First ice fun. As always, safety and smarts precede the fish catching fun. Photograph by Joseph Alfe Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
Fishing-Headquarters Magazine Volume 5. Issue 1 Num. 21
December 2014, January & February, 2015 Winter Edition
• First Ice and Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
About Fishing-Headquarters The Fishing-Headquarters began as a small homepage in 2005, featuring a collection of photos and YouTube fishing videos. It even featured a small contingency of misfits and rebellious anglers who were tired of the internet elitism and racism expressed by other websites built by uneducated nonangling entities towards specific groups of anglers and species of freshwater gamefish. Formally established in January 2007, the FHQ was created for like-minded anglers to share the wealth of information, and enjoy the beauty in diverse fishing. This greatness as we presently know it is multi-species fishing. Designed and created by posessed and gravely obsessed angler, Andrew Ragas, the website has grown to a large world audience. Our basis as an online media platform is to drop the ego, and catch anything that swims and has fins.
• Coldwater Steelheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 • Trophy Walleye Trolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 • The Perfect Jig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 • Mud Spelled Backwards is “Dum” . . . . . . . 73 • Strip Teasing Muskies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 • Tackle Technicians Winter 2015 . . . . . . . 99
All fish are created as equals. Only to be pursued as opposites.
COVER STORY Important Biz Stuff http://www.fishing-headquarters.com info@fishing-headquarters.com telephone - 708. 256. 2201 Questions or Comments, and if interested in contributing or sponsoring, please contact Andrew Ragas at: andrew@fishing-headquarters.com Magazine layout and design by Ragas Media http://www.ragasmedia.com
Our winter issues commemorate ice fishing and whatever open water opportunities remain. In this issue, Joseph Alfe preaches first ice safety and his on-ice partner from 2014 earned this winter’s cover shot. Fishing-Headquarters.com web contributor, Brian Pentecost, displays one of the many jumbo perch he iced with Alfe during the previous ice fishing season. The two expect more of the same again this winter.
Fishing-Headquarters Magazine, Issue 21 Everything we do at Fishing-Headquarters centers on our love of multispecies fishing and the ongoing process of educating ourselves and to catch more fish. In order to accomplish this, we’ve released yet another diverse issue for you. This winter we enter our fifth season as an online magazine publication. Although I’m not an ice fisherman, it’s difficult for me to be enthused about the cold. But for the sake of our contributors, I am enthused about what they’ve brought to this issue.
Andrew Ragas
Editor In-Chief, Designer, and Owner.
2015 Issue Releases Projected Schedule
• Issue 22: March 2, 2015 • Issue 23: May 4, 2015 • Issue 24: July 6, 2015 • Issue 25: September 8, 2015 • Issue 26: December 7, 2015
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Since we aren’t much of an ice fishing authority, this release encompasses all subjects including both ice fishing and open water fishing opportunities throughout the winter months. For those of you wandering onto the ice, we preach the importance of ice fishing safety. We also showcase the trophy fishing techniques of Georgian Bay, Ontario angler, JP Bushey. Lastly, we introduce you to new contributor, Tim Hyvonen, who specializes in Great Lakes trout and salmon. In addition, we also highlight open water subjects such as specialty trips, winter destinations, as well as other pursuits that can be enjoyed during the winter months. And last but not least, unique perspectives from our staff. With great pleasure, I introduce to you issue 21 of Fishing-Headquarters Magazine. I would like to thank our team of writers, friends, and all contributors for allowing us to make this one again possible. We welcome and encourage all anglers with a story to join our annually growing team and its online rotation for this publication, and online at our website, www.fishing-headquarters.com. Copyright © 2015 Fishing-Headquarters. All rights reserved. The usage of articles, excerpts, photographs, and any reproduction of this material is strictly prohibited.
I S S U E 21 F E A T U R E D W R I T E R S A N D C O N
Joseph Alfe
Cory Allen
JP Bushey
Issue 21 Editorial Staff • Paul Ragas Contributed Photographs • Matt Lynch • Jacob Saylor Online Contributors • Joseph Alfe • Robert Conley • Robert Fuchs • Josh Peacock • Brian Pentecost • Tyler Uteg • Brad Wiegmann Layout and Design By • Ragas Media Designs Sponsors and Advertising Partners • Bearpaw’s Handpoured Baits • Camp Narrows Lodge • CB’s Hawg Sauce • CAST Crew 312 • Cortland Line Company • Dragin Bait Company • Dynamic Lures • Freedom Tackle Corporation • Go-Pro Camera • Llungen Lures • Quantum PT Fishing • Ragas Media Designs • Stankx Bait Company
NTRIBUTORS
Tim Hyvonen
Our rotation of featured writers with their own stories and unique fish tales.
Andrew Ragas
Chris Willen
NEWS AND NOTEWORTHY TOPICS.
Stankx Bait Company Releases NEW Soft Plastics and Colorways for 2015 For the 2015 season, Stankx Bait Company of Kalamazoo, MI is releasing a new line of soft plastics, swimbaits, and colorways - part of their NXT LVL series. Available in packages of 3 for $14.99, The Gobius, a 4.5 inch handpoured paddletail swimbait with 5/16 oz. lifted jigs internal weight system was released in November and is sure to be a hit with Great Lakes smallmouth bass anglers. Additionally in December, a new 4.5 inch flipping bait (named Sultress), fluke style jerkbait, and Damzel 2.0 are in post-production and getting ready to hit the market on the web and select retailers. Like and follow Stankx Bait Co. on Facebook and visit them on the online at www.stankxbaitco.com The Gobius
Introducing Dynamic Lures Sultress
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SOLUNAR CALENDAR January 2015
February 2015
This fishing forecast is based on solar and lunar influences that cycle daily. The chart shows each hour of the day. For instance the hours with the higher rating, and days shaded the darkest have a greater combination of solar and lunar influence and thus indicate the best times to fish. This chart is a general recommendation and all data has been compiled by Weather & Wildlife.
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LEADING OFF.
Winning the pre-freeze trolling war on Lake Ontario’s Bay of Quinte Walleye Jutting eastward from the inland sea that is Lake Ontario, The Bay Of Quinte is on our planet’s short list of fisheries for walleye over ten pounds. Insulated from the big lake and her mood swings, The Bay really is a world unto itself. Walleye fishermen like JP Bushey use a battery of methods, in all seasons, targeting both resident and migratory populations. Bushey argues that the best window for enormous walleye is just before freeze-up, as staggering numbers of huge, open-water fish funnel their way inland, tugged along by urges to gorge-feed, to winter over and to spawn the following spring. Read More on page 55
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Photograph by JP Bushey Fishing-Headquarters | Page 8
LEADING OFF.
Tackle Technicians Talk About Christmas Gifts and Winter Dreams The Christmas season and annual bank account splurge is upon us and our writers and contributors have assembled a list of some of the newest, proven, and successful tackle and fishing gear we recommend for the fisherman who is on your shopping list. We explore our favorite rods and reels, lures and baits, apparel and outfitter gear, and marine equipment. We’ve got it all covered for every type of angler and unique angling situation and give readers thoughtful options. Grab a notepad and start your list, check it twice, and PLEASE ONLY buy for the nice. Read More on page 99
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Photograph by Josh B. Peacock Fishing-Headquarters | Page 10
Photograph by Andrew Ragas
FIRST ICE Fishing-Headquarters.com
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and SAF
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FETY
By Joseph Alfe
Photographs by Joseph Alfe Fishing-Headquarters | Page 14
FIRST ICE AND SAFETY
By: Joseph Alfe
Fishing-Headquarters Contributor
B
Before we get into the fun stuff, we need to take a minute to discuss first ice safety. Safety should be the first thing on your mind while ice fishing, and this is never truer than during first ice. To understand ice safety, we must first understand ice and how it forms. Photograph by Joseph Alfe
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Unfortunately first ice safety didn’t appear to be of high priority to the Northern Illinois angler who fell through into this backwater. Test the ice every few steps with a good whack of a spud bar, which should take two or three hits to punch through 3� of good ice. Anything less, like this, and call it off. Be careful so that scenes like this can be avoided at all costs.
