1st LOW trip

[Ragenald]

I posted this on the LOW forum, but thought I would see what you guys had to say.. We are coming to LOW for the first time between Christmas and new years. We are staying in a sleeper. We mainly fish in so. mn. for pan fish and occasionally for walleye. I have the rods, but I am wondering what techniques and tackle we will likely use on the big lake. Thanks for any help you can give: Rage

[Stoneman]

Leave most jigs etc home and bring gold,gold,gold...Lights out at dark and start early...Good luck

[Ragenald]

I heard that the walleyes shut down at night. But, we have cards and beer for that time! Thanks Rage

[sirsunnyslayer]

Glow red, Glow red and more Glow red. Everybody says gold (I am not trying to discredit that) but our group always catches more on glow red than on gold, but I will say those are the only two colors you need. We have the best luck on Demon jigs with a shiner head hooked upside down and a plain gold hook and minnow for the other line. You will have a blast.

[Snake River King]

plain hook! for some reason last year I was fishing with red hook and my buddy had a gold jig and my buddy with the cheap plain hooks was catching them, mabey it was a fluke? or what but he was catching them we werent so we switch and we catching them!

[PerchJerker]

I did my first trip to LOTW last year also. I agree with what the others said, gold and glow red are standards, can't go wrong with a green/glow pattern either. I jigged a spoon on one rod and dead-sticked a live minnow on the other rod - both caught fish, I think the jigging spoon caught a few more over the deadstick. The guys in the group that just watched bobbers didn't catch as many fish. Good luck and have a great trip.

[hanson]

Ragenald-

Who are you staying and fishing with up on LOW?

I'm just assuming at that time of year you'll be fishing over Pine Island on the east side of the lake. Usually a pretty good and consistant sauger and walleye bite in that area at that time.

There are 2 techniques that you need to employ for the classic 1-2 punch, the "deadstick" and the jigging rod.

You can set up your stationary rod a number of ways- either true deadsticking w/ a quality rod or use an Ice Buster Bobber. For the terminal end, there are a lot of options for jigs- Roc-N-Rolls, Lindy Flyers, Genz Worms, Forage Minnows, Gem-N-Eyes, or even a plain hook w/ a split shot. Got to tell ya, I love the JB Gem-N-Eye in hammered gold for this. For bait, Emerald Shiner hooked lightly behind the dorsal fin and you are good to go. Set about 6" off the bottom and let it sit, the minnow will do the work for you.

Now for your other rod, your jigging, attracting, aggressive fishing rod. This is my favorite way to fish up there BTW. We're talking jigging spoons- Northland Buckshot Rattles, JB Rattling Varmits, JB or Scenic Go-Devil Spoons, Lindy Rattl'n Flyer Spoon, Northland Forage Minnow Jigging Spoon, Swedish Pimples, JB or Scenic Angle Eye Jrs and the list goes on and on. Pick your favorite, I prefer Gold or Hammered Gold and Perch or Firetiger. If I can't catch them on those 2 colors, I might as well quit. You'll want to tip your jigging spoon with a minnow head, either Shiner of Fathead.

For your jigging action, pound the bottom a few times, lift up a foot and shake the lure. Repeat. Pay attention to your flasher and try to get a mood on the fish. Sometimes they'll hit it right there. Sometimes you need to get them to chase the lure up 2 feet, 3 feet, 4 feet. See how high you can pull them off the bottom before they commit. Once they get so high, they are out of their comfort zone and will make a decision to eat or go back to the bottom.

The only other thing to pay attention to is fish that are suspended off of the bottom. Reel up to them but slow down when you are close and gradually bring your lure above the fish shaking and lightly jigging it. You won't get them all to commit but these fish are "typically" big ones so you have to try and catch them.

You'll probably be fishing 26-30' of water from sunrise to sunset. Best bite alot of the time is at high noon to 1pm.

[looneyducer]

A Swedish Pimple makes an excellent deadstick bait as well. The big silver hook hangs a little further down, almost like a short dropper, and the pimples fluttering about with the minnow seem to add some trigger.

[Ragenald]

Thanks for all the great advice. Hanson: we are staying at Lakeroad Lodge. Rage

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Don't forget to bring a couple of jigging Raps in red/glow and perch pattern! These work great for those suspended bigger walleyes!

Cliff