St Lawrence Walleyed out

[Kevin J Legg]

[i made my first trip for walleyes on the river this morning and wasn't disappointed. I ended up with a 22" and 26" walleye and three smallmouths. I should have limited out but lost a couple. I was running one long line deep diving crank and two stick baits. One on a heavy bottom bouncer and one on a rigger. Running three rods solo makes for a busy morning!

 

Edited July 11, 2013 by Kevin J Legg

[justtracytrolling]

Nice job Kevin, two real nice fish.  Been wondering when you were gonna start putting up some st. Lawrence walleye pics up, and thanks for the report.  Has it been a slow start up there?

justin

[Kevin J Legg]

I'm not sure as I've been fishing the lake and smallmouths. irst attempt for eyes but I heard they were hitting so had to see for myself. 

[ryanrobb52]

Nice! We fished for them last night til about 9 and couldnt get anything but smallmouths to hit. We covered a few spots too but the usual spots just didnt produce.

[Kevin J Legg]

Picked up two around 25" again this morning along with 3 smallmouths. North wind made it challenging.

[Fish Hunter]

Nice.

[Kevin J Legg]

Picked up another walleye about 25" this morning off a rigger set at 25' with a Rapala troll to 50' back in 35 fow.

[justtracytrolling]

Good work Kevin...looks like you are on em for sure. After reading your posts I used my riggers a bit this weekend, but I cant get em to take cranks off the ball. Im on em too at otisco but never have caught off riggers except harnesses after dark. Ill keep working at it as the short set back must make it a ball. Im always 200+ off boards...even with the tigers

Justin

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[Kevin J Legg]

I've only been trying the riggers sparingly and was having limited success. I thought I'd try keeping the balls up while using a deep diving crank on shorter leads to get me to target depth and it worked yesterday.(I heard that walleyes have a 50' ball tolerance on Erie) When fishing shallower off boards at Quinte I also run 150-200' leads and run long lines back about that length on the river. There are many techniques that can work on the river. Depth and speed control are crucial and difficult with current and the changing bottom contours of the river. I'll keep experimenting and post my results.

[justtracytrolling]

What kind of releases are you using? I just have the pinch pad style and they pretty much suck on hard pulling cranks, but I do it the same way as you...now I gotta get one that way just to see! I have no down speed and the current up there killed me last year. Tried running em just over the boat to gauge the speed but its WAY different down 25 feet and im just inexperienced with that.

Justin

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[Kevin J Legg]

I troll very slowly into the current. GPS boat speed is often .2-.7 and the current is making lures work. It is a very slow method to troll ( a bit like hotshoting in the Salmon River) I slip in and out along current breaks and have to throttle up to make headway.  I use Black releases which are easy to set and adjust. Pinch pads didn't work well for me.

[kerchner]

Hi kevin. Very good post. I have a camp in three mile bay and primarily salmon fish but would like to get back into the walleye thing in the cape vincent section of the river. I have fished the canadian side of wolfe island years ago but mostly jigged shoals with crawlers and had great success in spring and fall. If you dont mind i have a few questions. Were do you think your lures are in the water column when trolling? Near bottom? Is your technique mainly morning/ evening? It was always my conception that those fish kind of go tight to bottom mid day and often deep. By no means do i want you to mention any specific spots but if you have any experience around cape vincent area and could suggest a general area to get started i would greatly appreciate it.

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[Sk8man]

Good going Kev! Sounds as though you have those elusive critters dialed in pretty good   Kind of a mindset switch from the Crappies isn't it?

 

Les

[Kevin J Legg]

Morning and evening are more productive for me. They are deeper during the day and move shallower at night. My most successful technique is a stick bait off homemade heavy bottom bouncer right on the bottom. I do catch some suspended on the long line deep divers and riggers. Lots of guys use jigging spoons or jigs and use trolling motor to control drift in current. Most places I catch them in the river have a strong current. 35 fow has been the place this week.