Contributed Photograph
Ice forms on the surface as water is cooled less than 32 degrees by the cold air. Lack of wind and snow create ideal ice conditions helping form layer upon layer of clear, strong ice from the bottom of the first ice down. Ice, however, rarely forms uniformly, so it is vitally important to be aware of springs, seeps, current areas, and other conditions that could impede ice formation. Early snow cover can act as insulation, slowing ice formation as well. Always carry safety equipment when venturing onto early ice. The best policy is to never be alone. A buddy with a cell phone and a length
Photograph by Tony Boshold Fishing-Headquarters | Page 16
FIRST ICE AND SAFETY of rope can be a lifesaver. Consider investing in a good spud bar or ice chisel. They are commercially available for under $50, but you can use any heavy metal rod or wrecker bar at least 3 feet in length. Test the ice every few steps with a good whack of the bar, which should take two or three hits to punch through 3” of good ice. Anything less and call it off. Always carry a set of ice spikes around your neck in case you go in, and also consider foot spikes to prevent a nasty fall on slick new ice. Some of the new ice fishing outerwear garments and suits such as those from Stormr and Arctic Armor has floatation capabilities. Consider and investment in something of this nature.
joined with new entries from Frabill and Stormr. All are rated wind and water resistant, but only Stormr and Arctic Armor have floatation capabilities, which is something to consider when on ice.
first ice panfish are back channels and sloughs connected to major rivers. Many good first ice locations are popular “community” spots, and so be prepared to share the water. Usually, I am not a fan of big crowds, but somehow, first Ice feels Panfish like a big party so enjoy the camaraderie. I like to start aggressive for Assuming that you have found early season Bluegill and Crappie, good ice, it’s now time to find fish. going with larger jigs tipped with Favorite early season spots are simi- plastics or wax worms. I do keep a lar to the best early spring locations: rod rigged with ultra finesse offerChannels, back bays, sloughs, and ings, such as wispy 3 mm Tungsten marshes connected to main lake ar- jigs in case fish turn finicky. Usueas. I usually look for water 5 feet ally though, the action is pretty fast in depth or less. In Northern Illi- but fish tend to move frequently. In nois, some of the best locations for shallow locations like back water
Gear Speaking of investing in gear, the right apparel and accessories can make all the difference when ice fishing. Nothing will cut a trip short faster than being cold, wet, or both. Today, ice anglers have a wide variety of choices in foul weather gear. First and foremost is footwear. Do not skimp here, as cold, wet feet will make you miserable faster than anything else. Many boots are warm when you are active, but ice anglers can spend long periods of time in one place, so make sure you get boots that are well insulated. I prefer Baffin Titans, which feature all rubber outer construction and are rated to -140. Quality outerwear choices are available on the market, and standby ice separates from Clam and Arctic Armor are Fishing-Headquarters.com
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Swedish Pimple Flute Spoon
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Fishing-Headquarters.com web contributor, Brian Pentecost, with a giant jumbo perch from Northern Illinois. Pentecost joined the author on this winter 2014 ice outing. Photograph by Joseph Alfe Fishing Headquarters | Page 18
FIRST ICE AND SAFETY
Photograph by Joseph Alfe
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areas, fish tend to roam and scatter, so make sure you have plenty of holes drilled. Predators The influx of panfish and baitfish into shallow backwater areas naturally draws predators such as Bass, Pike, and Walleye. These fish tend to lay in deeper areas or main lake/river locations near the mouths of backwaters, but will mount assaults on the shallow holding panfish. Early and late light times are key, however dark days, weather and light changes, and Moon phases will trigger bites. Because I am usually fishing aggressively with larger offerings for panfish, I will frequently get hit by predators on the same baits, so be ready. I will also set up tip ups on the outside edges of where I am fishing. This can be deadly when rigged with a lively Shiner or Chub. I tend to keep baits small, maybe 3�, so they also can become targets for big Crappie who may also be moving into the area. Key tip up areas are extreme shallow flats adjacent to main channel areas, and the deepest part of the channel. First ice is now upon us, so get the gear out and dusted off, rig up your rods and get ready for some of the years best action. As always, keep ice safety on your mind at all times and be prepared to hit the ice with confidence.
Northland Fishing Tackle Bro Bug Fishing Headquarters | Page 20
FIRST ICE AND SAFETY
Joseph Alfe, a resident of Northern Illinois has spent his whole life in pursuit of angling and outdoors knowledge. As a Pro Staffer and brand rep for various industry and outdoors companies, he promotes and shares products that he believes in and that can make you a better fisherman and outdoorsman. For him, it’s all about education. Joe’s true passion is bringing relevant and fresh fishing industry news and techniques to his readers through his promotional website: AnglerZconnection.com Photograph by Joseph Alfe Fishing-Headquarters.com
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By Tim Hyvonen
COLDWATER
Fishing-Headquarters.com 2014 / January / February, 2015 Fishing-Headquarters.com | | December December 2014 / January / February, 2015
Photographs by Tim Hyvonen
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When you think of ice fishing, most anglers turn to bluegills and crappies but there are a select few who explore the idea of chrome. While most ice fishermen are in pursuit of other species, there are a few of us strapping on waders and tugging through snow along Lake Michigan’s Tributaries in search of late winter and early spring steelhead. It’s not just a welcome break from ice fishing, but it can also be some of the most productive steelhead fishing before the fish spawn in spring.
R STEEL
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COLDWATER STEELHEADS
By: Tim Hyvonen
Fishing-Headquarters Contributor
Some of the best steelhead fishing I know of is found along the shores of Lake Michigan from Kewaunee to Kenosha, Wisconsin on the west side and from Manistee, Michigan to Michigan City Indiana on the East side. As a resident of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, there are three primary rivers I fish: The MilFishing-Headquarters.com
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waukee River, Oak Creek, and the Root River. One of the most notable steelhead rivers in Wisconsin is the Root River in Racine Wisconsin. It has been ranked as one of the best steelhead rivers in the entire United States. Not only does the Root provide some excellent fishing opportunities but there is something on the river that catches the eyes of fishermen of all ages. Due to the lack of natural reproduction in the rivers of Lake Michigan, the Wisconsin DNR has placed a weir on the river that is located in Lincoln Park. Also known as the Root River Steelhead Facility, where the DNR places a set of grates across the river preventing the fish from moving up river, forcing them to run a fish ladder into a holding tank. This holding tank has
December 2014 / January / February, 2015
a large viewing window for the public to see all the different fish that have entered the facility. Once in the holding tank, the fish will stay in there until the eggs are ready to be milked out by crews. While processing the fish they will be weighed, measured, checked for fin clips, and eggs collected. Then the fish is transported upstream through a pipe leading from the facility to above the weir. If you want to see this process, the Steelhead Facility typically operates every Tuesday starting midMarch and runs through the end of April. Targeting Steelhead While talking to people about steelhead fishing they always in-
Most anglers automatically think March and April for the best steelhead fishing. For me however it’s different. Steelhead can be targeted much earlier in the year with excellent windows present in mid-winter during mild weather periods.
Photograph by Tim Hyvonen
quire about the best times, and I always get a kick out of their reaction, telling them “Let’s just say I still have my ice fishing gear in the truck.” But when most people hear steelhead they automatically think March and April. For the spawning season they would be correct. Once the rivers rise to temperatures in the mid 40’s steelhead move out of the deeper holes and onto gravel redds to start spawning, typically in late March and early April. However, in reality steelhead can be targeted much earlier in the year. During the fall, after the chinook and coho salmon have died off, steelhead begin making their way into tributaries and will overwinter. The skamania strain is known as a winter spawning steelhead and naturally spawns beneath the ice. Since the Wisconsin DNR discontinued stocking this strain in 2008,
the numbers of returning fish have greatly declined, but they are still present. Just like any other species that run through the rivers of Lake Michigan, you will have early runners (Ganaraska, Chambers Creek and Arlee Strains), so the slightest increase in current will cause more fish to move in under the ice. In addition to steelhead that holdover under the ice, you can find brown trout occasionally overwintering as well. With the recent warmer winters we’ve had, with 2014 being the only exception, I’ve been on the rivers as early as late January when they briefly open before freezing over again. Typically if there is a stretch of weather with 32 degree days and rain, odds are you’ll be able to find open pockets on the rivers but you might also have to use a spud bar to clear out ice. A great example of this hap-
pened to me the first week of March 2013 when I ran one of my most memorable guide trips on the Root River. The day before I had quickly pre fished a couple of holes and overnight they froze over. After meeting my clients in a crowded parking lot, I walked to the river’s edge to see where everyone was fishing. That’s when I noticed my honey hole was iced over. While grabbing the rods out of my truck I pulled my Frabill spud bar out as well. My one client asked, “What are you going to do with that?” With a grin ear to ear I responded, “You’ll see.” While walking to our first spot, my client, who is an experienced trout fisherman, asked me, “Isn’t the water temperature too cold for these fish to bite?” I responded, “Even Fishing Headquarters | Page 28
COLDWATER STEELHEADS
though the water is cold they still have to eat.” Once at our first spot I began to spud out the hole and when I stopped to catch my breath both of my clients asked whether it was going to spook the fish. After 30 minutes of ice cracking, the final sheet of ice was off the water. I then told my clients to cast. They were skeptical about fish biting after all the commotion of breaking ice, but no sooner as the float moved a foot it shot down. “SET THE HOOK!” I yelled, and my client fought a very nice 6 lb steelhead. After that they proceeded to hook and land five others within the next hour. In spring and fall, I’m constantly asked how I know whether the tributaries are fishable or not. Fishing-Headquarters.com
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An excellent source to utilize when deciding whether to hit the rivers or take the day off is to follow the USGS streamflow site. Following rainfall or warm days with runoff, I am constantly checking the USGS Stream flow to see how much the rivers have risen. Becoming familiar with the different readings on each river is a timesaver that eliminates the need to visit rivers firsthand to determine their fishability. Stream Presentation There’s no secret set up for steelhead. If you ask any fisherman on the river what they’re using, odds are they will have a spawn sac under a bobber while drift fishing with a spinning rod or centerpin.
