May 2016
Spring Walleye Fishing Washington Lakes By Richy Harrod
Walleye are probably my favorite fish to catch and most definitely the best eating of our freshwater fishes. Late winter and early spring is a great time to go walleye fishing in Washington lakes. The number of fish caught may not be as great as in late spring and summer, but the average size is greater and the fish are in great condition. There are many techniques for catching walleye, but these methods have worked well for me from year to year.
Fishing in early spring is a great time to go Walleye fishing in Washington lakes.
Tools of the Trade There really isn’t one type of fishing rod that will fit all your needs when walleye fishing because you’ll want to try trolling and casting to see which yields the most fish. Trolling allows you to cover the most water to find elusive fish. You are allowed to
fish two rods in most walleye lakes so with 4-6 rods in your boat, it’s a good idea to have a mix of short and long rods to spread out your fishing gear. A 7’ to 7’6” moderate action, medium power graphite bait casting rod works very well for the front and side of the boat. In the back corner of the boat, I like to run a 9’6” steelhead rod to get the trolling gear out as far as possible so not to interfere with the front rods. If you find concentrations of fish, I like casting jigs or blade baits with 7’ spinning rod with fast action and medium light or medium power. Braided line is a must for me. All my walleye rods are spooled with 20 lb. test, green colored braided line. Braided line doesn’t stretch so it allows you to feel the bite very well. If you have never fished with braid, you have to learn not to set the hook as you would with monofilament. You can literally rip lips with braided line! Some of my friends prefer to top shot their spool with fluorocarbon to lower line visibility. My Kokanee and sockeye rods are top shot, but I’ve never worried about it walleye fishing and it doesn’t seem to matter in my opinion.
Terminal Gear The selection of lures first depends on whether or not you’re jigging or trolling obviously, but more importantly on walleye forage. Walleye feed on small fishes, particularly perch or crappie fry, leeches, crayfish, or insect larvae. Lures that match the forage color will improve your success. Checking the gut contents can help you determine what forage walleye are targeting. Tipping lures with night crawlers is preferred by most anglers, but live or artificial worms or leeches are preferred by others. Scents can be used as well, but I personally think nothing beats a big night crawler. I troll almost exclusively with Mack’s Lure Smile Blade lures because of the large range of color options and because of the action the Smile Blades provide. Dark colors on cloudy days or early in the morning work well, while lighter colors work well in bright sunlight. The new UV Glo Burst Smile Blades® have become my favorite color. In the winter or early spring, small profile lures such as the Smile Blade Slow Death or Smile Blade Spindrift® are perfect for slow Continued on Page 2
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trolling for lethargic fish. Double Whammy® Pro, Cha Cha® Crawler Harness, or the dependable Wally Pop® work well when fish are more aggressive. Regardless of my lure selection, I always run long leader lengths of at least 4’ to keep the lure back from the bottom bouncers and to allow the Smile Blades move the lure freely.
Whether it be a crawler harness, Slow Death Rig, Super Slow Death Rig, or Wally Pop, Mack’s Lure’s Smile Blades provide attraction that Walleye love. Photo courtesy of
Walleye are gregarious and groups of fish will locate on bottom structure, so jigging can work very well especially as summer comes. A lead head jig with twister tail plastics and tipped with a night crawler is very effective. However, my favorite jigging technique is to use a Sonic Baitfish™ rigged so that it behaves like a blade bait. Perch colors or silver and blue have worked well for me. Plugs can be very effective for catching walleye as well. Fish move into shallower water after the spawn and as the water warms. Plugs that imitate small fish work perfectly, especially when pulled at higher speeds (2-3 mph) along weed lines. Fishing Techniques Walleye are largely found near the bottom so I use bottom bouncers or heal weights to keep my lures close to the bottom. In the late winter and early spring, you want to troll slowly at speeds 0.4-0.6 mph. As the water warms, faster speeds up to 1.0 mph work better when walleye
are chasing bait. Walleye can be suspended at times, so don’t be completely focused on the bottom. Spring storms create the “walleye chop” and fish can move into the shoreline or along rock walls to find baitfish. I have run bottom bouncers on one rod and another rod off my downrigger to position my gear in the middle of the water column. Watch your electronics and position your gear where the fish are! Rod position is important when trolling with bottom bouncers. The rod tip should be low near the water. Your main line should be at about a 45o into the water, so choose a bottom bouncer weight that will allow you to achieve the proper angle for your speed and water depth. A hook set should be a sweep of the rod tip parallel with the water surface. If you jerk the rod tip away from the water, you often will pull the gear away from the fish and you’ll miss the hook set. Jigging technique is important as well. Lead head jigs should be dropped to the bottom lifted slowly and dropped back to the bottom without putting slack in your line. I like to lift the jig about two feet before I drop it. Walleye will often hit the jig on the way down. Jigging Sonic Baitfish is similar except the lift from the bottom should be short and quick so that the lure will vibrate and flutter on the way down. The bite on a jig is often aggressive and unlike a crawler harness, they often set the hook themselves.