[Kevin J Legg]

I caught a 22' off a stick bait on heavy bottom bouncer this morning. I like to get back to the lake to try trout and salmon but weather doesn't look good. This heat is keeping off the water except early in the morning. By 9:00 I'm done! y have to try the crappies this evening.

[justtracytrolling]

I got myself a couple blacks releases, a couple lures to replace what the tigers tore up, and more flouro for leaders, as Im going through several a day. The Blacks are a big upgrade over the pinch pads by the looks! Sure looks like Ill be able to drag just about anything with them if they are tightened down. My question Kevin is how do you set your tension on them? Im sure I can do it trial and error on the water, but id like to set them with a spring scale at home for a starting point. I was thinking around 3 lbs for a deep stickbait on walleye. If nothing else I have a whole box of stuff Ive always wanted to try on riggers that pulled to hard for pinch pads so I guess even if I cant catch walleyes on them Ill have plenty to keep me busy all weekend just trying. Ill have 3+ on the boat all weekend so we'll be running 9 rods and I can get a lot more creative with these releases. 1 more day...cant wait!!

justin

[Sk8man]

3 lbs is a good starting point. I modify according to what I'm running (on the fly) by the feel of it.

[Kevin J Legg]

I run up to nine rods for browns when they are shallow on the lake and perhaps fishing suspended walleyes in 20-30 fow on the lake ut the structure changes a lot on the river so I generally can only run 4. Also many of my trolls are over relatively small areas. I just experimented with the Black setting tensions.

[Kevin J Legg]

Just back from a morning on the river. Strong wind made for tough trolling but still got three nice walleyes (23, 24, and 26") and two dandy smallmouths around 19". Two walleyes off rigger and one off bottom bouncer (30-40 fow) and the bass were shallower on deep divers(15-22 fow). Forgot to take photos.

[justtracytrolling]

Nice job on the eyes this morn, but I like seeing those big st Lawrence walleyes on your grass...lol On my way out the door for the weekend...let you know how I do with the blacks...have a good weekend Kevin.

justin

[Kevin J Legg]

Thanks Justin. Family obligations this weekend and next week but may sneak out next week a few mornings.

[justtracytrolling]

Thanks Kevin, your posts got me to try my riggers with blacks and deep cranks! Got my biggest eye of the weekend using my riggers after I had given up on them. Just a 5 pounder but fun with the short setback..

Thought I better post the pic your way!

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[Kevin J Legg]

That's great. Glad you had some success.

[justtracytrolling]

Kevin,

Wondered if you could post a pic of your homemade bottom bouncer?  On Otisco we are fishing for suspended walleyes, but they do relate to points and presenting to those fish can be tricky as you can easily be dragging on the points.  The depth changes very fast and goes from 50+ fow to just under 20 fow, and the fish are down at least 20.  Currently I try to hit it just right so my outside line goes over the points without dragging...not easy but can be done.  Id like to have something out in front of my shad raps and taildancers that would bounce them over so I can get in tighter.  If I turn out at the last minute I miss the back side if I drag im done...covered in zebra mussels.  I have lots of different bottom bouncers in different weights and don't need them to get the depth just to help pick up the lures.  I could try to shorten my set back and add one of my lightest ones.  Just wondered what yours look like, and if you think the walleyes are bothered by the weight just in front of your lure?

justin

[mhtrapper]

Nice job Kevin, I caught my first eye Sat. night still was not that great of a night for me, had a few issues . I hope to get down there some morning and try it, maybe I will see you down there . I end up getting a new boat so I have been trying to get things switched around that was some of my issues. I got rid of the Alaskan and ended up getting a tyee hard to get used to it from tiller to wheel if you know what I mean. Last time I went down had the Alaskan and the motor wouldn't shift into forward seems like every time I have went to fish I have had a bad spell hopefully that is over by now. Good luck and maybe we will run into each other at some point , would like to maybe go up this fall to bay of quintile if I can get them other guys to go .