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While float fishing is a great beginner presentation, the technique is mostly about bait placement. When it comes to targeting winter steelhead, I always have my 12’6 Shimano Convergence float rod and my 6wt Redington Pursuit fly rod. The reason for doubling up is due to frequent change of presentation. When I get to a hole that I know has fish present, I usually drift a small spawn sac (size of a dime or smaller) under a Raven Float with a fluorocarbon leader, a few small split-shots, and a size 8 or 10 hook. If I don’t get bit within the first 10 drifts I’ll switch to a different color. It will be a matter of time before finding out what the magic color is. As an example, I once brought a
There’s no secret technique to steelhead fishing. While float fishing is the best for starters, the best techniques are mostly about bait placement.
Photograph by Tim Hyvonen
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COLDWATER STEELHEADS good friend with me to Grant Park in South Milwaukee the day after the river opened up in mid winter. Once we got to our first hole I looked at him and said, “We’re going to hammer them!” My friend asked me, “How do you know that?” I told him to look at the snow. The only footprints in the snow that day were ours. I set him up with a chartreuse spawn sac and I began with a tube jig. After 15 drifts I looked at him and said, “Something’s not right. We should have had one by now.” I handed him a pink spawn sac and on his first drift he hooked up. After that I switched over to the same color and we caught 10 fish from that one hole. In addition to drifting spawn sacs under a float, other great presentations for cold high pressure system days are small white tube jigs with a wax worm and small pink plastic trout worms. For the very picky steelhead I will downsize to a size 10 or 12 hook and tip it with up to three wax worms.
Hyvonen often drifts spawn sacs under a float, but ultra-lite sized tube jigs with wax worms, hair jigs, and flies are great for enticing strikes.
Reading the Float
Photograph by Tim Hyvonen
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Using a float isn’t as simple as making a drift and setting the hook. In fact there are many clues you should be looking for while making a drift. First, while using a spinning rod keep your line off the water and be in constant contact with your float. This is the reason why I prefer to use a 12’6” rod on larger rivers and a 10’6” on the smaller rivers. The extra length of my rods allows me to keep my line off the water and skirt the edge of the cur-
Photograph by Tim Hyvonen Fishing Headquarters | Page 32
COLDWATER STEELHEADS rent to drift through the slack water. Keeping your line off the water will also help in reading what the float is trying to tell you. For instance, if the top of the float is angled down river it usually means your dragging bottom with your bait. When that’s the case adjust your float shallower by 6 inches. Other nuances to look for in your float while drifting may include sudden stops, bouncing, the float tipping sideways as if you hit bottom, the float moving quicker than the current and sometimes moving across the river or even going back up river. If your float does any of these SET THE HOOK! I would much rather lose a
hook to a rock that I just set into indicator. Usually after hooking one rather than not set the hook and fish in a hole, the commotion will miss a fish. get other fish in the hole more active. This is when your chance of Utilizing the Fly Rod hooking up with a fly rod is the best. If the water is crystal clear and When targeting winter steel- steelhead don’t want to touch spawn head using a fly rod, I often tell my sacs, tube jigs or worms work well. clients most days they will make a I will load my fly rod with one of hundred casts with a fly rod before two combinations. The first being hooking up versus only 10 drifts a tandem egg pattern with size 8 or with the spinning rod. But there are smaller flies, and the other being some tips that will make your fly a tandem egg pattern and nymph. fishing outing more productive. While running tandem rigs I preAfter I hook a steelhead using a fer to keep my flies around a foot spawn sac on a spinning rod I often apart to keep them from becoming switch over to my fly rod using the tangled. Typically when running an same color egg pattern with a strike egg/nymph pattern everyone places
Whether using a spinning rod and spawn sacs, or a fly rod and egg patterns, the color of choice is important and becomes increasingly more important while using the fly rod. With spawn sacs you have the scent of the eggs as well as the color of the mesh bag but with egg patterns you’re limited to sight alone unless scent is added to the flies. Fishing-Headquarters.com
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the egg pattern first then a weighted nymph second. After many years of running my patterns in this style I began thinking about it and made modifications to it. Instead of having the weighted nymph as the second fly, I tie it on first then have the egg pattern second. The reason for this is if you have your nymph second and it’s not bouncing bottom, you really don’t know where in the water column your egg is at. When running the weighted nymph first you know your egg is going to be only as far away from the nymph as the amount of line connected to it. The second reason for running the rig this way is the egg pattern will have more of a natural movement in the water as it bounces along the bottom next to or slightly above
your nymph. While using both of these presentations in slow moving deep water, the use of a strike indicator is a must. Not only will the strike indicator keep your flies off bottom, but it will allow your flies to float naturally down the river versus straight lining or high sticking where you will be forced to drag your flies across the bottom with a high probability of getting stuck on bottom. When it comes to using a strike indicator there’s one thing you have to keep in mind to ensure your flies are running right. After casting out make sure to mend your line upstream of your indicator. This will prevent your main line from pulling your strike indicator causing the flies to ride higher and
faster. A simple technique I do after roll casting is to make a sharp snap of my wrist as soon as the indicator hits the water, causing my mainline to roll above my indicator. Colors and Scents Whether using a spinning rod and spawn sacs, or a fly rod and egg patterns, the color of choice is important and becomes increasingly more important while using the fly rod. With spawn sacs you have the scent of the eggs as well as the color of the mesh bag but with egg patterns you’re limited to sight alone unless scent is added to the flies. While fishing clear water I prefer to run spawn sacs and egg patterns in chartreuse, yellow, dull pink, burnt orange and white. These colors work well because they don’t give off an excessive amount of flash and look more natural. Following rainfall and run off, and if the rivers are a little dirtier, I run larger spawn sacs and egg patterns (size of a nickel or quarter) in chartreuse, hot pink, red and neon orange. I will also add Pautzke’s krill scent to my egg patterns as an attractant. While fishing dirty water there’s two things that will put more fish on your line; sight and scent. You may only have a foot of visibility in dirty water situations so scent will help make them move towards your fly and the brighter colors allow the steelhead to zero in on your flies.
Photograph by Tim Hyvonen Fishing Headquarters | Page 34
COLDWATER STEELHEADS Tim Hyvonen is the owner of WiFinlander Guide Service in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. He has been targeting steelhead for the past 20 years and has been a licensed Wisconsin fishing guide for 5 years. Tim has been featured on Outdoor Wisconsin and in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Tim is also a GORE-TEX fishing tech and a Fishhound.com Pro staffer. For any questions regarding this article or steelhead fishing feel free to email him at Wifinlander@aol.com or visit his Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/WiFinlanderGuideService
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Photograph by Tim Hyvonen Fishing Headquarters | Page 36
Photograph by The Bassassins
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Jutting eastward from the inland sea that is Lake Ontario, The Bay Of Quinte is on our planet’s short list of fisheries for walleye over ten pounds. Insulated from the big lake and her mood swings, The Bay really is a world unto itself. Walleye fishermen use a battery of methods, in all seasons, targeting both resident and migratory populations.
Photograph by JP Bushey
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By JP Bushey
TROLLING
GIANTS
WINNING The Pre-Freeze Trolling War on Lake Ontario’s Bay of Quinte Walleyes I’d argue that the best window for enormous walleye is just before freeze-up, as staggering numbers of huge, open-water fish funnel their way inland, tugged along by urges to gorge-feed, to winter over and to spawn the following spring. Given the weather conditions, the amount of water available and the transient nature of these walleye, trolling techniques are a natural fit. Patterns emerge. And when they do, results can verge on the unbelievable. Very few fishing opportunities draw me down snowy, salty highways for over three hours with boat in tow, eager to bang around in icy water for days on end. But this one does. I’ve busted out trailer lights in iced up ramps, dried my soaked laundry at day’s end in local laundry mats wearing a parka over my long underwear and slept in my truck along the shoreline more times than you’d believe. The Bay of Quinte is that special. Anyone who’s fished it for any length of time has the stories. Double headers of fish over thirteen pounds? Absolutely. Watching a boat partner’s personal best get doubled on a single trolling pass? That’s regular. Having that same mark re-shattered multiple times in a weekend? For sure. There’s just nowhere else on earth like it. Fishing Headquarters | Page 42
BAY OF QUINTE WALLEYES trolling program. Fishing this time of year is a beautiful battle, and certainly one that carves itself into you, for life.
