2 For The Night

Have those night time walleye on the brain lately. Been a slow start fishing so at home tying tonight. Will be at the high school football game (1st game of playoffs) on Friday night, but Saturday night is open to fish. Whipped up a couple tonight. Both measure over 4" and are tied full to give them bulk and weight to cast. Seems like everything but the kitchen sink in these guys. Cotton batting, rabbit zonkers, flash, bucktail, kiptail and chenille. 

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Good luck, let us know how those work - you'll prob be throwing your underspins too.

Not enuf wallys to target here, but the my last few dark nite accidents were on thumper tails light(weight) and slow.

Hopefully throwing some of these and the underspins tonight. Waiting to see if the daily satellite photo of Erie is clear or cloudy before i decide where i'm going. We have had several inches of rain over the last couple days and Erie might be a muddy mess. If it is muddy, might just stick to a small reservoir closer to home.

Nice ties! Nothing I would want to swim near a "hungry" canal embankment, but nice ties!

Got some good ones this year

Nice ties!

Thanks all. I ended up fishing a lake close to home rather than making the drive up to Erie. Satellite picture was showing muddy shore line just about everywhere up there. Didn't do any better staying close and fishing my clear water reservoir, only one largemouth for the evening. Probably get out again this week to a different local lake and then gonna just bite the bullet and drive North to Erie no matter what (barring 5'+ waves) on Saturday night. Down to only 2 bags of walleye fillets in my freezer.

Bucho, funny thing is, the big hair jigs seem to work the best for me hopping them off the bottom right down in the rip-rap. I have my local lake figure out pretty well in most spots where i can lift and drop them on the bottom of the main lake basin and then pick up my speed once they start hitting the nasty rocks. Most bites i get are usually right when i start bumping the rocks so i try to keep it close to them. End up loosing a few jigs some days.

Playing around a little more tonight. These 2 will go in the box 'as is' so I can add on either a large 5" Kalin's lunker grub or a swimbait. The white thread is actually a Clark's & Coats poly thread that glows. This stuff really glows for a while too. I wrapped it down the arm of the spinner and coated it with Sally Hard as Nails. Should be just a subtle hint of glow to get some attention along with a plastic twister tail or boot tail swimbait. 

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AF, those jigs look Sweet! ALL of them! I can just see that Rainbow Trout version getting hammered anywhere there's big Bass with Trout. Maybe Pike as well!

Hookup, that's a nice Walleye!

I know the DNR stocks some Walleye into the river here where I live. Every year I hear about some folks catching a few out of a local lake that's connected to that river, but it seems to be hit or miss.

Buddy of mine got more than one c-class smallmouth with one of those spinner jigs & a small swim bait this year

I may have to 'steal' that idea since I have a ton of safety pin style wire bends around somewheres

What are you tipping the jigs with?

AllenOK - If there is a spillway below the lake, you might try there. They concentrate and push up river in the fall. Guys here in OH do very well in the fall fishing the spillways. Been seeing some walleye with huge guts packed full of shad posted on a couple sites i watch.

hookup - I've never really tried these underspins with plastics, but plan to tonight. These are something kind of new to me. Having a hard time finding bigger ponyhead/horsehead spinners (Road Runners) that are actually in stock. Plan is to throw on a big twister grub or a swimbait. The clip on spinners go on the hook shank pretty easily. These are 3/16 heads with big hooks, so just clipping off the very last bend of the spinner..... the last little hook of wire that closes the clip. Leaving the bigger bend intact (where the hook eye would sit) so i can really tighten down the thread wraps and hopefully keep the wire from spinning around the shank. I also put one extra little bend in the wire by the line tie so it forced the spinner out past the jig head just a little more. I glued everything down and coated with nail polish but who knows if they will hold up.

Plan is to throw on a big twister grub or a swimbait.

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That'll work

I glued everything down and coated with nail polish but who knows if they will hold up.

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Nothing like having a fish tear the crap out of your creations

TOO MUCH TORQUE!  I got out for a little while last night and tried one of the spinners with a swimbait body.  The whole package was laying flat on its side or even rolling at times when i was reeling too fast.  I think the big Colorado blades were the reason, but i didn't have any other blades with me to try and change them out.  An Indy or Willow blade would probably be better..... or just downsizing the Colorado blade a couple numbers.  I also had a couple cast that the line got fouled up around the spinner arm.

Windy, cold & nasty night.  Had one huge bump that about took the pole out of my hand but was not able to hook up with it.  Not a single bite for the rest of the evening.  Woke up to snow on the ground this AM.  I've had a disappointing late season run so far....... big fat ZERO walleye so far.

"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all". Can only get better, weather and luck permitting. Yup, big chill a comin'.

My last time out at the "Spillway" mid day few days ago only got one bite, but it was a chunk 21-22" wally. LUCK !

Which jig got bit ?

Hawnjigs said:

............ Which jig got bit ?

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Actually, it was on none of the jigs shown above.  Threw one of the spinners for a while until i got frustrated.  Switched that rod to the purple jig above and got no sniffs.  Started trying all kinds of stuff then....... The big hit came on one of my bigger 5" swimbaits.  Did a 3 second countdown and just started slow reeling.

Chilly here this morning here with a wind chill of 12 degrees. Snowed last night. At least it's sunny. Got a Fitbit a few months ago and have been walking everyday. Actually under 200 lbs. now. Going to get out walking shortly, to chilly to stand and fish. I'm sure you will locate some eyes soon.

Metal & foil flashes.  Hair & fur jiggles.   Action tail softies vibrate.   All but one of my wallys(20+") this year have bitten softies, mostly boot tail Power Baits.

Do your most effective plastics have glitter shine or pearl shimmer?  My wally faves incorporate various shades of pearl.

Edit:  dunno if this would help at nite, but today tested a finesse size trout BooHU 1/11 oz. #2 hook pinned with a cut to 1-1/2" from 2" Power Bait Ripple Shad for warm water species and it exceeded expectations.  Observing others sharing the spot think I got bit more often and landed the biggest wally, a chunk 23" + a 20" & a few smaller.  Since the prevalent attitude here appears to be big baits = big fish kinda surprised that the diminutive BooHU outfished whatever else was being thrown, including bait.  Maybe at this high pressure popular spot the wallys needed to see something fresh?  This was daytime, but I wonder if downsizing might work at nite too?

Had one huge bump that about took the pole out of my hand but was not able to hook up with it.

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That's why they call it fish'n and not catch'n

Keep getting out. No such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.

For eyes I've always had luck w/ a big white grub or swim bait.

Downsizing always works for finicky fish

I'm definitely trying some of JJ's fishbites this winter

Usually i just have to put in the time and i will eventually stumble on top of a few.  After so many casts....... i swim a bait past a hungry walleye.  This year i am just not even seeing them cruising by the normal spots i would catch them.  Not sure if my timing is off or if there is something else going on.  I will keep trying, just going to keep getting harder to convince my wife that i am actually fishing from 8:00 to 11:00 on a weeknight and not sitting at a bar playing pool.  haha

Most of the baits i use are large.  Big hair jigs, 4"-5" swimbaits, 5" twisters, 4"-6" stick crankbaits.  In previous years, the nights when i get walleye to follow stuff but they won't bite i usually switch to the 5" twister grubs and just keep putting it in front of the fish.  If all else fails, the twisters usually get bit.  They are a little more subtle of action and smaller profile over all.  I do have some 3" and 4" twisters grubs in my box. Just might have to give them a try.

Sometimes they don't want a meal; just a snack

Kinda like walking past a bowl of potato chips - you just gotta grab some