St.Lawrence Walleyes?

[Fat Tommy]

I've never actually went walleye fishing. I caught 2 by accident in the Erie Canal a few years back on night crawlers and a minnow. I'm going to the isles and was wondering what works up there? My dad and alot of guys I talk to always say they try to catch them but rarely succeed. I know people catch them though cause I've heard that too. They taste dang good to boot.

Any tips on where to go, tackle, etc would be greatly appreciated.

[kiowalleye]

Go to Dark Island(Singer Castle) on the downstream side and fish the wreck there. I do really well there in the evenings. There is some old clorox bottles anchored to the wreck that the diving outfits use to locate it. Use heddon sonars or any other heavy vertical jig. If they are there they will bite. Oh by the way you want to launch at goose bay.

Let me know how you do. If the walleyes wont bite the bass sure will.

[Fat Tommy]

chances are ill be launching somewhere near cedar point state park. I might be buying a 12' aluminum john boat with a decent outboard. If I don't ill definitely be renting. I'm not to familiar with using jigs but I'll give it a shot. What about simple jig heads tipped with small shiners or night crawlers?

[bosco]

Jigging is a Walleye fisherman's bread and butter.

[Grady95]

Up there, walleyes like worms down near the bottom. Go ahead and use a jig to get them there. If you are fishing in the wind and the boat is drifting, if you have a bottom bouncer, that will help keep the bait in the strike zone. Go ask the guys in the bait shops to give you a suggestion for a good place to start. Last hour of the day and into the early evening, walleyes start to turn on and feed a lot more agressively. Make sure you are out on the water working at this time if you want to improve your odds.

Walleyes can be tough fish to catch at times, but these are at least some basic ideas you can start trying for them with. I hear the bass fishing up there has been pretty good also, so maybe you can do that during the day, and then switch over to walleyes at evening.

Good Luck.

[Fat Tommy]

Actually, my primary focus up there is going to be Pike. Behind that is walleye, big channel cats, and some carp. I'm not much of a bass fisherman but I'll probably try catching a few smallies. I'm confident in catching most species of fish, I've just always had trouble with eyes, thanks for the tips guys.

[Fat Tommy]

I bought a 16 ft trihull open bow glasstron the other day. 85hp evenrude outboard, rod holders, fish finder, basically all the stuff I will need minus bait and tackle. What sort of depth should I be working? I'm also unfamiliar with alot of the bottom fishing setups, such as bottom bouncers and the slip sinker rig(with bead) used for bottom fishing smallies. Does anyone know of websites that show you how to set these along with other things up? Where ever I've ever gone fishing I usually just tie on a simple hook with splitshots and it works, but you can't always be lucky as all fishermen know so any help would be great, obviously on top of what you've already given me.

[GAMBLER]

I used to fish the Cedar Point area a lot when I was a teenager (10-12 years ago). Get a Canadian license and fish the back side of Wolf Island. We used to go around across right across the river from Cedar Point camp grounds. We trolled outside the weedlines with Thunderstick Jr's in 18 - 25 fow. We would get largemouth, smallmouth, walleyes and northerns. We did see a couple of muskies caught over the years. Good luck!

[Fat Tommy]

how far are the canadian waters from cedar point?

[bosco]

Cut off a length of mono, maybe 2 foot long, to make a leader. Instead of using a hook, tie a floating jig head to one end of the leader (favorite color chartreause). Then forget the split shot and instead feed the other end of the leader through a slip sinker or more properly a "walking sinker" and then tie a small barrel swivel to that same end after you feed it through (but not so small a swivel that it can get through the eye of the sinker). Then simply tie your main line to the left-over eye of the barrel swivel and.....presto....you've got a bottom walking, floating slip rig. Hook a leech, minnow, or (my favorite) a fat crawler with a shot of air in it's collar (using a worm blower) and send er down. The sinker will keep contact with the bottom while the floating jig head and inflated crawler will keep your bait a couple foot OFF the bottom and generally in the strike zone of walleyes (who tend to hug bottom when not suspended and chasing schools of baitfish in the open water like on Erie or Henderson Harbor or places like that). Keep your bail open with an index finger on the line. Walleyes are often a very subtle strike. Sometimes all you feel is a tick and many are lost by rookies who don't know they've even had a strike. Anyways, bail open, you get a strike, let your finger go and you can relax a couple moments and let it take some line (that's the reason for the slip rig) and the fish won't detect a thing. Until you stick it. On real calm days I'll let my line float slack on the water. When all of a sudden the line starts moving away from you, there's no mistaking it. It aint weeds or a snag. Only problem, it sucks when you get into panfish that keep leaving you with half worms and bass INHALE these things sometimes making hook removal difficult. The deeper the water, the heavier the sinker and the longer the leader. Everything I've mentioned here can be bought at Dick's. Good luck.

[bosco]

and oh yeah....if using crawlers, hook it just once, right at the tip of the nose. You want it to look real natural. Because you have the luxury of feeding line to the fish so it doesn't detect anything, you shouldn't have trouble getting a good hook set. If you do or if your getting stripped, tie stinger hook a couple inches long off of the first hook and hook it through the midsection as well.

[Fat Tommy]

Wait, so you tie the barrel swivel on above the sinker or below it? Cause like it tied it on below the swivel wouldn't it just slip down to the hook?

[GAMBLER]

The Canadian waters are just across the river. It is not that far at all.

[Fat Tommy]

How much are canadian licenses?

[Kingfisher06]

If my memory serves me right around $55 for the conservatioist option. Which means you will not be able to keep a full stringer.

[reel escape]

conservation is around $ 38.00 and full license is around $ 67.

[Fat Tommy]

thats a kick in the ass >.<

costs more than my super sportsman package!

I'll look into it. I have a feeling we will stick to the american side, anything on the canadian side can be caught on the american side.

[bosco]

Yup you got it right. Thanks for the correction. I wasn't envisioning it in my head correctly and explaining it even worse at 1AM.

[Fat Tommy]

lol no problem. hey guys, all of you that helped me can you take a peek at my thread on rod set up and gimme a few pointers.

[johnnywalleye]

my best set up is a 3way swivel.one eye of the swivel gets 4ft of 14lb leader,snap swivel then your favorite dixie spinner[green-n-blue tape on a sz 4 willow blade;6 blue beads and a green float .add i mustad sz 4 hook.for a dropper off the other eye of the 3way,add 1 foot of 10lb mono 4-6 oz of lead.connect last swivel of 3way to mainlin[14lb spiderwire.drift or troll this rig between25 and 50 fow.i spend a week up near waddington and this rig cant be beat.good luck