Standard-Issue Rigging: The bulk of successful trolling is done behind inline planer boards, By: JP Bushey snap weights and leadcore line, in Fishing-Headquarters Contributor a bunch of differing combinations. Off Shore Tackle’s OR12 inline Attention to detail, and the board is the most popular and I ever-delicate balance between rid- couldn’t even guess which brand or ing confidence and breaking new model comes in second. OR12s are ground is what drives the Quinte a stable, visible board, and can be
Off Shore Tackle Snap Weights
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a stable, visible board, and can be outfitted with a range of attachment clips to handle a variety of fishing lines and wave conditions. Quinte’s pre-freeze legend was born on this board’s back. Braided and fused ‘superlines’ have their fans, as does monofilament. All superlines will gather excess water and in freezing temperatures, this can be a problem for rod guides and reels jamming with ice. Monofilaments shed water, tend to run more trouble-free and also offer heavy fish plenty of cushion for staying hooked. Mono reacts slower, because of its natural stretch. By the time you see a board
move, that fish has already grabbed your bait fully. I troll with ten pound monofilament almost exclusively. Landing percentages are close perfect. Plus, I’ve patterned all of my lure depths based on its diameter. Some walleye aggressively ‘t-bone’ lures and are hooked solidly. Others sometimes barely nip that tail hook. Forgiving, stretchy monofilaments really stacks the odds in your favour when trolling in cold water, at low speeds. On leadcore outfits, extended fluorocarbon leaders of thirty feet or more give you the same benefits. Snap-weights, like Off Shore’s Guppy and Tadpole, completely changed my life when I started trolling them. For one, I was now able to send any lure in the box down to
any level I wanted. It could be a little wee, three inch, shallow-diving minnowbait or a paper-thin flutter spoon. You can clip one ahead of a large-lipped crankbait and send it down on an even steeper angle. For me, snap-weights shine whenever I want to reach hot depths with minimal line out behind my board or behind the boat. And to be clear, there are times almost every trip when a plain Jane flatline straight off the gunnel or transom with a Guppy Weight absolutely dominates. I have no explanation for it. We always call that rod the ‘Junk Line.’ It sits in a rod holder--lure in idiotic lockstep with the boat’s path--and gets trampled, while boards carry their goods out into exotic, virgin patches of
water and turn up zeros. On a whim many years ago, I clipped a fat, 3oz Guppy twenty feet ahead of an Eriedescent Reef Runner Ripstick and plunked it back only seventy five feet. The other lines were pretty much a waste of time that day! Not only did that set-up fire consistently for three solid days, it also scooped every single one of our walleye over ten pounds. By trip’s end, it wasn’t even a fair fight. The Junk Line really wailed them. It’s worth noting that in the rough, rolling seas that typify the late game on Quinte, snap-weights really shine. Running baits closer to the boat is always easier to get away with when the water’s surface is being chopped up in surf. Rigs that
The bulk of successful trolling is done behind inline planer boards, snap weights and leadcore line, in a bunch of differing combinations. Off Shore Tackle’s OR12 inline board is the most popular and I couldn’t even guess which brand or model comes in second. OR12s are a stable, visible board, and can be outfitted with a range of attachment clips to handle a variety of fishing lines and wave conditions. Quinte’s pre-freeze legend was born on this board’s back.
Photograph by JP Bushey Fishing Headquarters | Page 44
B U TI NSTHE OWWA L L E Y E S L AATYE ONFI GQ H follow the boat will generate. Maybe more critically, is the all the extra action your bats get from all this. In big seas, with the boat surging and stalling through the waves, all that motion gets transferred straight down to your lures. ‘Slingshotting’ is how I describe it. A heavier snapweight, shorter lead between boat and lure and some wave action can be a fabulous trigger for walleyes. And don’t forget, in water that’s regularly well below 40 degrees F and plastered with shad and other food, little stuff like this makes a big difference on walleye that are old, educated, well-fed and operating in a lower gear, metabolically. What I like about snap-weights is how my set-up can be adjusted.
Simply squeeze the release pad and relocate it up or down your mainline. Want to add or drop weight? No problem, slide them on or off the big, easy splitring. The whole program is designed for versatility, and this is a huge reason why so many trollers use it. Leadcore remains a Great Lakes favorite, and certainly has a place in the Quinte playbook. Its Dacron coating can be messy in cold weather, holding lots of water, as any braided line will. But when you’re able to fish it, leadcore sneakily delivers lures down to schools of walleye. You’re able to plumb those sonar marks down twenty five feet or more with no diving planer, cannonball or inline
weights. Leadcore is stealthy. Eighteen to twenty pound is ideal. Five colour set-ups are typically more than enough. Subtle, delicate baits like Reef Runner Ripsticks, Floating no11 Rapalas or spoons can be presented accurately and naturally, at some impressive depths. Two to three colours pulls well behind inline trolling boards, too. Splice them into twelve to fifteen pound mono, and set them out. Spoons are a deadly lure option. They don’t work as consistently as plugs, but when big walleye are taking spoons, that’s all they’ll hit. Always carry some. Thin models that work at low speeds are what you want. The stuff you’d cast for pike aren’t it. Williams Wabler Lites, Sa-
Photographs by JP Bushey Fishing-Headquarters.com
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vant Jakes and the old Mooselook Wobbler are all great, dragged under 2mph. Spoons are a really great bait to run on the Junk Line in rough weather, believe me. Baits like Williams have jewelry-quality silver and gold finishes. Flash is a huge part of what makes a spoon so good, and they’re not all created equally. Like you’d expect, Quinte draws a lot of traffic, and pods of walleye do see plenty of baits. Being sneaky has always worked well for me, down there. What leadcore lacks in efficiency, with it’s long leads and more cumbersome rigging, it definitely makes up for in stealth. Of course, the ultimate is feeding out three to four colours of lead spliced into your mainline, behind a trolling board. Like a good pitcher, the offering travels down and away. Your baits wind up in great locations where walleye can suck them back in peace. Not all boards can handle leadcore’s drag and weight through the water. The Off Shore OR12 can. Cold weather trolling for big fish is hard on all your gear. Any little defect get exposed fast, that’s for sure. And damage control with bare, wet hands in a boat in December isn’t something you’ll enjoy, take my word on that one. Across the board, use the best-quality rods, reels and rigging you can. I use linecounter reels from Daiwa and Shimano, and spool with premium Maxima monofilaments and fluorocarbons. Counters, drags, levelwinds, knots, leaders and hooks are all checked and re-checked prior to heading out. Every fishing-related task is tougher in cold weather, from trailering to launching, even changing baits or netting fish. Set yourself up for maximum production in cold weather. Make every strike count.
Rank Those Cranks Like with so many other Great Lakes scenes, Quinte walleye lock onto really specific colours. I’ve spent my entire life on Georgian Bay, a massive elbow off Lake Huron, and it’s much the same there. If you’ve got the wrong colour for that day, you may as well troll with a crushed up pop can. I’ve never seen a fishery that’s more colour-dependant than Quinte. Lure shape, lure action and lure depth are all huge, and you have to dial all that in first, there’s no way around those three. After that, we really watch for hot colours to emerge. Expect to ride a hot colour while it’s firing. It’s absolutely unreal how prominent this element of your presentation is down there. Quinte has cleared a lot in the time I’ve been fishing it, close to twenty years. But in no way has clearer water automatically meant you need clear water colours. Not even close. These days, whacko patterns like purple/pink, blue/chartreuse, Clown and Firetiger are as hot as ever. Great Lakes browns, steelhead and chinook usually play the same way as the walleye do. Colour is key, and some borderline ridiculous patterns regularly blow the rest of it away. If I had to bet my truck and boat on a ten pounder tomorrow, I’d take a Reef Runner Deep Runner, in Purple Demon pattern. That lure looks flat-out horrible. I carry no fewer than six in the boat at all times, two of which are always in the water. One real high, running less than twelve feet down, the other set at about eighteen. You let me run that for a day and I bet you I keep my stuff. Like so many other guys, Reef Runners are my go-to crankbait at giant time. There’s three reasons for that. Number one, They’re a Great Lakes company. To this day, every single Reef Runner you buy is American Made, and their colour chart revolves around all the things we’ve already looked at, with respect to selective, Great Lakes preda-
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BAY OF QUINTE WALLEYES tors and how they prefer specific lure colours. Reef Runner paints it all, from dreamy naturals to toxic nightmares. And you’ll want to carry a range of it, trust me. Second, every Reef Runner comes with premium, Kahle-style Eagle Claw treble hooks. Any big walleye that nips or bats at your bait will get tagged. I do a lot of muskie and pike fishing and can tell you without hesitation that 99% of the lures on the market come with hooks that are the wrong size and/or of inferior quality. Honestly, is there anything worse than paying for a lure that needs new hooks on it, before you even use it? Open a Reef Runner, put it in the water and fish it confidently. There’s very few crankbaits in production right now that can lay that claim. A reef Runner is readyto-fish the second you pick it up. Same old story here: a quality, affordable bait that fishermen in our neck of the woods create and build. Call it what you will, but I’ll never shy away lures built and designed from places close to where we use them. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, these lures have what I call ‘The Shiver.’ I’ve spent a lot of hours watching my trolled lures on Quinte with a Go Pro or AquaVu. There’s no doubt in my mind that at the speeds December walleye like— from 0.2 to about 0.7mph—no other lure has that same tight, subdued wobble. Mann’s Stretch 25s have it to a degree, and so do a couple of the Live Target Smelts. But year in and year out, over the tight range of speeds these fish like, nothing is as Fishing-Headquarters.com
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consistent as a Reef Runner. And that goes for both the Deep Runners as well as the Ripsticks. Ripsticks run with a little more wobble and max out around ten feet, with their stubby lip. They’re ideal for Guppy Weight or leadcore duty. A consistently deadly lure that doesn’t cost as much as replacing a set of busted trailer lights and also happens to be domestically produced? Lots of trollers appreciate this. Winning the Wind and Boat Control War Even though Quinte sits well inland from Lake Ontario, a lot of the fishing takes place in long, narrow reaches, channels and bays. Long Reach, Adolphus Gap, Glenora Reach and Picton Bay all put you directly in the trolley tracks. Winds have plenty of room to power through these areas and blow up large rollers. They’re the places walleye are naturally migrating through, and the fishing can be fantastic. Learning how to manage wind is just another part of the overall program. Walleye and a little wind go together just about anywhere and nearly anytime. Safe running and trolling both need to be respected. I pass on spots every trip. There’s always fish to be caught without putting yourself and your gear at risk. Trolling downwind is just about anybody’s first choice. Bait speed can be dialed right in, and so can the direction of your boat. My entire career on Quinte has been spent fishing out of Picton Bay, at