Use a GPS to mark spots where you catch fish and troll back over those spots, or mark them with a small buoy and jig those spots. I find that my marked spots consistently produce fish year after year. I see lots of fishermen trolling all over the place and not focusing on any particular spot. My saying is “troll with purpose.” If you want to catch more fish, fish spots where fish are!
Richy’s son Tyler poses with a dandy Walleye. Photo courtesy of Richy Harrod.
I hope these tips and tricks help you put more fish in your boat. The most important aspect of any fishing is to let the fish tell you what they want. Pay attention to the details. If you start catching fish on the outside rod when your turn, then consider speeding up your troll. Likewise, slow down if you catch them on the inside rod. Shorten your worms if you’re missing bites. Constantly be a student and you’ll become a better fisherman. –Richy Harrod, Harrod Outdoors.
Mack’s Lure Smile Blades® UV Glo Burst Mirror
Jigging with the Sonic BaitFish for Walleye is highly effective. Photo courtesy of Richy Harrod.
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TIPS FOR SLOWRETRIEVING SMALL SBF By Captain Pete Rosko
swivel if line twist occurs during speed-retrieving or trolling. The hinging effect is reduced the greater the speed of the lure.) Back to Bill. I traded rods with Bill and pulled his SBF sideways in the water in front of him. It had absolutely no swimming action and resembled a dead stick in the water. Once Bill replaced his snap swivel, with one of my snaps, he caught two good bass on his first three casts while slow retrieving. That simple change turned a bad trip into a great trip.
Captain Pete Rosko, Inventor of the Mack’s Lure Sonic BaitFish™.
Because of its versatility, the Sonic BaitFish™ (SBF) can be fished so many different ways. At times, it’s also fished incorrectly. A very slow retrieve, with a lively Any serious angler will check the action of his lure before fishing and natural swimming small lure, is one always check the lure when fishing of the very best actions for catching fish anytime and most especially it for the first time. when the fish are not active. Often, Several days ago I was invited to inactive fish will strike a very small fish several bass lakes with a friend lure before striking a large lure. of mine. His name is Bill. I wanted Whether saltwater jigging (casting Bill to fish our 1/16 SBF prototype in a dead tide), or during a poor that will be available later this weather front in freshwater; small year. I had two with dull unpainted lures almost always out-fish large finishes, one for Bill and one for lures! me. This 1/16 size is a killer for Please refer to my photo (s). The the largemouth bass, and panfish, that it was tested on. It’s designed top SBF (YES) is rigged with the to exactly work like a live bait fish single hook directly attached to the swimming in the water, especially tail. This rig runs more vertically, on a very slow retrieve. After vs. sideways, with a more natural about an hour, I hooked about two swimming action of a real bait fish. dozen bass and Bill hooked zero. The bottom SBF (NO) is rigged In my initial haste to fish, I failed with a split ring attaching the single to notice that Bill had attached his hook to the tail. This rig causes the Sonic Baitfish to the nose with a hook to ride more sideways vs. more snap swivel instead of a wide bend vertical for the top SBF. As a result, duo-lock snap that is provided in the the best swimming action is with SBF package. On a slow retrieve, the top SBF and the best skipping, the swivel connection to the snap and vertical jigging, actions are causes a hinging effect that kills the with the bottom SBF. I prefer the action of the lure. (Only use a snap top SBF when I am finesse casting,
or vertical/horizontal jigging with a small SBF. This is because I have a truer feel of the lure with less components (split ring). The same is true when the lure is tipped with live or dead bait…the action is deadened on small lures. In either example, with or without a split ring, is a matter of personal preference. Both are excellent fish producers! Just make sure your hook point is always needle sharp by carrying a fine-tooth hook file. Remember, this article is only devoted to slow-retrieving. Because of its versatility, the SBF can also be retrieved by skipping over the surface near shoreline vegetation or slowly bottom-bounced in deeper holes.
