weed fishing

[Amature Hour]

Is there a way to fish walleyes threw pretty thick weeds? Around here during these mid-summer months the fishing gets pretty slow. It seems to me that the fish have moved into the weed cover.

Besides fishing the tops with raps and getting lots of northerns and bass, and one or two eyes (most of the time none). If anyone has figured out away to get threw the weeds with a live bait rig, ideas good or bad might help me come up with my own would be great.

[tunrevir]

This sounds like a job for plastics and jigs, pitched into the weeds. You'll need a fast action rod with medium power and will want to run power pro or fireline to work through the weeds. Pith the jig and plastic into the weeds and let it fall to the bottom. some jiggles and short hops to get the fishes attention and pop the rod when hung on a weed stalk and let it fall back towards bottom. Many times the fish will hit it on the drop or just after you pop it off the weeds. Weed weasle jigs slither nicely through the thick stuff and work well with 2-3" twister tails, minnow bodied baits, I use the bass style heads with long light wire hooks on berkley crawlers and this works well also. The same tactics for working bass along and in weedlines also will take walleyes.

Tunrevir~

[gunflint]

Carolina and Texas rigs can work pretty well also. This is the weak spot in my walleye fishing and I plan on spending a lot of time shallow weed fishing for walleyes next year.

[Amature Hour]

I was thinking that rip jigging with some gulp. About how fast do you go? The problem i can see is that the lake i fish the weeds are down to 30 fow. I would like to use live bait. I haven't really hooked into many fish with that berkely gulp stuff.

[tunrevir]

Rip jigging is one method that works but will typically get you more weeds then fish in milfoil but works well in cabbage. In milfoil it is a slow presentation in that you are really line watching/feeling and waiting for a pickup. You can work your jig up and over some weeds and let it fall back to the bottom on semi-taught line. When you feel a hangup, that is the time to give it a wrist flick and pop the jig through the stalk and settle towards the bottom. This is an application where the superlines shine. Gulp split tail minnows, leeches and crawlers can all be good bets. I tend to prefer the 3-4 inch baits for this type of jigging. A slightly heavier head then what you'd use for open water jigging is often enough weight to slither and sink through the weeds. At the 30' range you are probably looking at a 3/8th. One thing about weed fish is they are active in the shallows all year round because they have food and cover so I start my search in the 8-10' range and work that for fish if it isn't producing then I'll meander to the deeper edge and work that. If you know of any sand to weed transitions with gravel or rocks nearby that is where I'd start my search.

Tunrevir~

[Team Otter]

Is there a way to fish walleyes threw pretty thick weeds? Around here during these mid-summer months the fishing gets pretty slow. It seems to me that the fish have moved into the weed cover.

Besides fishing the tops with raps and getting lots of northerns and bass, and one or two eyes (most of the time none). If anyone has figured out away to get threw the weeds with a live bait rig, ideas good or bad might help me come up with my own would be great.

Corkin'.

[Borch]

In thick weeds I always relaied heavily on my GPS unit. There are always pockets and frequently you can pick a trolling run through connected pockets. If you find these and rely on your gps trail for trolling runs it can be very rewarding as you pull your crank past more ambush points and therefore fish than you can count.