December 2014 / January / February, 2015
Photograph by Andrew Ragas
Quinte walleye lock onto really specific colours. I’ve spent my entire life on Georgian Bay, a massive elbow off Lake Huron, and it’s much the same there. If you’ve got the wrong colour for that day, you may as well troll with a crushed up pop can. I’ve never seen a fishery that’s more colour-dependant than Quinte. Lure shape, lure action and lure depth are all huge, and you have to dial all that in first, there’s no way around those three. After that, we really watch for hot colours to emerge. Expect to ride a hot colour while it’s firing. It’s absolutely unreal how prominent this element of your presentation is down there. Photograph by JP Bushey Fishing Headquarters | Page 48
BAY OF QUINTE WALLEYES
Not only GPS mapping/trolling motor linking systems like iPilot, but electric motor trolling in general. In calm seas, we’ll shut the kicker right down and troll with the bow mount. Slipping silently along is sneaky and we run it off the iPilot Remote, from anywhere in the boat. When the winds kick up, we still run under electric power, using a Minn Kota Riptide Mount. It’s a fully electric, double-propped unit that mounts to the cavitation plate on your outboard. Like iPilot, it’s hand-controlled and can be micromanaged to suit any speed the walleye want. And this unit packs a punch. At the push of a button you can go from creep-crawling along to a reverse thrust to net a fish. Fishing-Headquarters.com
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Photograph by JP Bushey
Merland Park Cottages. I’ve been lucky enough to spend a lot of hours with the camp’s owner, Kevin Lavers, trolling. To this day, I’ve never seen somebody on Quinte use electronics as optimally as Kev does. Not only GPS mapping/trolling motor linking systems like iPilot, but electric motor trolling in general. In calm seas, we’ll shut the kicker right down and troll with the bow mount. Slipping silently along is sneaky and we run it off the iPilot Remote, from anywhere in the boat. When the winds kick up, we still run under electric power, using a Minn Kota Riptide Mount. It’s a fully electric, double-propped unit that mounts to the cavitation plate on your outboard. Like iPilot, it’s hand-controlled and can be micromanaged to suit any speed the walleye want. And this unit packs a punch. At the push of a button you can go from creep-crawling along to a reverse thrust to net a fish. Kevin and I had an unbelievable afternoon session last December, board trolling on the Lake Ontario side of the famous Glenora Reach. With The Kevin’s docks in the bottom reaches of Picton Bay ice-locked, we hopped the Glenora Ferry to reach open water. This is a really typical ocurrance on Quinte this time of year. Where else on earth would a guy shovel a foot of snow out of his driveway and then trailer down the road to load his rig onto another boat in order to find an ice-free launch? It’s surreal, fun and all part of the experience. The first walleye that dipped an inside board back weighed less than eight pounds, which is small for the area. But beside the boat, she hacked out a fresh shad about four inches long. Kev dialed the Riptide back to less than 1mph and we spent the next four hours trolling through
a pod of walleye hanging out in an area the size of a hockey rink. We took that shad and chopped it up with a filet knife, rubbing the mush all over our baits, for scent. Kev had been hammering fish for two solid days guiding using a Reef Runner Deep Diver in Kool Kiwi pattern. If you’ve never seen Kool Kiwi, brace yourself. It looks like someone mixed grass clippings with Aqua Fresh toothpaste and then shot it all over the lure with an airbrush.
Remember that bit about Quinte and lure colour? That day was a classic example. We finished off right at dark with back-to-back heavy, strong sows about twelve pounds each. Eight to ten pound walleye had been jumping on Kool Kiwi every time we reloaded and got it set back out in the trolling spread. Spoiled for life on giant walleye? The Bay of Quinte will do that to you. I’ve been lucky enough to live it.
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BAY OF QUINTE WALLEYES Reef Runners are Bushey’s go-to crankbait at giant time. There’s three reasons for that. Number one, They’re a Great Lakes company. To this day, every single Reef Runner you buy is American Made, and their colour chart revolves around all the things we’ve already looked at, with respect to selective, Great Lakes predators and how they prefer specific lure colours.
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Golden Close Believe me when I tell you that The Bay of Quinte is as advertised. And there are some unreal guide outfits down that way. Look up any of the following if you’re into a trip: Merland Park Cottages, Taro Murata’s Fish City Tours, Nicholas Werner’s Angling Adventures, Joe Pickstock at PB & J Charters, Cabela’s Canada Pro Staff Jeff Chisholm, plus many more. All these guys are on Facebook and have good websites. The reality is that the big walleye are forced through the areas you’ll be trolling. Fish locations are pretty standard. Year after year, the biggest play you can make is trolling smart by dialing in your presentation variables and basically forcing the fish you’re driving over to bite. If all else fails, you can always call me at (705) 717-3159 or message me on Facebook at The Bushey Angle. The pre-freeze bite for walleye is one I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy for many years and I’ll happily tell you what I know about it.
Photograph by JP Bushey Fishing Headquarters | Page 52
BAY OF QUINTE WALLEYES
JP Bushey is a multi-season, multi-species writer from Barrie, Ontario. Northcentral Ontario’s ‘big water’ is where he spends his time, including Georgian Bay, Lake Nipissing, The French River and The Bay of Quinte. He does speaking engagements, manufactures lures and takes pride in helping people improve their fishing success. You can follow his fishing adventures on Facebook at The Bushey Angle, and on the web at www.thebusheyangle.com
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Photograph by JP Bushey Fishing Headquarters | Page 54
By Andrew Ragas
The author, hoists one of his largest smallmouth bass from the 2014 season. A 20.5 incher that bit a Freedom Tackle Corp. Zodiac rigged with Strike King Coffee Tube. Fishing-Headquarters.com
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Photograph by Jacob Saylor
Freedom Tackle Corp. Zodiac
THE PERFECT
JIG
The freedom of choice to use any hook style and bait on a universal jig and rig system is a game changer.
I found the perfect jig!
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THE PERFECT JIG
By: Andrew Ragas Editor In-Chief
andrew@fishing-headquarters.com
Photograph by Jacob Saylor Fishing-Headquarters.com
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The jig is one of the most storied and historical pieces of tackle in modern day fishing. Its origins can be traced back to the early Polynesians and European anglers (Norwegians) who lived off Earth’s waters as hunter gatherers, using them as fish hunting tools. The first jigs in fishing were simply concocted from metals and rock based weights with hooks attached. Because they’ve been used as survival tools for hundreds of years, the effectiveness of jig fishing cannot ever be questioned or placed in doubt. Centuries later, not much with this time tested tactic has changed, other than the fact the sport of fishing has been reinvented and modernized by several manufacturers who specialize in jig manufacturing. As an avid smallmouth bass angler, I’ve learned that every jig in existence is a solution to a problem on the water. The perfect jig’s goal is to break the boundaries of environments, and crack the behavioral shells of fish. In every jig fishing situation presented before me, I’m looking for a jig that’s best for every presentation in my bag of tricks. Jigs are designed to fall fast or slow, swim horizontally or vertically, and perform with specialized manners. As thousands of jigs have been created and reinvented by manufacturers, each and every one has called for specific techniques and specialized equipment. The mantra of fishing nowadays is the more specific we make the tools of the trade, the better off we will be as all-around anglers. But what hap-
pens when it becomes too complicated? Unfortunately, it makes the game more difficult. During an early May, 2014 outing in Wisconsin’s northwoods, the lakes were heating up by warmth with smallmouths waking up from winter slumber. As I focused on the sunlit main lake flats and rocky shoals, my power bouncing techniques with jig and Strike King Coffee Tube was getting viciously bit by giant drag-singing smallmouths. The explosive power I experienced from these fish will likely never again be replicated. Ever since that wonderful afternoon of fishing, I soon learned I only needed one specific jig to effectively catch fish like this for the remaining six months of my season. I finally found the perfect jig, at an ideal weight, complimented with my preferred hook style and baits of choice. Most of the smallmouth jigs I’ve ever used prior to Freedom Tackle Corporation’s Zodiac are now history. Fishing Headquarters | Page 60
THE PERFECT JIG
Rigged with livebait hook
The Future of Fishing For those of you who have been following my endeavors for the past few years, you’ve likely noticed my writing to include products by a relatively new Canadian fishing tackle company that’s based in Toronto. Freedom Tackle Corp, founded in 2012 by Michael Tamburro, has been able to simplify and modernize jig fishing further, taking its angling concepts to new heights with the introduction of a universal interchangeable hook design. Having devised the system, known as “The Tamburro Twist,” to affix any type and brand of hook to the jig head, the hooks are supported by a stout 300 lb. stainless steel wire. With the hook fully, aggressive smallmouths
will never get leverage to throw the hook while being played. This articulated design eliminates the chance for this happening and is a huge advantage over other jig fishing presentations. Since its introduction, Freedom Tackle Corp. has developed its entire line of products to revolve around the articulated hook concept ranging from ball heads, football and swimbait jigs, to a new spinnerbait that was released in winter 2014. Like me and other anglers who’ve never been able to find the perfect jig to solve most of angling’s problems, Tamburro likewise struggled to find the correct jig with ideal hook size, style, and brand to best match the presentation. But then by combining his passion in fishing
with his background in engineering, the solution to jig fishing was discovered. Available in 1/16, ¼, 3/8 and ½ ounce sizes, the Zodiac is a revolutionary tool for power jigging and probing through the rocky terrain and complex lake contour inhabited by smallmouths. Utilizing an upright weight-forward head design, the jig always lands in an upright position, evading snags and inviting feeding fish. The progressive thinking behind Tamburro’s design is beautiful in its simplicity with lifelike 3D eyes, a sonic brass echo chamber, interchangeable hook features, and free range of motion. Unlike conventional jigs that have been designed off of early prototypes from our Polynesian and European angling ancestors, Freedom Tackle’s live action hybrid jigs have been modeled by a universal angling concept: to give anglers the freedom of choice to use preferred hooks and baits at any time. The minute the Zodiac jig and plastic hits the water, it will land upright in a perfect strike position, ready for smallmouths to gobble it up. My perfect jig is the one that gets bit the most. A Jig with Unlimited Rigging Styles Every day on the water brings different conditions with it. Anglers are left with important rigging decisions to make, such as how to best match accordingly to the environments being fished and feeding moods of bass. Few jigs encompass different rigging types like the Zo-
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Photograph by Jacob Saylor Fishing Headquarters | Page 62
THE PERFECT JIG 1/4 oz. Zodiac with LazerTrokar 2/0 EWG and Strike King Coffee Tube. The scecret is out!
