Very Interesting

Hey all, I spent 5am till 5pm yesterday, helping a buddy pre-fish for a
walleye tournament on Lake Winnebago. I showed him a bunch of spots
where I had been catching walleyes using tubes, and spider grubs. So we
went to jig those spots, He was throwing a jig and live nightcrawler,
and I was throwing a tube. He was at the front of the boat, hitting
most of the jigging spots first, and caught a few walleye, but no
smallies. I almost had a limit of smallies and one nice walleye
following behind the live nightcrawler with a tube. It kind of blew
both of us away that the smallies could be so keyed in on crayfish that
they wouldn't take a crawler. I know I could analyze it further, and
say that our retrieve was different, or they didn't like the orange jig
head he was using, or the half of crawler he was using didn't catch
their eye. Whatever it was, it was interesting to see it happen.

Also, I trolled for the first time ever in my life yesterday. I always
pictured it being boring and repetitive, but i can tell you this, I was
more busy trolling than I have ever been casting in my life. Especially
fishing the edges of reefs where depths go from 12', to 6' to 8' , to 3'
.. Adjusting your depths (we were each using only 2 rods, I couldn't
imagine 3 rods a piece), removing weeds , fighting the wind, reading the
graph to stay on a line (how did they ever troll effectively without
GPS??????) , and then of course there was the landing of countless
species of fish that love crankbaits other than walleye, along with a
few walleye :-).

Chris

Chris, congratulations on screwing up the courage to tell us about your
problem. That took guts. Admitting you fish for walleye is the first step to
recovery. Even when you've gone through the entire 12-step Walleye Fisherman
recovery program, though, you'll never get to the point where you can
confidently say "I'm cured," so be careful of the company you keep. Running
with walleye fishermen has been the ruin of many a good bassman.

Three warning signs or walleyeism:

1. You look at a Lund and say to yourself, "By golly, dat's one good lookin'
boat dere."

2. You're delighted to discover the crumpled pouch of black, plastic leeches
in your tackle locker. Three years ago at the winter tackle show, you picked
up a free sample and then promptly forgot about it because, hey... we're
fishing for bass here.

3. You instinctively belly-lift the largemouth you've brought alongside your
boat instead of lipping it.

Good luck.

Joe


"Chris Rennert" wrote in message
.. .
Hey all, I spent 5am till 5pm yesterday, helping a buddy pre-fish for a
walleye tournament on Lake Winnebago. I showed him a bunch of spots
where I had been catching walleyes using tubes, and spider grubs. So we
went to jig those spots, He was throwing a jig and live nightcrawler,
and I was throwing a tube. He was at the front of the boat, hitting
most of the jigging spots first, and caught a few walleye, but no
smallies. I almost had a limit of smallies and one nice walleye
following behind the live nightcrawler with a tube. It kind of blew
both of us away that the smallies could be so keyed in on crayfish that
they wouldn't take a crawler. I know I could analyze it further, and
say that our retrieve was different, or they didn't like the orange jig
head he was using, or the half of crawler he was using didn't catch
their eye. Whatever it was, it was interesting to see it happen.

Also, I trolled for the first time ever in my life yesterday. I always
pictured it being boring and repetitive, but i can tell you this, I was
more busy trolling than I have ever been casting in my life. Especially
fishing the edges of reefs where depths go from 12', to 6' to 8' , to 3'
.. Adjusting your depths (we were each using only 2 rods, I couldn't
imagine 3 rods a piece), removing weeds , fighting the wind, reading the
graph to stay on a line (how did they ever troll effectively without
GPS??????) , and then of course there was the landing of countless
species of fish that love crankbaits other than walleye, along with a
few walleye :-).

Chris

I only went walleye fishing once in my life...but the memories are
lasting!

We were doing an airshow in Bimiji, MN., and the locals took us walleye
fishing. I can safely say it was one of the most memorable fishing days
of my life...that includes the rest of the day, when they fried up the
catch at a park by the lake. A group of very pretty blonde ladies
brought tons of side dishes, and a band played well into the wee hours
of the night...and the pretty blonde ladies taught us some new dances!

I could probably get hooked on that!

JK

Joe Haubenreich wrote:
Chris, congratulations on screwing up the courage to tell us about your
problem. That took guts. Admitting you fish for walleye is the first step to
recovery. Even when you've gone through the entire 12-step Walleye Fisherman
recovery program, though, you'll never get to the point where you can
confidently say "I'm cured," so be careful of the company you keep. Running
with walleye fishermen has been the ruin of many a good bassman.

Three warning signs or walleyeism:

1. You look at a Lund and say to yourself, "By golly, dat's one good lookin'
boat dere."

2. You're delighted to discover the crumpled pouch of black, plastic leeches
in your tackle locker. Three years ago at the winter tackle show, you picked
up a free sample and then promptly forgot about it because, hey... we're
fishing for bass here.

3. You instinctively belly-lift the largemouth you've brought alongside your
boat instead of lipping it.

Good luck.

Joe


You forgot looking at 3 foot seas in the morning and calling it a "nice
walleye chop on the water'.

Hahahaha, thanks guys :-D
Chris Rennert wrote:
Hey all, I spent 5am till 5pm yesterday, helping a buddy pre-fish for a
walleye tournament on Lake Winnebago. I showed him a bunch of spots
where I had been catching walleyes using tubes, and spider grubs. So we
went to jig those spots, He was throwing a jig and live nightcrawler,
and I was throwing a tube. He was at the front of the boat, hitting
most of the jigging spots first, and caught a few walleye, but no
smallies. I almost had a limit of smallies and one nice walleye
following behind the live nightcrawler with a tube. It kind of blew
both of us away that the smallies could be so keyed in on crayfish that
they wouldn't take a crawler. I know I could analyze it further, and
say that our retrieve was different, or they didn't like the orange jig
head he was using, or the half of crawler he was using didn't catch
their eye. Whatever it was, it was interesting to see it happen.

Also, I trolled for the first time ever in my life yesterday. I always
pictured it being boring and repetitive, but i can tell you this, I was
more busy trolling than I have ever been casting in my life. Especially
fishing the edges of reefs where depths go from 12', to 6' to 8' , to 3'
. Adjusting your depths (we were each using only 2 rods, I couldn't
imagine 3 rods a piece), removing weeds , fighting the wind, reading the
graph to stay on a line (how did they ever troll effectively without
GPS??????) , and then of course there was the landing of countless
species of fish that love crankbaits other than walleye, along with a
few walleye :-).

Chris