwa Sealines, both the SG 17 LCA’s and SG 27 LCA’s.
I also noticed that they were calling out directions to their co-anglers. This isn’t be sounding high and mighty, but allowing the other person to prepare and do the best job of netting possible. Because of the use of the linecounters, the pro would read out how many feet were left before the beging of the rig reached the surface.
Color combinations are very important, and that was mentioned as well. Some colors work best at varying depths, according to water clarity and current weather conditions. One angler was even polishing his red hooks to let the gold from underneath shine through.
What lures were they using? Every single boat that appeared on the program had crawler harness set ups on their rods. Notice how no one was pulling one of those swooping rod hooksets you see in bass fishing? Thats because its not neccessary. The anglers were not pumping their rods, all you need is a slow steady retrieve. Trust a properly adjusted drag to get the fish to the boat.
One section of the show was called, “Fishing 101″. It had some helpful hints and methods for guys and gals just starting out in trolling for walleye. One thing mentioned was to run your harness 4 foot behind the weight. This doesnt include snapweights. Did you notice that they were running bottom bounces off their planer boards? You do not have to just run them by the side of the boat or directly behind the boat either. Use the BB’s for targeting fish on the bottom or three feet above the lake floor. If the fish are skittish, use the snapweights to get the rig further back from behind the board. If you are targeting fish from the surface to five foot down, use split shot to run your baits shallow.
All shows will have some type of useful information if you carefully pick apart the content. Adapt what you can use, and save the rest to try again on another day.