For those who are gear-trendy, the perfect jig is fished with a 7ft 2 in. medium heavy extra fast action Quantum Superlite PT spinning rod paired with Quantum Energy 30PTIC spinning reel and 8 lb. Cortland Camouflage copolymer.
diac does. Properties of the drop shot rig, wacky rig, shakey head, Texas rig, and football jig are all incorporated into it. What other jig by itself can perform each of these tasks? But what if special modifications are needed to be made, or you want to take creativity further in order to create and conquer? The creativity to my perfect jig begins with hook options and bait selection. Say you’re fishing the Zodiac as a weighted wacky rig with stick bait and you sight a giant 6 pound smallmouth cruising the shallows, ambushing crayfish. Only problem is that fish isn’t responsive to the wacky worm, nor bothers to look at anything but a crayfish imitator. You have the option presented now to switch over to a more representative bait to match the forage such as a Texas rigged tube jig, all done without having to rig a differFishing-Headquarters.com
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ent rod or retie. Being able to twist and replace baits and hooks this quickly without retying is valuable and increases your odds and reaction time to catch that fish of a lifetime. When you consider adjusting tactics on the water like this, the ability to do it sooner rather than later truly pays off. The ability to swap out original factory hooks in favor of using a favorite brand and style is where the Zodiac wins me over. This is a concept many smallmouth bass anglers look for. While the chemically sharpened hooks available in original packaging with the jig are rightfully sharp, I modify the jig to my specifications, making it sharper and stronger to better withstand rocks and snags, by swapping out factory hooks in favor of preferred brands such as OWNER, Eagle Claw, and LazerTrokar. I then take
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Photograph by Jacob Saylor Fishing Headquarters | Page 64
THE PERFECT JIG further steps, matching hook type and size according to the soft plastics smallmouths want. Throughout the year I found a system of soft plastics that worked for my style of smallmouth fishing, which most of the time revolves around using crayfish imitators. Because of crayfish forage base, most of my favorite soft plastics for smallmouths are bottom presentations, best executed by jigs or bottom oriented rigs such as the Texas and Carolina rig. Like the jigs being fished with them, smallmouth plastics have experienced a boom themselves, but despite how technical some brands and styles have become, I prefer to keep my presentations simple with the time-tested favorites. Tube jigs work in all types of smallmouth water, but certain tubes work better than others. For instance, the Strike King Coffee Tube accounted for more 20-plus inch smallmouths for me than any other bait in 2014. Luckily, I acquired several bags of my favorite colors (Magic Goby and Crazy Craw) in bulk prior to spring. Rigged on the ¼ oz. Zodiac with a LazerTrokar 2/0 EWG, this bait combination caught fish from May through October. No other specific bait or rigging combination caught more smallmouth bass in 2014 than this one. Perhaps it’s in the presentation, bait choice, or merely the angler knowing how to fish the entire package. Whatever the reasons that made this rig work as well as it did remain a mystery. Meanwhile, small creature baits are strong secondary options. There are times when smallmouths Fishing-Headquarters.com
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prefer plastics to be more identical to crayfish. In these scenarios creature baits with appendages give smallmouths a better representation than tubes. Rigged on the ¼ oz. Zodiac also with a LazerTrokar EWG, 5 inch Chompers Skirted Twintails are a favorite in most scenarios, as are other craw imitating plastics such as YUM’s Craw Papi and Dragin Baits Skirted Grub and Critter Craw. Although the Zodiac is only available in three basic color schemes, the bait in use has far greater precedence than head color. When it comes to fishing soft plastics for smallmouths, jig color is often a non-factor as it’s going to get beat up and chipped on the rocks and hard bottom environments these fish dwell in. With my style of power bottom smallmouth fishing, thank goodness the Zodiac is snag-proof. The telegraphic sensation of a biting smallmouth that just clamped its powerful jaws down onto my bait is unexplainable. There isn’t a better presentation than using plastics and single hooks on a jig. Whether fishing the Zodiac with a livebait hook, an extra wide-gap, or standard worm hook, feeling the pull is special. Bass fishing has never been made to be so creative like this. Easy to tie, simple to mix and match, snag-proof and with a high hooking percentage, the perfect jig has been found.
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Photograph by Jacob Saylor Fishing Headquarters | Page 66
THE PERFECT JIG The telegraphic sensation of a biting smallmouth that just clamped its powerful jaws down onto my bait is unexplainable. There isn’t a better presentation than using plastics and single hooks on a jig. Whether fishing the Zodiac with a livebait hook, an extra wide-gap, or standard worm hook, feeling the pull is special. Bass fishing has never been made to be so creative like this. Easy to tie, simple to mix and match, snag-proof and with a high hooking percentage, the perfect jig has been found.
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Photograph by Jacob Saylor Fishing Headquarters | Page 68
THE PERFECT JIG
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The Strike King Coffee Tube accounted for more 20-plus inch smallmouths for me than any other bait in 2014. Luckily, I acquired several bags of my favorite colors (Magic Goby and Crazy Craw) in bulk prior to spring. Rigged on the Ÿ oz. Zodiac with a LazerTrokar 2/0 EWG, this bait combination caught fish from May through October. No other specific bait or rigging combination caught more smallmouth bass in 2014 than this one. Perhaps it’s in the presentation, bait choice, or merely the angler knowing how to fish the entire package. Whatever the reasons that made this rig work as well as it did remain a mystery.
Photograph by Andrew Ragas Fishing Headquarters | Page 70
By Cory Allen
MUD DUM SPELLED BACKWARDS IS
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The immortal words of Mel Blanc ring true in their classic Warner Bros. context, but in the art of pursuing muskies that’s about where the humor ends. Too many anglers chagrin and curse in the wind when they see their favorite waters turn to Nesquik, especially riverine systems.
