Winter Walleyes in Devils Lake, ND
by Ron Anlauf
There may be no better place right now to catch big walleyes, giant northern pike, and behemoth perch than Devils Lake in North Dakota. This sprawling freak of nature has been running red hot and is giving it up big time including plenty of dandy walleyes, northern pike that can reach the 16 to 20lb plus range, and perch that can average a pound and a half or better with some weighing in at well over two pounds. The opportunities are simply phenomenal and can be well worth packing up your gear and heading out west.
Aaron McQuoid has been guiding for twenty-two years and six years ago did exactly that, settling on the western shores of Devils Lake in a small town called Mennewauken. He and his wife Trisha have established a successful and growing resort business where Aaron spends a good deal of the hard water period finding, catching, and teaching clients how to catch fish. “My main goal is to actual ...
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Going to the Big House
Stayin at the Hilton on Ice
by Ron Anlauf
There’s no doubt most of my time on the ice is spent in a portable shelter but there are exceptions, one of them being an overnight stay in a permanent shack. A big comfortable sleeper on a hot honey hole can make for a lot of fun and is a great way to get together with friends and family and spend some real quality time. I had a chance to do just that last ...
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NEWS RELEASE
The complete line of Bert's Custom Tackle is now available in our tackle store at http://www.walleyetacklestore.com/becuta.html
We carry the following Bert's Custom Tackle Products:
* Bert's Custom Tackle Rod Holders
* Bert's Custom Tackle Track Systems
* Bert's Custom Tackle Planer Masts
* Bert's Custom Tackle Bases
* Bert's Custom Tackle Downrigger Bases
* Bert's Custom Tackle Accessories
* Bert's Custom Tackle Rocket Launchers
* Bert's Custom Tackle Gimbal Mounts
Here is a quick index page for Bert's Custom Tackle: www.walleye.com/2012quickindexes/bertsquickindexpage.html
WHO WAS BERT OF BERT’S CUSTOM TACKLE?
Captain Bert Cummings was a special breed. He loved fishing and life. He always had a story or joke that brightened up your day. Yet he was a serious fisherman, licensed Charter Boat Captain and traveled the country to fish and held national records for fish caught. His presence could light up a room. ...
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Bob Brown gets paid to fish Erie or the Keys
His peers depict him as a consummate charter boat captain; his wife a fully skilled first mate
BY MATT MARKEY
BLADE OUTDOORS EDITOR
http://www.toledoblade.com/MattMarkey/2012/01/15/Bob-Brown-gets-paid-to-fish-Erie-or-the-Keys.html
Brown runs a wide, stout, 32-foot Century fishing boat. THE BLADE/MATT MARKEY Enlarge | Photo Reprints MARATHON, Fla. -- Bob Brown, Jr., has a lengthy commute to work. Every fall, he drags his boat onto the trailer and tows it 1,500 tough, arduous highway miles from Lake Erie to the Florida Keys, not very far from Cuba.
Brown despises the drive, but he still adores his job.
"I get to fish all year, in two of the best fishing grounds in the world, so I'm not complaining at all. It's just the 'getting there' part I'm not crazy about," Brown said recently after a successful outing fishing the reefs, and the shipwrecks near the Keys.
He spends May through September as a charter fishing operator in the w ...
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First Ice 2012
by Dennis Foster
First ice is nearly here-and that can mean only one thing…ice fishing! The first forays onto hardwater, in my eyes anyway; stirs up something deep in the soul akin to a religious experience. There is a direct correlation, as after all, we as mere mortals are indeed walking on water. Not God-just God like, as we once again gingerly place our feet onto the beautiful playing field the creator has so generously laid before us in full anticipation of what is to surely come.
Maybe a little too introspective there, but the sentiment is genuine, nonetheless. I am not alone in this passion (perhaps addiction) to the sport, as there is an ever growing legion of those who consider ice fishing not just another outdoor endeavor, but rather the most important of all outdoor activities. This can be witnessed in the fact that ice fishing is ...
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3-D Walleyes by
Ted Takasaki & Scott Richardson
It would be easy for anglers to fall victim to the notion that the watery world below is two-dimensional. The water's surface is flat. Lake and river maps are flat. Your sonar screen is flat. But down below, the bottom consists of peaks and valleys just like the dry world above.
Changes in bottom contours are called structure and understanding how structure affects fish behavior is the key to angling success. The trick is to train our minds to translate two-dimensional images from a map, your sonar screen, or GPS into mental images with three dimensions. A technique called visualization can help you with this task.
Many professional athletes have used visualization within their respective sports. When Tiger Woods lines up a putt, he “sees” himself stroki ...
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Icing Eyes On Big Reservoirs
by Rick Olson
Reservoirs like Oahe, Sakakawea, and Fort Peck, of the Missouri Reservoir System, are absolutely loaded with walleyes, and can offer some fantastic ice fishing opportunities. That's the good news. The bad news is the fact that they are massive in size, and there are so many places for them to hide. However, anglers armed with a little understanding of seasonal migrations, and the right gear, can get in on the very best the hard water season has to offer.
The most important key to catching big reservoir walleyes is, with out a doubt, finding them. If you can find them, you will catch them. With so much water, and miles and miles of potential fish holding areas; How do you decide where to start? Fortunately for ice fisherman, it's not all that difficult.
During much of the summer and into the fall, big reservoir walleyes can be found using deep ...
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The Tuition of Cameras
by Jason Mitchell
The education we get from being able to watch our presentation and watching how fish respond is invaluable. Having the mental picture of how the presentation or lure looks in the water, how the fish approach the lure and what actions caused particular reactions from the fish sets some anglers apart. Anglers who have this education have a huge advantage. There are several ways to get this education. When I was a kid, I would lay on the ice with my jacket pulled over my head so I could look down the hole. I would lie on the ice mesmerized until I was so wet and cold that my body started to have a tingly burning sensation.
On some water, the visibility is such where anglers can look down the hole and watch fish, watch the presentation. Spear houses, dark houses and even portable Fish Tr ...
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Top Tactics for Early Fall Walleyes
by Rick Olson
Somewhere between the late summer and fall period is September, and the action can range from phenomenal to awful. The key to cashing in on the phenomenal and avoiding the awful is understanding the conditions and recognizing a good opportunity (or the near impossible) when you see it.
Depending on the existing conditions early September can produce some decent catches and is a good time to be on the water. Typically you can still find walleyes sticking to deeper summer patterns, but on certain bodies of water there is also a move to shallow water and is where you can expect to find the largest number of active fish.
The move to shallow water will depend on how much good shallow water cover is available and includes shallow weed choked bays or tributaries, rocky bars and reefs, as well as larger weed flats. The big attracti ...
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Look Before You Leap
by Dennis Foster
… ..or perhaps as better adapted to fishing…find before your fish.
This may sound oversimplified and about as basic as it gets, but as with anything, the basics are always the most important, although most overlooked aspect of any endeavor.
Angling where there are at least a few fish to tempt is about as fundamental as it gets. But, it is surprisingly easy to have some strong preconceived notions about where the fish should be and to begin fishing for them even though they may or may not even be present. This applies to traditional seasonal patterns all the way to the “they were there yesterday” situations. I for one fall into this category more often than I care to admit and get far too wrapped up in trying to outsmart the fish, rather than actually locating numbers of them first. No matter how good ...
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