How did you catch your fish in 2012?

[JohnMickish]

To pass some time before we can get back out in the boats, I'm going to try and keep things alive here with some discussions.

How did you guys catch the majority of your Walleyes in 2012?

Rigging

Cranks

Leadcore

Slow Death

Jigs

or something new?

For me I caught the majority of my fish pulling spinners and crawlers, and I caught all but three of my fish over 27" that way.

I probably caught the majority of my smaller fish on cranks and leadcore for the year, with Berkley Flickershads being the lure of choice there.

How about you guys?

[RiverFish]

Jigs and Minnows May/June.

Bouncers with SD and spinners June/July/August.

Jigs and minnows September.

Lindy rig with suckers October/November/December.

Mainly fishing small flowages on the WI river.

[OnAFly]

Flies in May.

Jigs and minnows in June.

Jigs and minnows in September.

Jigs and minnows in October.

[JBMasterAngler]

Accidentally

[genegodawa]

Pretty sure you meant 'accidentally on purpose' huh JB?

Mine were jig 'n' shiner and a nice one on a bobber with a leech in June

[PerchJerker]

I mostly troll crankbaits and I get most of my bigger walleyes that way. I will troll cranks from Opener to Ice Up most years, and did this year too.

I love a good jig/plastic bite .... or a jig/shiner bite.

I didn't fish Mille Lacs much this spring / summer, but when I did we were primarily rigging and pulling slow death hooks. Got a lot of nice fish doing that ...... but other than Mille Lacs I didn't do much rigging this year .....

[Rick G]

Jigs and minnows in May , jigs and crawlers or on slip bobbers in june, July-mid Sept. lead, the rest of the year jigs or cranks. Most of my bigest ones this year came in late Oct- early Nov. on stick baits.

[kfk]

The vast majority of my fish were caught on a wide variety of cranks using snapweights, then in order it was spinners and bottom bouncers, slow death hooks and bottom bouncers and jigs.

[amateurfishing]

caught my first ever i this year....was on bottom bouncer with sd hook plastic 5" leach

also went to fall trolling GTG but found out baitcast reel, braid line, & trying to cast crankbaits was a recipe for disaster & got nothing accomplished in 5 hours on the water cept 4 birds nest & numerous crankbaits stuck in clothes & fingers...steep learning curve for me!

[Stick in Mud]

Just checked my journal....most fish came on bobbers, second most on crankbaits being trolled either on leadcore or longline. Third was spinners. Fourth Lindy rigs. I don't have any data on # of fish per hour spent on each technique, though with a bit of division I could figure it out if so inclined.

Kind of interesting to see the "results." Before this year, I'd trolled a handful of times in the last ten years. This year, I spent a lot of money on gas pulling crankbaits...nice to see it paid off. though this year on Mille Lacs you coulda caught fish with a treble hook tied on to a pop can.

In terms of size of fish, it's also interesting. I fish Mille Lacs 90% of the time, and everyone complains of there being no small fish out there, but the majority of fish I caught on bobbers were less than 18''. Tons and tons of dinks. But I was also fishing shallower water, purposely trying to catch eaters. Bobbers out deep caught mostly big ones, just like everyone else. And trolling--either with lead or longline--I caught something like 30 or 40 fish for every keeper, though the results were skewed by fall trolling, when I caught lots of fish but very, very few keepers.

[kerryd15]

Slow death worked very well last yr. This year my best was a jig and a platic minnow. Maybe we were lucky but I have never caught walleye as shallow as this yr. We trolled shorelines casting to shore, basically all year. This is all on lakes with max depth of 8-13 ft. Word of caution, don't do this in the summer if you plan on eating them. Drop shot worked very well in august and september, but i didn't try it before that either.

[Mike Walerak]

Most of the walleyes came from casting lindy rigs to current seams. Got some good action on eater sized fish pulling crankbaits. For whatever reason the jigs did not do it for me that well this year. I blame the low water we had most of the year and we were not geting the reaction bites we normally get from jigs.

Flicker Shads and Jointed Shad Raps took the majority of the fish in my boat which was funny because the year before Lindy Shadlings absolutly crushed all the other baits 10 to 1. Again I blame the low water. LOL

mw

[workin4bait]

After checking my journal about 42% were caught on crankbaits[from opener until Nov.]

22% on jigs and plastics[all year],21% on jig and minnows[Oct. and Nov.],13% on jig and crawlers[May and June],and 2% on spinners and plastics[June and July].

In fall I fished smaller rivers alot with lots of snags,so I switched to jig and plastic because crankbaits cost enough that I do not like tossing them into a river of no return or my crankbait numbers would be higher yet.

Workin'

[Cicada]

Turned out to be a very typical year for me as far as techniques, but above average in fish caught. I started out catching walleyes in January and February on jigging raps and cicadas tipped with minnow heads. Began the soft water season with a lindy rig and short snell with minnows or nightcrawlers. Moved on to bottom bouncers,spinners, and nightcawlers once the water warmed up an the mayflies hatched. Late July and August, I pulled crankbaits and, like others have noted, caught some of the bigger fish for the year. Once the water started to cool, switched back to lindy rigs and mainly 'crawlers. I lost about two months of fishing time due to broken trailer axel and messed up lower back, still caught more walleyes than the previous two years combined. Not saying that was a huge number since the two previous years were kind of slow, but still one of my better years since moving to Minnesota in '86.

[Nhamm]

Fireball jigs and minnows, all year long. Color varying throughout year. Some lindy action on the lake cabin, but jiggin it up lake structure or ticking across the rocks in a current seam is my preference. Wow, now I am ready to go bust up some ice to get the boat out 1x more even thinking about it.

[PRO-V]

Hooked them in the lip........

[Nhamm]

Hooked them in the lip........

[WalleyeChaser]

Riggin and jiggin! Want to try some crank trolling and spinners next year though. I find it hard to give up on whats working but also want to try some different techniques.

[Stick in Mud]

Riggin and jiggin! Want to try some crank trolling and spinners next year though. I find it hard to give up on whats working but also want to try some different techniques.

That's exactly how I am....I have some things that work, and I have a hard time moving away from them. I actually kept a New Year's resolution this year by spending time (and $$) getting equipment for trolling both leadcore and longline, and I'm very very glad I did. Plus, the best part of it, at least for me, was the satisfaction of striking out, striking out, striking out, and then finally (kind of) figuring something out.

[JohnMickish]

The best way to learn to troll is to leave the rigs and jigs at home sometime.

Part 1 of my trolling article will be coming out today or tomorrow. Look for it, there is alot of great trolling info in it.

[walleyeking19]

90% of the walleyes i got this summer were drifting/slow trolling with a leech, including my personal best 28". This was the best year for walleyes that I've had in quite some time. Hopefully next year beats this one!

[Stick in Mud]

My personal best year, too. Not sure I did anything different from usual, but the fish were pretty stupid on the lake I fish.

[minnesotathorn]

i hate admitting this but have no idea what slow death is. anyone want to help an old fool out.

[james_walleye]

Early found me rigging minnows or slip corking leeches at night. That progressed to rigging leeeches followed by spinners and crawlers. August always finds me pulling cranks. The fall always finds me pitching cranks, plastic and hairjigs up shallow.

[Cheers]

It is a method of trolling a piece of night-crawler . The hook has a unique bend in it and when a crawler is threaded on the hook it rotates 360 degrees,the crawler is pinched of with 1/2 inch tail