Home Forums Fishing Freshwater expanding the fishing arsenal

Tough fishing yesterday, last Wednesday we went for 4 hours and got 17 walleyes from 2.5 to 7 pounds.
Yesterday went 9 hours for 4 fish, two 7's a 6 and a 4 pounder.

We fish those same depths in spring time. Usually we are at 4 to 9 feet in the month of May, by August we're fishing 95 to 120'.

My favorite setup for those depths is a 7.5 or 8' medium, or Medium/light rod. I like the Okuma Blue Dimond rods, but any trolling rod made by any of the big name companies works well.

The use of a line counter reel helps a lot when trying to repeat a successful depth.

I use either a Daiwa Sealine LC5 Linecounter Reel in 17LC5 size when fishing shallow, (We very seldom let out more than 120' of line, so you won't need a big reel)

Diawa reel

Or a Okuma Coldwater Low Pro Linecounter Reel

Okuma reel

I started using the Okuma this spring, and it's a great reel, I have used the Diawa for MANY years, and have no complaints about them, but I like the Okuma much better.

For those depths you won't need anything like line weights, or leaded line. We use different lures and let out various lengths of line (this is where the line counters shine !!) to get to the depth we want, you'll want to be near the bottom without snagging every 5 minutes.
I like using 20 pound fire line, and a 10 to 20 foot leader of Seaguar fluorocarbon for a leader. I don't use the Seaguar "Leader" line (to expensive), just regular fluorocarbon line.

The walleyes in Lake Erie we're after get pretty big, up to 10 pounds is fairly common, so the lures we use may be different than what you'll want.
We have a lot of success with Rapala #13 original floaters in Black/silver, and Storm Thundersticks in Ghost UV color..



Another great one for us this year has been a challenger lure in Nuclear Green..



Now for the planner boards, when fishing in daylight we almost always have at least 6 planner boards out.
They are definitely worth the trouble, unless where your fishing where there is a lot of boat traffic.
I use a Church board, but any of them work pretty good. I put a simple flag on mine (not the spring loaded ones that show a bite), because on Erie it can get rough with 4 to 6' waves, and the flags help you see them in bigger waves.

Church Boards

Good luck !!

Here's my 7 year old Grandson with a limit he got on Erie..