When I conduct fishing seminars, I caution those who attend to avoid what I call “absolutes” in fishing. Rarely will a fishing situation require doing something absolutely one way all the time. Certainly in fishing there are rules to follow and often there are “exceptions” to those rules an angler needs to be aware of.
That stated, in November, if I’m setting a goal of catching walleye in Lake Erie, Saginaw Bay, Munuscong Bay or Lake St. Clair, I’m absolutely going to be trolling crankbaits. It’s that simple. No other lure can come close to producing more fall walleye bites and no other presentation will put more fish in the boat than trolling.
The author spends lots of time trolling crankbaits, but during the fall of the year he almost exclusively trolls using minnow style baits like this Bill Lewis PWC.
The secret to making crankbaits produce day in and day out is to understand the dynamics of crankbait action as it pertains to crankbait style, trolling speed and water temperature. It’s important to understand that, in cold water conditions crankbaits with a less aggressive rolling or rocking action will out produce crankbaits that feature a wider wobble and more aggressive action. For the sake of discussion, I define cold water as anything colder than 50 degrees.
Two categories of crankbaits fill these requirements including minnow divers and stickbaits. Minnow divers are slender minnow shaped crankbaits that feature a pronounced diving lip. Stickbaits are slender minnow shaped crankbaits that feature a small diving lip, normally located right under the chin of the lure.
Because minnow divers do a good job of diving on their own, these lures are often trolled “unassisted” or without the benefit of adding an in-line trolling sinker. Because stickbaits don’t dive very deep on their own, these lures are routinely fished in combination with in-line sinkers such as the iconic Off Shore Tackle Pro Weight or Snap Weight system.
When these minnow divers and stickbaits are trolled in the cold water periods of the fall, they are most commonly matched up with in-line planner boards. In-line boards help spread out these lures in the trolling spread and they can be trolled at slower speeds than would be possible with a traditional planer board mast system.
So without saying this set up is “absolutely” the only way to go, clearly trolling stickbaits, minnow divers, using in-line trolling weights to enhance diving depth and in-line planer boards to spread out gear is precisely what I recommend for targeting open water walleye in the fall of the year.
Selecting Crankbaits
I have always found it interesting that in the relative sea of crankbaits available on the market, only a select few routinely produce walleye. In the fall of the year when the water is cold, the list of crankbaits that get the job done day in and day out is amazing small.
In the “must have” category of minnow divers, the baits I carry on every trip include the Bill Lewis PWC, Bill Lewis PWC Lite, Rapala Deep Husky Jerk 12, Bandit 5/8 Walleye and the Berkley Flicker Minnow 11. Honorable mentions in this category that “sometimes” work and are worth owning would include the Reef Runner 800 Series, Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow DD 9/16, Rapala TDD11 Taildancer and the Storm Deep Jr. ThunderStick.
When talk turns to stickbaits, the list is even shorter. The “must have” baits include the Rapala Husky Jerk 14 and the Smithwick Perfect 10. Honorable mention lures would include the Rapala No. 18 Floating Minnow and Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow Floating 5/8.
All the other lures out there are either untested or unreliable. Despite the market getting flooded with new baits every year, only a handful ever stand the test of time by catching fish day in and day out.
Trolling Speed
Trolling speed has a profound impact on how walleye react to crankbaits. At slower speeds these lures naturally have a more subdued action and as trolling speed is increased, the action increases. On any given day the fish might like a slower or somewhat faster trolling speed, which puts the burden of proof on the angler. Differences in trolling speed as minor as 1/10th of a mile per hour can and often do make a huge difference on trolling success.
As a frame of reference, in cold water trolling situations trolling speeds ranging from 1.0 MPH to about 1.8 MPH tend to produce the best action. Closely monitoring these numbers and noting what’s working and what isn’t is one of those subtle angling skills that tends to come with experience.
In my boat when a lure gets a bite, I’m paying attention to the lure, the lead length, the lure color and of course the trolling speed that produced the bite. These are the important variables associated with trolling that can be replicated if the angler pays close attention to detail.
In-Line Weights
The invention of the Off Shore Tackle Pro Weight System or what many anglers simply refer to as Snap Weights literally changed the way anglers troll crankbaits. Rigging an OST Guppy weight as a Snap Weight using the OR16 Snap Weight clip and a split ring, these weights can be placed anywhere on the line.