Mack’s Lure Sonic BaitFish™
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Stan’s Space Mack’s Lure Lands A Winner By Hall-of-Fame Angler Stan Fagerstrom I’ve yet to meet the man face to face but I can tell you some things I already know about him. One is that I want him on my side him when the fight starts. Who am I talking about? If you follow things here at the Mack’s Lure website or perhaps read the monthly Mack Attack, the company’s online magazine, you may already know. It’s Lance Merz, one of the newer members of the Mack’s Lure headquarters team based in Wenatchee, Washington.
You gotta come home happy from a trip to Alaska with fish like this. Lance Merz, of Mack’s Lure, shows what he did last time he was there.
One of the things I like about Lance is that he tells it like it is. If you make him a promise, he’s going to expect you to keep it or at least take the time to tell him why you didn’t. He’ll do the same for you. Those are my own sentiments. I don’t usually make much noise about it, but I enlisted in the United States Army exactly one year after the Pearl Harbor Attack away back in 1942. Before I was discharged, after I got out of an army hospital in the middle of 1946, I had spent nearly two years serving with an
infantry rifle company in the jungles of the South Pacific. My combat experience was in New Guinea, what was then the Dutch East Indies, (now Indonesia) the Mapia Islands Atoll and the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. My division, I learned after the war, was one of three infantry divisions, that was to have formed what was to be known as the 8th Army. On or about March 1, 1946 we were to have smashed right into Tokyo Bay for the invasion of Japan. Thanks be to God that didn’t have to happen. It’s a rare occasion when I climb into a boat accompanied by someone who has experienced what I’m talking about. I mention this because if you’ve experienced combat, I don’t care where or when, some of the experiences that go with that nasty business of killing and dying are going to be very much the same. My new friend Lance Merz was way too young to have experienced combat in World War 11. But partner I can tell you he knows very well what ground combat is like because he’s been there and done that time after time. His combat experiences came in the 20 years and one month he spent serving his country with the United States Army. He spent much of that time before he became a part of the Mack’s Lure staff in ground combat with the U. S. armed forces in the Mid-East. While Lance and I have never met, we’ve shared some of our experiences by mail and over the phone. I suppose that’s one of the primary reasons I’ve found myself hoping we get to share a boat together one of these days. Nothing, in my opinion, is all that great unless it can be shared. And as you might have discovered, it’s difficult to share something if the guy or gal you’re attempting to share it with doesn’t really know what you’re talking about.
Merz and I will have plenty to discuss even when the fish aren’t biting. If you’ve read some of the stuff Lance has already written for this website, chances are you’re aware he has made a number of comments about how much he’s already learned about this business of putting fish in the boat from the experienced members of the Mack’s Lure headquarters crew. I’m sure that’s true. But I also know something else. It’s that he’d already played some successful dirty tricks of his own on his finny adversaries in and around Alaska. He also shared both pictures and thoughts with me about his angling experiences in that part of the world.
It isn’t just salmon that test your tackle on an Alaskan fishing adventure. In this picture Lance Merz shows why.
Some of his Alaskan experience came while fishing for halibut at Kachemak Bay. Keep his comments in mind if you’re headed up that way yourself. “We used mostly chunks of salmon bellies for bait, “Lance said, “and anywhere from 1 to 5-pounds of lead to get our baits down where they needed to be. “Gamakatsu circle hooks seemed to work the best. The circle hooks work better because halibut tend to eat the bait more. You don’t have to worry that much about setting the hook. We used 120-pound Dacron line on our reels and short, stiff rods in the 5 to 6-foot range.” “The amount of lead required varied because of the swells we encountered due to tidal currents. Constant contact with the bottom Continued on Page 5
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was essential to our hooking fish. Those halibut up there can be really big---even weighing hundreds of pounds.” I know what Lance is talking about. I was fishing for salmon out of Prince of Wales Island once on one of my own Alaskan angling adventures. A gal fishing with a guide not far from us hooked a real whopper halibut. The monster she had hold of towed them around all over the place. When they finally got it in the boat they headed to shore and put it on the scales. That thing weighed more than 300-pounds! Lance will tell you he also had fun fishing from shore for humpbacked salmon on the Mat-Su River. “Believe it or not,” he says, “I caught my humpies on a Mack’s Lure Super Wedding. I didn’t have to cast very far, sometimes only 10-feet or so, because I could see the fish I was after. “Most folks up there don’t like to eat humpies themselves, but use them as food for their pets. However, I find they are darn good if they are properly smoked.”
