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Fishing the Great Lakes in
April
by Mark Martin
Before the walleye season starts on most inland
waters,
the options are anything but in abundance. But the abundance of
the only option, the only game in town, is one of sheer
plenitude. We're talking about the Great Lakes, from Michigan to
Erie and beyond, where the waters around the river mouths are
with few exceptions open year-round.
Which is why there's no time like the present to
hit the couple of miles around the rivers and the reefs and
adjacent depths where walleyes congregate in April. When
covering water is at a premium and baitfish are in Great Lakes
abundance, which is the rule, not the exception, trolling is the
ticket not only to put a bait in front of more predators but to
stand out from the crowd of smelt, alewives and gizzard shad.
This is where the big ones live, often suspended over open
water, feeding both day and night. For numbers, therešs always
the opportunity to hit the reefs with jigs and mop up on smaller
males. Seems to me the options are surprisingly varied for time
when, for all intents and purposes, nothing else is doing. Well,
then again, not in my books
Daytime Doings
In my early years, fishing with my grandfather and father around
the Muskegon Lake river mouth, in Michigan, we caught monster
walleyes trolling near the beach and around the pier heads. The
pattern still holds true, but since then I've found even greater
numbers within a two-mile radius of the river mouth. So it is
from the Muskegon to Erie's Maumee.
During the day, I start looking with electronics
for bait and trolling for suspended fish that may be down 10 to
25 feet. Most of the time you'll see the bait, but unless the
walleyes are highly concentrated, you'll seldom see
fish. Still, I put my lines out so my crankbaits are running
atop the schools of bait, since predators such as walleyes tend
to look up, not down, when pursuing prey. When I spot a blob of
bait on my Lowrance unit, which also has GPS
capabilities, I punch in a waypoint or an icon for future
reference.
As I'm trolling I'll often identify four or five key schools
of bait and then troll between them. Sometimes only one or two
of the schools are holding walleyes. You have to cover water
to find out.
Speed control and the proper lures are key to connecting. I
troll with my Mercury 15-horsepower
four-stroke kicker, which will push my big Lund
2025 at a slow crawl. My favorite speed during the daytime is
about 1.5 mph. At this pace, I get solid action out of
Rapala - Deep Husky Jerks, slim minnow baits that
achieve excellent depth and have a light wobble that triggers
fish in cold water. If I can't get the suspended fish going,
or if I mark some big arcs near bottom, I'll switch over to
leadcore to get the cranks within a foot or two of bottom. But
you have to watch the locator and pay close attention to the
depth.
The beauty of leadcore is that if the bottom rises, you
simply speed up and the line lifts above the hump or ledge.
When you get past it, count to 30 and then slow down. Leadcore
will sink back into the walleye's range.
On Erie, principles stay the same with bait and speed
control, but I'll
often troll the edges of reefs where the big females suspend.
Planer boards are incredibly important to spread lines to the
side, where fish scoot out when the boat goes over them. The
walleyes simply move right into the path of the lures.
For running small cranks, check out Church Tackle's
TX-6, about the size of a deck of playing cards. Boost up to
the more sizable TX-12's with deeper, harder-diving crankbaits.
In serious wind, the TX-24, with its accompanying ballast,
rides the waves no problem. In the popular areas of Erie off
Niagara Reef or the Besse Davis Power Plant, I find most fish
in the top 15 feet of the water column over 30-plus feet of
water, which I reach with less than 50 feet of line behind the
Church boards.
Sometimes it's best to go especially slow, right around 1.0
mph. Such was the case when I took third in the 1999
In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail event out of Port
Clinton. And while April's cold waters might be a little early
for a crankbait with more wobble such as the Rapala
Tail Dancer, the new balsa lures provide more a touch more
side-to-side movement to set your offering apart from the
hordes of baitfish.
While the pinnacles of the reefs aren t the place to be for
big fish, they're the deal for hordes of males that congregate
there, waiting for the hens to move in. Again, keep an eye on
your electronics, and when you see fish, get a jig down into
them.
Almost anything goes if it's a leadhead with a minnow, but
I side with Northland Fire-Balls or Whistler
jigs, with their propellers, for added flash and hum. A little
trick around a lot of small, aggressive walleyes is to put two
minnows on the hookthe first one right side up, the second
one upside down. This way, if one walleye filches your minnow,
therešs another on the hook in case the same fish comes back
or another one moves in. The best depths I've found are from
eight to 15 feet. After Hours
At night, the waters come alive with even more monsters, which
feed under the cover of darkness. The same trolling techniques
are the way to go, the prime technique to move from one baitfish
pod to another, but it's important to make some adjustments. The
reason: The fish do, too.
In darkness, walleyes tend to move higher in the
water column, up into the top 10 feet. Now is the time to switch
from the gas kicker to a powerful trolling motor that has
quality batteries and will ease along at 1.0 mph. My
Motor Guide 109-pound thrust bowmount saps little juice
from dependable Trojan batteries. Now I can troll all night long
with plenty of power. When I have tried trolling with the gas
motor, I've caught fish the first few passes and had them turn
off because of the noise. With the electric, I keep catching
them. To work up higher toward the surface, I switch to No. 13
Original Rapalas on 20-pound Berkley FireLine. Three No. 7 split
shots a few feet above it will get you down to 12 or 13 feet
with 120 feet of line out. Remove a split shot or let out less
line to move higher. I very seldom use planer boards at night,
but if you must, keep small boards close to the boat, just
beyond your other rods, to prevent congestion and bottlenecks
with other trollers. Another reason to go without boards is the
ability to pump the Rapala forward and drop it
back,a key trigger
Slowly ease he rod forward about 18 inches and drop it back on
a tight line. I do this about 20 or 30 times a minute. Keep it
gentle, otherwise you'll pull the lure away from too many
walleyes, which miss when the bait has too much erratic
action.
April is indeed a month of feast or famine.
While it's feast on the big
water, where seasons are open and walleyes prowling and nailing
crankbaits, it's famine on inland systems where most species are
out of season. In other words, everything's doing on the Great
Lakes. Now is the time to make your move. |
