Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Trolling Bottom Bouncers

I’m relatively new to walleye fishing, having only been out a half dozen times trying to catch them in the Columbia River system. I’ve had most of my success with jigs and drifting with bait. However, I just can’t seem to catch any while trolling, especially with bottom bouncers and spinners. I’ve tried anywhere from 0.5 to 1 mph using smile blades and slow death hooks. Ive tried from 10 to 50 feet of water. All sorts of colors, and various lengths of worm and scents. I fished from 0530 to 1300 on Banks Lake in E. WA without a single bite from something other than a bass. Just as I said “[bleep] this!” We got a 25 inch walleye. Then a smaller 20 incher. Then, not another bite. Caught a few more bass and called it a defeat. I probably could have caught a few with jigs, but I really wanted to figure out trolling. Any pointers?

Have you tried minnows or leeches?

In my state, rules on using bait are kind of strict. You can only use leeches if the lake has leeches and you capture them from that lake. You can’t use minnows or other live fish as bait. Its rare to find a tackle shop that sells leeches.

I've gotten caught in the rocks more with bottom bouncers than otherwise.

Worms are the only live bait allowed in Utah, too. Walleye can just be weird at times. If they aren't hitting on bottom, they may be suspended. When they do that, they won't do down to hit a lure, but they will hit one at their depth or above them. Recently, at one of our local reservoirs, the walleye were all at six feet in 12 feet of water. None on the bottom. Crankbaits trolled or cast would get hits but not bottom bouncers. Next day, after a wind storm, they were back hitting bouncers and worms.

If allowed, try casting a diving crank or lipless crank around the boat while you drift a bottom bouncer. Or put out a slip float rig with a jig and worm set for about half the water depth.

My BIL kills them with bouncers and slow deaths in SD. He doesn’t run a smiley blade or beads, nothing but a hook and a worm. I think I remember him saying he sets his trolling motor to run a little under .5 mph.

He likes to fish right off weed edges in 4 to 10 feet of water. And I’m talking right on the weeds, <2ft from the vegetation.

My boat doesn’t have a trolling motor but I do well drifting in light winds with worms and bouncers. I use the gas motor to position myself upwind of rock piles or ledges and let the wind do the rest. I find that fishing one rod held in my hand results in more hookups than using the rod holders. That way when you feel a bite you can feed him some slack before gently setting the hook when you feel him gulp it down.

Are you sure that you are trolling in productive water? 90% of the lake has only 10% of the fish and 10% of the lake has 90% of the fish. We trolled spinner and worm or sucker strips or crank baits to find fish, but once we found them we worked over those areas hard with jigs. We had one 1/2 mile stretch up in Canada where nearly all of our 25" and over fish came out of. They aren't always where you think they are either. Back when I was scuba diving I went looking for walleyes out in the 15 and deeper water. Not finding any I went into shallow water to see some pan fish and found the walleyes in less than 5' of water backed in like buses under logs with just their heads out of the direct sunlight.

I’m relatively sure we are in good water because I am able to switch tactics and catch fish. I just want to dial in the bottom bouncer method so I can get less experienced people on fish. I’m not taking another 1/2 oz jig to the face!

Bottom bouncers? Lots to tell, feel free to ask questions. I've only used them successfully for 35 years.

Hints: Generally speaking one oz per 10' of water. More weight necessary as speeds increase. Keep them tight to the boat, lines at a 45 degree angle. If you drag them, you defeat the purpose. I generally use 1-1/2oz bouncers to about 30' but most people are not as experienced with them as I am. If you're trolling, have the people in the front use heavier and the people in the back lighter, helps with tangles.

I catch most of my fish on a bare hook and half a crawler. No need ever to use the whole worm. Pinch it in half and put it on there, use the other half when you rebait. Slow death is great. 3-4' is good but 2' or 6' can be game changing. Two and three hook harnesses are unnecessary and just provide more snags and tangles.

Sometimes a bead, sometimes a blade. Experiment that day, each day, with blades, beads and snell length. More wind and waves generally = bigger flashier blades but not always. Flatter water = smaller or no blade at all. Lately I've used painted bouncers with success, I think they make a difference over plain lead.

From this, I’m already picking up on some mistakes I made. The lake I was on had no wind with visibility down to 25 feet. We used 2oz and 3oz bouncers down to 50 feet. I don’t think we were dragging, just a tick on the bottom ever few seconds. I should have gone with something more subtle or deconstructed some of the rigs to make then less bulky/flashy.

50' is crazy deep to be using bouncers or anything else really. If they're down that deep, then you're looking at a spot on the spot kind of bite and should be thinking jigging raps as a vertical presentation. Bouncers are a horizontal type of presentation, not as much as trolling cranks is but still a method to cover water. Fish at 50' aren't likely moving around such that bouncers would be effective. That's a jigging kind of bite calling for a vertical presentation most likely.

Bottom bouncers can really be a pain if depth and bottom structure vary widely. Trying to maintain contact with the bottom under those circumstances will either have you lose contact or snag up between rocks when you attempt to let out line and the bouncer lies down, With any length of line behind the bouncer, bringing the fish to net or boat gets interesting.