lures will go along with him when he heads for Alaska again. I’m of the opinion it just might be best for those Alaskan fish to stay the heck out of his way.
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese • 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
Directions:
Always remember there are other critters who do a lot of fishing in northern waters. If you want to come from an Alaskan trip with your body parts intact it’s best not to get too close to a four legged fisherman like this---especially when he’s having his lunch. All pictures provided Lance Merz.
Why? Because when Lance Merz makes up his mind he’s going to do something I’ll give you big odds he’ll wind up getting the job done.
1. Preheat an oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet. 2. Beat the eggs and water together in a bowl until smooth; set aside. Combine the bread crumbs, potato flakes, and Parmesan cheese in a separate bowl with the seasoned salt until evenly mixed. Dip the walleye fillets into the beaten egg, then press into the bread crumb mixture. Place onto the prepared baking sheet. 3. Bake in the preheated oven until the fish is opaque in the center and flakes easily with a fork, 15 to 20 minutes.
Let’s Eat!!!
-end-
Cookin’ Your Catch Crispy Baked Walleye
Would you like to catch more Kokanee?
Here Lance Merz displays more of the reasons why he’d like to get back to Alaskan waters.
I expect my friend Lance will be heading back up to Alaska one of these days. Once you’ve been there it’s awful darn hard to keep from getting “hooked” yourself where the desire to return is concerned. The last time I heard from him he indicated there are a bunch of Mack’s Lure products he’s now learned a lot more about. Those
Original recipe makes 4 servings
Ingredients: • 2 eggs • 1 tablespoon water • 1/3 cup dry bread crumbs • 1/3 cup instant mashed tato flakes
po-
Try out the new Mack’s Lure Smile Blade® Kokanee Hoochie! Enter code“Kok10” and receive 10% off the purchase price. Page 5
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Question of the Month Have a question? We’d love to answer it! Contact us at MacksLure@MacksLure.com if you have a question you would like to see featured!
Q: I am fishing for trout. How do I know which size of hook to use?
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A: Great question! The number one thing you can do is to talk with your local bait and tackle shop as to the area of which you are fishing. Talking with the locals who fish those water’s can provide a plethora of information as well. There are a lot of great lures that Mack’s Lure has to offer in regards to trout fishing. If you were trolling for 1520 inch rainbows, the preferred size Wedding Ring® to use is a size 4 while trolling at 1.8-2.0MPH. Trout
like a faster trolling speed and a flashy presentation; that’s why our Wedding Rings work really well! Try using a Double D™ Dodger with a 36-24” leader behind the dodger and see the results. Another alternative to use is the Wedding Ring UV Spinner. All fish can see objects in the water that are emitted from the sun’s UV rays. This spinner looks like a Wedding Ring, but all the components are high UV, which can be seen on sunny or cloudy days. If you’re looking for a lure with two hooks, our Ringmaster™ series is a Wedding Ring with two hooks in a size four as well. Good Luck!! If you have any other questions, please send us another email or give us a call.
Video of the Month
Photo of the Month Do you want to see how Mack’s Lures’ Walleye lures work in the water? Click Here to watch the video.
A customer of Mack’s Lures’ guide staff Jerry Brown of King Fischer Adventures is pictured holding a Spring Chinook Salmon which was caught on the lower Columbia River in April. Photo courtesy of Jerry Brown. Send your photo’s to Lance@MacksLure.com for consideration to be included in a future Mack Attack edition or on Facebook.
See more pictures by clicking here: Mack’s Photo Gallery
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