To help create a standard that is easy to replicate, the folks at Precision Trolling Data have tested a number of popular crankbaits using what they call the 50+2 Data System. This trolling set up requires letting out a desired crankbait 50 feet behind the boat, adding a two ounce Snap Weight to the line and then playing out additional trolling lead to reach a target depth. The PTD phone app makes it easy to determine the lead length and trolling speed needed to achieve a specific target depth.
Available for both Android and iPhones, this app can be purchased at the Google Play and Apple App Store respectively.
While Snap Weights are most commonly used with shallow diving stickbaits, they can also be used with minnow divers to help increase diving depth and also to decrease the overall lead length required to reach a desired target depth. This is an important fact to understand because in the fall of the year walleye are routinely caught in much deeper water than they are at other times of year.
Hunt for Fish
Open water fish are vulnerable in that they simply can’t hide from boats equipped with modern sonar units. A modern sonar unit with the transducer mounted properly can clearly mark walleye sized targets when the boat is moving 20 to even 30 MPH! The key words here are modern sonar and proper transducer placement.
Modern sonar units feature data processors that are fast enough to process and post data even when the boat is on plane and moving quickly. The problem is when that data prints on the screen of a typical sonar unit, it’s not going to look like the classic arches that appear on a graph when a boat is moving at trolling speed. Because the fish is only in the transducer cone for a short period of time, the marks tend to appear as vertical slits on the screen.
The best way to find open water fish is to put the boat on plane and set up a grid pattern that criss crosses areas where fish are likely to be. In the fall most walleye are going to be using deeper flats or main lake basins, so these areas require a close look.
As the boat passes over fish, make note if there are lots of fish concentrated in an area or if the fish marks are widely scattered. If I’m seeing three or more marks on the screen at one time, I consider those as fish that are concentrated enough to justify setting up a trolling pass. When I’m only marking one fish on the screen at a time or only one fish occasionally, the concentration of fish isn’t typically heavy enough to produce good trolling action.
If I decide to set up and make a trolling pass, I’ll run the boat straight upwind about 1/2 of a mile and set up to troll directly downwind towards those fish. Trolling downwind affords the luxury of manipulating trolling speeds very precisely and allows the boat to be hands-free and under control.
Trolling Motors
When setting up a trolling pass, both my gasoline kicker motor and bow mounted electric motor are going to be in the water. The kicker motor provides the majority of the trust to push the boat at a desired speed, while the electric motor is used for navigation. A third piece of equipment that really helps in maintaining trolling speed is a digital throttle control for the kicker motor. My boat is equipped with an iTroll system that allows me to use a manually adjusted dial to control trolling speed very precisely.
Fish Scent Matters
One of the most common questions I get on social media these days is does adding fishing scent matter? I always answer yes, but I remind anglers that for fishing scents to work at attracting fish, the scent must first be a scent that is naturally attractive to fish. Most fishing scents are little more than anise or garlic oils that function primarily as cover scents.
Using natural fishing scent products manufactured with real baitfish is the key to seeing noteworthy results with fishing scent. Pro Cure Super Gel is the leader in this category. Pro Cure produces a host of scent formulas, but for walleye I’m primarily using the Gizzard Shad, Trophy Walleye or Emerald Shiner formulas. These are some of the most common forage species that turn up in walleye stomach contents.
Replicating What Works
The art of successful trolling is figuring out what baits and trolling speeds are working and replicating that information with other lines. It’s not rocket science, but there are a lot of details that need to be considered and addressed.
Anglers who shy away from trolling because they consider it boring or not challenging, clearly aren’t working very hard at the art of trolling. There is always something that needs to be done when you’re trolling crankbaits. Changing out lures, experimenting with lure color, tuning lures, adding fishing scent, manipulating trolling speeds, saving waypoints when fish are caught and setting up subsequent trolling passes to return to the areas where fish are concentrated are all things that are “in play” constantly when trolling.
For those anglers who are just learning the trolling game, there couldn’t be a better time frame. Not only are walleye populations at all time highs, the ability to find credible information about fishing and fishing destinations has never been better. My advice is to get out there, follow these simple rules and pay close attention to what’s working and more importantly what’s not working during each and every day on the water. You can learn about fishing on the couch, but you can’t catch them on the couch!
