Catfishing for Walleyes (Part 2)

[hanson]

Sometimes I have to shake my head in disbelief to some of the things you see and experience on the water. But this isn't one of them. I have seen and heard of so many trophy size walleyes being accidentally caught while catfishing that you can almost (I said almost) put a pattern to them.

Earlier in the year, I witnessed this while fishing with "I Da Man" Briank. In fact, I landed a pretty nice one myself down on Pool 3 of the Mississippi, a healthy 28" walleye. I can't remember if I caught that one on cut sucker or a live bullhead but it was definitely caught with catfishing tactics.

The latest incident of the "Green Hornet" striking again was yesterday morning, and the victim was my tourny partner "CatManLee". We were on day 2 of the Cat's Incredible Tournament in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks on the Red River when one of CatManLee's circle hook rods starts dipping towards the water. It was a good hook up and he fought the fish to the boat. We knew it was a decent fish, not a 20lb cat but a decent fish. It pulled down under the boat and we still hadn't seen the fish yet when it finally surfaced. I can still picture that big toothy mouth and giant eyes popping out of the water and yelling "Son of a b*tch, its a Walleye!".

Anyway, congrats to CatManLee on one heck of a trophy! This one measured 29" long and was safely released after a couple photos. This fish was worth taking a small break from the tourny to get a couple photos.

[Dan Thiem]

Nice fish Lee. How many people actually get discouraged when they catch a walleye of that size?

[Guest]

*raising hand*.. I get discouraged when I catch walleyes of any size while fishing flatheads.. Dont get me wrong, its nice to see a good walleye caught, but it also means its time to pick up anchor and move because the big flatheads arent there(usually). Channel cats on the other hand will swim side by side. I can think of a few evenings with a good bite and the channel/walleye ratio was about 50/50.

Walleyes are scavengers... and a waste of good catfish bait

[mplspug]

Walleye are about my least favorite game to fish for, but unless I was in a tourney, I would be very happy to pull up a big walleye. Sure I might move, but I'd take a couple of gleeful pictures first!

[Gordie]

nice eye and great photos how you guys do in the tournament

[hanson]

Quote:

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nice eye and great photos how you guys do in the tournament

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Lets just say that if that walleye had wiskers, we would have broke into the top 100. We stunk it up. Plain & simple. I've thought pretty hard about what we did wrong and can't figure it out.

I could use the excuse that our motor gave us trouble (which it did), and almost caused us to get towed all the way in (which we were), but that still isn't excuse enough for catching 8 total channel cats in 2 days of fishing.

I've got a lot of learning to do still on that river, a lot!

[Gordie]

at least you guys tried and didnt give up! my hats off to you guys . it can only get better!

[Wiskers]

Hanson, it was a good time but we too bit the big one this year. Here is the whole ticket in one deal. With that small of an area and that many boats on the river, it is not all skill and knowledge to get to the top. It has a lot to do with getting lucky and picking the right spot first. Them cats roam all the time and with that many boats, the fishing spots are hard to come by after the first hour. Every hole or snag has been tested before you get there after your first couple moves. It is still frusterating to come up short.

[CatManLee]

Yepper's my biggest Walleye yet! It wasn't my heaviest eye, but the longest @ 29"'s. The final results of the tourny sucked, but atleast something good happened with me topping my personal best (28") for a Walleye.

All my big Walleye have come catfishing. I have a 26",28" and now a 29" all caught on the Red River with cut bait.