That's right, no style of fishing is set it and forget it.

Snells of up to 6' are easily managed, I use 7' baitcasting rods for my bouncers. Then I tell the reeler to "back up" and get between him/her and the fish to net it.

This lake is kind of odd in that the banks are steep all around the lake. The water will go from 0 to 30 feet deep within 15 feet of shore. Real popular with the cliff jumpers. There is a shelf at 30 feet deep that creates flats that go for miles. Then, it drops to 50 to 75 feet deep in the old river channel. Besides points, it’s really featureless and has very little vegetation. Really clear water. We only got bites in the transition from 30 to 50 feet. We were constantly adjusting depth to keep contact with the bottom and to prevent dragging. Maybe it just wasn’t a good day to learn that technique.

We use the same netting technique with salmon when trolling with downriggers or using divers. We use trolling rods that are 9 to 10 feet and the guy on the reel is fighting from between the consoles and I’m netting from the stern.

For walleye, I’ve been using 7’6” to 8’0” rods to troll.

Your lake screams out crank baits and snap weights or lead core line to me. techniques like they use at LOW and Green Bay and Erie.

I halfway thought about using downriggers.

They use them successfully on LOW trolling 30' flats. Might want to watch some you tubes on it.

I’ll check it out, thanks!

I use home made snap wieghts allowing easy depth changes and speed changes. Not too good over rocky bottoms until you have a track laid down and and can follow it closely. Best for suspended fish.

Just keep trying
its not a "magic bait rig "
have to be in the right place
keep moving up and down the water column until you contact fish
then just repeat what worked that day

I think about pulling spinners at some point during every day. My favorite outdoor entertainment, probably. Nothing I love better than buying a couple dozen crawlers, hitting a lake and setting my lines just off bottom. Leeches when it gets hot, minnows when it cools. Hey fishy, wanna come over for supper? Our last trip after all the cleaning stations were closed. Only thing I'm gonna change next year is to do it more often.

Where do you fish at?

As close to Webster, SD as I can get. That picture was taken at the state park on Kampeska that's just off highway 212.

I grew up fishing walleye in the mid west and Dakotas. I now fish Washington, Montana for walleyes. The walleyes seem to run a lot deeper in Washington( banks lake, Roosevelt lake, pot holes, Columbia river) and fishing bottom bouncers 40 to 60 feet not uncommon. For some reason they just hold deeper out here.

I like nigh crawled on slow death or a floating jig head. Lindy makes them. I find going small and subtle , no blades, seems to work better as times. The walleyes are just different out here.

In the spring pulling small crank baits 200 to 250 feet behind boat long soft rods on Columbia River in pre spawn areas ( humps) at night pick up the biggest walleyes. Caught up to 13 lbs. A buddy has caught a few over 15 lbs. Claims one around 18 lbs (pics) Yes I saw them in his freezer. . Walleyes are considered an invasive species and they want them all removed from river system The next world record will come out of Columbia. secret is getting out. Not a numbers fishery but they get very big

Jigging blade baits works well too in early season in deep water.

nice!

I have watched a ton of Washington walleye fishing videos since I first read this thread. The ones I have watched, they talk about fishing the shallow ends of reservoirs and fishing 20-30' of water, and honestly, if anyone watched a show from there and a video of me fishing the Missouri river, the biggest difference would be that I am a very handsome man as far as I know, because the background scenery is basically identical. Every channel uses more Macks blades than I do, by a huge margin. I have some Macks products but they are kind of expensive and they don't seem to produce on the same level as Indiana or Colorado blades. I haven't tried those Northland butterfly blades, I'm sticking with what works for now. The buddy of a buddy loves the macks spin drift products. I've only fished with him a couple times. His skill level has something to do with the catch rate of the Macks he uses, i.e., he can't fish to save his life. I make some spinners from scratch, especially when I use a solid color like chartreuse, where the entire thing costs less than a dollar, hook and all. Price isn't the main thing but a Macks spin drift rig is over 4 bucks. On a 2 day trip to the Missouri river, I'd rather lose $10 in tackle than $40. Even that isn't the end of the world but I don't want to have to get an insurance rider for my tackle bag. I fish out of 5-6 boats every year, I have a small bag for spinners that goes inside my Cabela's tackle bag from years ago so I can quickly transport enough tackle without too much footprint. I can fit my tackle and my lunch into my bag. I use a lot of store bought spinners too, mostly JB Lures, but in heavily northern infested waters I retie everything onto 20# Seaguar.

If the fish are that deep its likely because the bait is that deep. Tough to fish bouncers at that depth IMO.

I tie my own stuff too, this time of year when I think of it anyway. I mostly fish out of my own boat though. There were some guys out in boats last night, it was a beautiful evening. Most fishermen are on the ice today though. I"m going pheasant hunting. The fish will wait.

Im going out this week in the Columbia River Fish are being taken 50 to 60 feet deep on jigs tipped with crawlers and minnows.

Most of the walleye I fish for would have to swim a ways to find 20' of water. Many of those miles would be over land.

loved doing it when I lived in Minnesota
up on Leech we could outfish the guys using jigs

try a floating rapala on about a 6-8 leader behind your bouncer