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MUD LINE MUSKIES
Photograph by Cory Allen Fishing-Headquarters.com
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By: Cory Allen
Fishing-Headquarters Contributor
Granted, in some areas, the seasonal water table roller coaster has led to the years of clockwork mud baths creating “patterns” that produce relatively consistent results, but even then, few know where to even begin past the instructions on the back of the box. Especially in waters where this may occur suddenly and without warning, precious “patterns” get thrown out baby and bath water all. Yet, in these conditions, especially in southern systems like those in Tennessee where the line between river and reservoir is often as blurred as Mr. Magoo looking at the median on the interstate, I’ve grown to lick my chops when I know the plateaus have filled to the brim. Especially when it comes to giants, mud truly makes them dumb….. Dumber than hell. “Dumb” though isn’t necessarily the best word. Fish, including muskies, are always stupid. Conditioning and intelligence are two entirely different things. Yet these curveballs to their status quo all too often create conditions that make them very predictable, and the compromise to their sight makes them rely that much more heavily on lateral line, which is never a bad thing. Inclement water conditions that prompt most to turn tail and head home at the first glance from the ramp make me charge headlong like Don Quixote after a windmill dragon. Why? Because some of the largest fish ever to come aboard my Tuffy, the Baryonx, have been when I was floating in about 3 inches of visibility; so much, in fact, that I’ve grown a penchant for fishing them. First off, never assume dark water, even nearly opaque water, compromises a muskies ability to successfully acquire targets and annihilate. If anything, after years of observation, I’m Fishing Headquarters | Page 76
MUD LINE MUSKIES
Charles Wallace and Cory Allen pose triumphantly with a 51 inch muskie that bit a Llungen Lures LT-9 from the dark muddy waters of a flooded reservoir. Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
Photograph by Cory Allen
almost entirely convinced that this utterly refines their lateral line sense to a rapier fine precision tip, and they rarely miss their mark...”Well it’s so dark we can’t even see follows...” ‘Scuse me, but I didn’t think this was horseshoes or hand grenades, and follows don’t count on the tally. When you find the areas muskies hold in during these times, most likely even when they’re not active they’ll be much easier to trigger into an instinctive response with no holds barred abandon. Just this past fall, while scouting relatively new water to our repertoire, one we were following more off scent than tracks, I found a day where the rain on the Ridgeline had filtered down and created current where none had previously existed. We found churning, near black water. This not being a high density area, fueled by natural reproduction, I was still utterly convinced that this was a sleeper cell for some absolute tanks. We covered a variety of different features, in areas that would most definitely congregate muskies into very easily interpreted terms of combat. Then, like a lighthouse in the fog, there she sat, a small almost minuscule creek mouth, with no more than 3 ft of water in the mouth and quickly turning to a riffle with clear water flowing in. I had fished it several times, and to no avail most likely due to the fact that it was not very distinguished in criterion from the surrounding water conditions during normal situations. Too shallow, not enough influx to justify a musky caring or noticing. But on this day, with current whipping past and a water color line to boot, it took 3 casts for my friend Charles Wallace to hook and land a natural 51” Tennessee muskellunge. Charles being of the endemic tribe of local musky culture told me personally the few people he knew who had fished this area had fished it for years Fishing Headquarters | Page 78
MUD LINE MUSKIES
Photograph by Matt Lynch Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
and had never caught a musky this big. Not by a long shot. I’d almost guarantee they too, would flee from a mud fight. Yet, we saw the virtue of unnatural conditions dictating the largest muskies in that system doing something unnatural to their behavior. 51” muskies don’t regularly sit in 3 ft creek mouths when 25-40 ft of water is readily available. But today, as in all days, this girl got priority seating, and the best seat in the house just so happened to be in one of the easiest to identify and interpret areas in the entire 6-7 mile stretch we fished. Well if it rains, I don’t care; don’t make a difference to me. Roll black water, baby... ...because when this happens, the text of the water begins to virtually illuminate off the pages. If 90 percent of the fish are in 10 percent of the water, then the 1% of the oldest baddest muskies, the apex predators, will ALWAYS occupy the single best habitats available on a daily basis. No exceptions. When this is down 15-30ft as is on most normal water conditions, it becomes a chore to present on their terms, in their domain. But when you dictate the terms by reading water that most would see as a disadvantage, you become more than just a regular fisherman. Now, you’ve become a detective, understanding how to place the criterion of a given day into the grid of greater understanding, and do combat on your own terms. In the immortal words of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight, “This isn’t a mudhole; this is an operatin table... and I’m the surgeon.” The next time you’re thigh deep in mud while musky fishing, don’t worry about your impaired senses. It goes both ways. They literally throw themselves onto a slab and draw the dotted line down their chest. All you have to do is press down the scalpel and pull. Photograph by Cory Allen Fishing Headquarters | Page 80
MUD LINE MUSKIES
Cory Allen, 29, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee is the founder and lead guide of Tennessee Valley Muskie Authority - the most comprehensive fishing resource and guide team in Tennessee. Cory’s specialty is casting and trolling for muskellunge on the reservoirs and river systems of the south. Allen’s team of guides fish the waters throughout Tennessee, guiding on a year-round basis, and offer their clients a wide variety of boat and wading trips. Book your 2014 summer and 2015 winter fishing adventure by visiting:
http://www.tennesseevalleymuskieauthority.com Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
Photograph by Cory Allen Fishing Headquarters | Page 82
Connecting to more muskies with nifty boatside maneuvers By Chris Willen
STRI P T Photographs byAndrew Andrew Ragas Ragas Photograph by
Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
Photographs by Chris Willen
TEASE
Photograph by David Graham
Fishing Headquarters | Page 88
STRIP TEASE
W By: Chris Willen
Fishing-Headquarters Contributor
When most people think about late season musky fishing they think giant rubber and suckers being dragged beneath a bobber. Although both are amazing ideas, I’m here to tell you there’s another method worth adding to the list.
Stripping big flies with heavy sinking lines is an option that not too many people in the musky world are utilizing. Sure, it takes a little while getting used to throwing 450 grains of sinking line, but when you get it dialed you’ve just opened up a whole different door to catching musky. This will give you a huge leg up on all the other boats on your favorite waters chasing a giant everyone wants to get a grip Fishing-Headquarters.com
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and grin with. Live bait will always be effective, there’s no denying that. But moving fish to your boatside suckers isn’t always an easy game, or convenient. So using the fly rod as a tool to get fish moving is a good option on the days that even the sucker floats aren’t going down. When I used to only cast traditional musky gear I would always lead my lure to my boat side sucker
December 2014 / January / February, 2015
and pretty much forgo any figure 8 or boat side maneuvers. Hell, I just spent $10 on this giant minnow, and I want to see it get crushed! Same will work with your fly rod. Strip your fly right to your sucker and make another cast. The musky you’re hunting might not move to that bulldawg but it might get curious about that wispy fly deal going over its head and now you’ve begun your trap. You might not get your fly
Photographs by Chris Willen
Chris Willen and Mike Schultz of Schultz Outfitters, Ypsilanti, MI, release a giant taken with the strip tease fly tactics.
Contributed Photograph Fishing-Headquarters | Page 90
STRIP TEASE to your sucker that I’m sure you’ve given some clever name to, I know I do. Rather, the musky might just engulf your fly instead. Then you’ve really got a fun fight on your hands and some bragging rights when you tell your buddies you landed a nice musky on a fly rod. Assuming your game doesn’t involve suckers and you just want to only catch them on flies. Perfect! Now you can really get in depth with your techniques for capturing musky on the fly rod. One of the main things you need to do is slow down. Most people want to make as many casts as possible while musky fishing, covering the water, and why not. Well with flies it’s a different game. Your thought process should be to cover water more effectively instead. Therefore making sure you’ve completely beaten up an area before moving onto the next one. This is a much slower game; we’re catching musky on fly rods here. You have to do the work. Slow stripping a fly back in, getting it to come in deep and giving a musky plenty of time to eat is the method. SLOWLY bring your fly back to the boat with the tip of your fly rod actually in the water. Doing so you’ll achieve more depth and you’ll have an easier transition to your figure 8. Figure 8 maneuvers with fly rods are huge in late season musky fishing. After every cast you should attempt to make a boat side move like you would with conventional gear. In late season I like to lower my rod tip down and perform deeper figure 8 turns than I normalFishing-Headquarters.com
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“Slow stripping a fly back in, getting it to come in deep and giving a musky plenty of time to eat is the method. SLOWLY bring your fly back to the boat with the tip of your fly rod actually in the water. Doing so you’ll achieve more depth and you’ll have an easier transition to your figure 8.”
December 2014 / January / February, 2015
Photograph by Chris Willen Fishing-Headquarters | Page 92
STRIP TEASE
Good solid strip setting is the key to success. As mentioned this is the hardest part to successful fly fishing. Spring, summer, fall and winter, musky fishing a strip set is what you need to condition yourself to do. Photograph by Chris Willen Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
ly would. For this time of season always think low and slow. This is where the angler in the back of the boat can really dig down and bring his fly in much slower than that guy in the front. It doesn’t always pay to go through a section first. The biggest hurdle through all of this is going to be setting the hook. For some reason unbeknownst to me it seems that when muskies feed late season they want to swim right at you, more frequently in rivers but lakes also. This means the already difficult task of driving the fly and setting the hook becomes more advanced. This is where the seasoned fly angler will show what his or her skills are made of. Fact of the matter is you’re probably going to mess up a few before you land one. When it comes to setting the
hooks deep, I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to do. But there’s a learning curve no doubt. Imagine you’re slowly stripping the fly and you feel something. What you must do is point the rod tip straight at the fish and begin strip setting as hard as you can, as quickly as possible. You need to drive that 5/0 hook through the muskies mouth by pulling the line rather than setting with the rod. If you set with the rod the game is over and you’ll have to start counting to 10,000 again. I have seen so many fish come off because anglers set with the rod. It doesn’t work, and will not work. You might have the fish on for a short time but it will spit the fly eventually. Good solid strip setting is the key to success. As mentioned this is the hardest part to successful fly
fishing. Spring, summer, fall and winter, musky fishing a strip set is what you need to condition yourself to do. Many years of conventional fishing will come back to haunt you on this topic, but rod setting is the enemy. There’s two big techniques to remember when late season musky fishing. SLOW DOWN and STRIP SET. You will get more fish into the boat with more techniques you learn. Don’t settle for what you already don’t do. Catch more fish, and catch bigger fish to broaden your musky fishing horizons.
Photograph by Chris Willen
Fishing-Headquarters | Page 108
STRIP TEASE
Chris Willen has been musky fishing for well over a decade, from the freestone rivers of the Upper Midwest to the limestone rivers of the Cumberland plateau and most places in between. Chris specializes in hunting wild, native musky in the beautiful lakes, rivers and flowages of northern Wisconsin. A knowledgeable and innovative angler, he can customize a day on the water to match any skill set, from beginning musky fly anglers just getting started in the sport to more experienced anglers looking to sharpen their skills with fresh methods and new approaches.
Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
www.chriswillen.com
Photograph by Chris Willen Fishing-Headquarters | Page 96
Llungen Lures designer, Chad Cain.
www.llungenlures.com
TACKLE TECHN WINTER 2015 DOES YOUR COMPANY OR BRAND HAVE PRODUCTS FOR US TO USE AND TALK ABOUT? SEND YOUR INQUIRIES TO INFO@FISHING-HEADQUARTERS.COM
EcoXGear Eco Terra Waterproof Audio System By Andrew Ragas Bear proof, waterproof, and superb sound quality, the EcoXGear Eco Terra Waterproof Audio System was delivered to me as last winter’s Christmas gift. As an angler who fishes from multiple boats, and goes solo 75% of the time, the Eco Terra is a great portable sound solution for me. ECOTERRA is designed for use on the water and offers protection for your IPod or mobile device from the Earth’s elements. The powerful amplifier and dual stereo speakers provide broad range frequency response along with a powerful bass energy and crisp high notes which are pleasing to the ears. ECOTERRA is impact resistant. Use it in your boat and on the water, wherever you want to go. Best of all, it floats, and allows you to listen to your tunes all day. With up to 25 hrs of play time you won’t miss a beat. For best battery life use 8 rechargable AA batteries. $129.99 ecoxgear.com
Llungen Lures Cash Series By Andrew Ragas Exclusive for the 2015 musky sport fishing trade shows and conferences, Llungen Lures is offering musky anglers some new night fishing solutions with their all new CASH series of bucktails and spinnerbaits. Featuring a unique combination of silocone skirts higlighted by tinsel and flashabou, and a combination of black and nickel blades, as well as solid blacks, the CASH baits will be sold only at the 2015 sport shows. From $13.99 to $18.99 llungenlures.com Photograph by Johnny Amato Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
NICIANS
Gear recommendations, reviews, insights and news (mostly new) from contributors & friends of Fishing-Headquarters.
ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR BRAND’S PRODUCTS! LazerTrokar TK133 Big Nasty Flipping Hook By Josh B. Peacock I have a confession to make, I’m absolutely fanatical about my flippin’ hooks. Since the Lazer Trokar TK130 came out a few years back, I’ve literally had one to three of them tied on every outing, ever since. When I heard that they were coming out with two new versions of the original TK130 I immediately e-mailed the good folks at Eagle Claw, begging for just a few sample packs! As luck might have it, a small package arrived from Denver Colorado a short time later. The package contained the new LazerTrokar TK133 Big Nasty flippin’ hook, designed with an aggressive bend and smaller gap to mesh well with narrow/slender soft plastic baits. Here was the first bass (a hefty 4 + lb fall fatty) that I jacked on the new Big Nasty. In one word, Wicked. $6.99 (5ct) lazertrokar.com
Vicious Vision Eyewear By Josh B. Peacock One of the most important items, which I can’t live without while spending thousands of hours each year on the water is a quality pair of polarized sunglasses. Being a shallow water angler I rely heavily on polarized sunglasses to reduce glare and help me spot not only key pieces of cover, but fish as well. They also provide significant eye protection while running at high speeds, and from my wild homerun-style hook sets while flipping, pitching, and frogging (trust me, my wife, and tournament partners are constantly dodging tungsten weights, apparently they hurt!) Now that I’ve completed my first season wearing the new Vicious Vision polarized sunglasses I can confidently say that they are at the top of the market. In fact, I was told that they would meet or exceed a leading brands pair of premium polarized sunglasses, and couldn’t help but scoff at that bold of a statement, after all I had been wearing this brand since high school. My buddy Greg at Vicious was right. I will be ordering another one or two pairs for this coming season. I currently have the copper and amber lenses which were awesome in all light conditions, especially overcast days. $199.99 vicious-vision.com Fishing Headquarters | Page 100
TACKLE TECHN WINTER 2015 DOES YOUR COMPANY OR BRAND HAVE PRODUCTS FOR US TO USE AND TALK ABOUT? SEND YOUR INQUIRIES TO INFO@FISHING-HEADQUARTERS.COM
Real Deal Tungsten Jigs By Tyler Uteg Whether you’re flipping or dragging a jig on bottom of lake, it’s always crucial that you’re able to feel every pebble or piece of structure down there. Until this year, I really didn’t understand the difference that tungsten makes, but now I know, and I’m not going back. I’ve written about Real Deal Custom Tackle before, but their sister site, Real Deal Tungsten, really led me to this new found ace in the hole. So far, I’ve experimented with their punching weights, drop shot weights and jigs, and the quality has been superb across the board. If you’re looking for the best quality tungsten football jigs to help you catch some hawgs on your next trip, check out their website. I’ll give you one secret, too: Kryptonite absolutely kills it in clear water. From $3.75 to $4.75 ea. realdealtungsten.com
Strike King Lures Dream Shot By Tyler Uteg I hate to give this away, but it’s likely not a complete secret. The dream shot is by far the best drop shot bait I’ve ever used. This past season, I made a conscious effort to learn how to fish the drop shot effectively, and it worked in a lot of scenarios. Mostly due to my constant use of the Strike King Dream Shot as my primary bait. From crystal clear to muddy water, and from calm days to days with 3 footers, the dream shot reigned supreme. Next time you’re looking for a drop shot bite, pair a dream shot with a #2 Gamakatsu drop shot hook, braided line and a tungsten weight, and you’ll end up getting them in the boat. $54.95 strikeking.com Fishing-Headquarters.com
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December 2014 / January / February, 2015
NICIANS
Gear recommendations, reviews, insights and news (mostly new) from contributors & friends of Fishing-Headquarters.
ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR BRAND’S PRODUCTS! St. Croix Rods Avid X By Josh B. Peacock I was fortunate enough to try out one of St.Croix’s new 2015 Avid-X (AXC70MF) rods this past fall. Not only did I get to try it out, but I also got to put it through the paces! When I held my first St.Croix Avid-X rod in the Kenora hotel parking lot with St.Croix Canadian Sales Rep Bob Stirling in September, I felt as though the Ontario Provincial Police, in suspicion of illegal activity would come flying around the corner with lights a-blaze at any moment. This rod is scary light, comes with a split-grip handle, and boasts the new Kigan advanced microguide platform which minimizes line slap on the blank, and in turn equates to increased casting distance and accuracy. The Avid-X comes with an unprecedented 15 year transferable warranty (although who in their right mind would sell a St.Croix rod!). I just so happened to fluke into this 43.5 inch Northern Pike while slinging a football jig around for largemouth bass on my home lake. The rod performed flawlessly on its first outing, controlling the powerful and insanity based surges that giant Canadian Northern Pike are famous for. Asked to provide a review at the end of the day, I simply stated. “I’m sold”. $200.00 stcroixrods.com
Cortland Precision SL Fly Line By Andrew Ragas
By Andrew Ragas
Fly fishing experts may not agree with me using a specialty fly line to target smallmouth bass but such is life and the benefits that come from using an outstanding clear-colored floating line on my ultra-clear bass fisheries. Cortland’s Precision SL Trout Boss series lines are designed to execute long, accurate casts in wind and other difficult fishing conditions. Precision SL fly line are the most technologically advanced low-friction distance lines on the market today. Paired with my 6wt fly rod and reel, my intermediate fly angling skills became professional caliber thanks to Cortland’s PST coating material for reduced friction and increased cast distance. From $60 to $75 cortlandline.com Fishing Headquarters | Page 102
TACKLE TECHN WINTER 2015 DOES YOUR COMPANY OR BRAND HAVE PRODUCTS FOR US TO USE AND TALK ABOUT? SEND YOUR INQUIRIES TO INFO@FISHING-HEADQUARTERS.COM
Toothy’s Tackle Tickler By Andrew Ragas In recent years, large double-bladed muskie bucktails have taken over the minds of anglers and manufacturers. While several companies make bucktails with blades beyond the #10 size, few have utilized creativity and engineering to build a new concept for hooks and trailers. Enter the Tickler by Toothy’s Tackle, that adds thickly cut, crinkle mylar skirts and highly reflective beveled blades that give off a level of light, reflection and vibration unlike any other big bucktail on the market. On this bait, the Tickler’s synthetic skirt flares out more due to individual curly-tail trailers attached to three single hooks. Toothy’s Ticklers give big blade fishermen an option that on certain days a unique skirt and trailer material may be a more important triggering effect on muskies than blade size. From $20 to $26 toothystackle.com
NICIANS
Gear recommendations, reviews, insights and news (mostly new) from contributors & friends of Fishing-Headquarters.
ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR BRAND’S PRODUCTS! Offshore Tackle Planer Boards By JP Bushey The bulk of successful trolling is done behind inline planer boards, snap weights and leadcore line, in a bunch of differing combinations. Off Shore Tackle’s OR12 inline board is the most popular and I couldn’t even guess which brand or model comes in second. OR12s are a stable, visible board, and can be outfitted with a range of attachment clips to handle a variety of fishing lines and wave conditions. The OR12L Side Planer is carefully ballasted to run flawlessly in rough water off of your rod line. This item does NOT come with the Tattle Flag Upgrade on it. You would have to purchase the OR12TF to convert the board a Tattle Flag board. Ideal for Walleye and most fresh water fish. From $29.99 to 39.99 offshoretackle.com
Photographs byAndrew Andrew Ragas Ragas Photograph by
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