Fishing
the
Midwest
Brian Buehler caught this 52-inch Muskie on June 22, 2016. Photo by Brice Wilke.
Bass tactics for walleyes and crappies By Bob Jensen, Fishing the Midwest My friend Mike Frisch and I went fishing on Clear Lake. I get to fish Clear Lake several times every year, and Mike visited Clear Lake a lot in the early ’90s. Clear Lake was a good body of water then, but it’s an outstanding fishery now. In fact, Clear Lake is one of the premier multi-specie fisheries in the midwest. On our most recent trip to Clear Lake, we fished with Kevan Paul, a successful angler and a good guide. He not only takes his clients fishing, he explains what they’re doing. When Mike, Kevan and I hit the water on Clear Lake, we did some interesting things to catch the fish — and boy did we catch fish. We had all the traditional walleye gear: jigs, rigs, spinners, crankbaits and slipbobbers. We started off with the slipbobbers and caught several nice walleyes in a short period of time. Then the action slowed and we changed techniques. The wind was from the south, so we headed
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to the north shoreline. On most bodies of water, walleyes like the wind. The technique we employed, however, was one that Mike and I were very familiar with for largemouth bass, but not for walleyes. We tied one-sixteenth of an ounce round head Fire-Ball jigs and one-eighth of an ounce stand-up Fire-Balls onto our line and tipped them with either a minnow or leech. Both worked equally well. And then we started making short casts to the docks. If we had been pitching the jigs to rock piles or weed beds, that would have been normal walleye fishing, but we were throwing our jigs under docks and around boat lifts, much like we do when we’re bass fishing. And we were catching walleyes consistently. Doubles were frequent. This was fun, productive, and it’s a technique that Mike and I will remember when we encounter similar conditions on other bodies of water. Destination Clear Lake 2017
Fishing Licenses Resident Fishing Season (16 and older) $19 Non-Resident Season (16 and older) $41 7-Day Fishing (Resident) $13.50 (Non-Resident) $32 3-Day Fishing (Non-Resident) $17.50 1-Day Fishing (Resident) $9.50 (Non-Resident) $10.50 Licenses sold at these Chamber member businesses: Clear Lake Bait & Tackle 524 Highway 18 E. | (641) 231-8028 Kramer Ace Hardware 580 Highway 18 E. | (641) 357-7080
www.clearlakeiowa.com
