By: Mark Martin
Today, trolling for suspended fish is one of the most common ’eye-catching ploys.
Reflecting on the walleye tournaments and fun-fishing trips with my family of yesteryear, I can’t help but to think of the suspended fish I missed out on catching.
Walleye suspending within the top fifteen feet of the water column, even in depths over 100-plus feet? None of us had any idea those fish were even there 30-plus years ago.
Today, however, trolling for suspended fish is one of the most common ’eye-catching ploys. But it would be difficult to achieve fishing success for these up-high roamers without the help of modern technology.
In the beginning
When I was a child, my grandfather and father would take me fishing at least once a week. My elders knew a lot about walleye and where to catch ‘em. And through years of trial and error, they had found fish in places where others would never have thought a walleye would roam.
One of our best techniques back then was to troll a Flatfish slowly. We’d have a rubber-core sinker attached to our line about three feet ahead of the lure to get it to bottom—where we thought all walleye lived. And we’d nip a half of a nightcrawler onto each of the front gang hooks for scent. We’d pull this rig right at the bottom, on the edges of weed beds, wood piles and rock piles, targeting these areas along drop offs, humps, and holes.
We caught fish; plenty of them at that.But then sonar came along and we realized the most aggressive walleyes would suspended well off bottom. A fish hovering six feet off the lake’s floor? That was much more than then we ever imagined they would. Unfortunately, we never knew there were fish even higher.
If I only knew then what I know now…
Because of all the tools of the walleye-fishing trade we have today, including electronics, improved lures, hooks and planer boards, we’ve not only learned walleyes suspend high in the water column, but have the tools needed to catch them.
And we’ve also learned that it’s the larger fish that tend to suspend. Fish below them and you’ll never get a hit. Fish at their level or above and you’ll catch them.
Look out below!
It was 1959 the Lowrance flasher known as the “Little Green Box” came along. It was this very unit that taught us about those walleyes that would suspending off bottom. With a quick “blip” (flash of light) on the screen, we could see there where fish both on and off bottom.
But the fish nearest the surface were still being missed, spooked out from under the boat and out of the range of the transducer. Although the Little Green Box was our eye to the underwater world at the time, it’s no comparison to what modern-day sonar shows us. Today, Lowrance’s high-definition sonar and side scanning capabilities, coupled with GPS and mapping, make it’s nearly impossible for game fish, baitfish, and even zooplankton to go undetected.
But I don’t always have to mark the fish themselves to know they are there. Often they’ll scoot out from the transducers “ping” (signal) and won’t show up on the screen. I know, however, that if I am marking baitfish and insects high in the water column, then there will be predator fish in the mix, as well.
No fooling around
Once I’ve determined where in the water column the forage is, it’s time to get my lures down into the same zone. However, stealth is needed to fool these weary walleyes.
Even as quiet as my 9.9-hp four-stroke Mercury kicker motor is, I know fish will spook out from under my Lund. Because of this, when trolling for suspended walleyes, in-line planer boards are a must.
There’s no doubt that Church Tackle’s “Walleye Board” is the most versatile and easy-to-use in-line planer board on the market. Walleye Boards, with their adjustable counter- weight system, can accommodate both crankbaits and spinners (crawler harnesses). And they always plane well, even in surging waves, while using largest deep-diving crankbaits or over-sized spinners behind in-line weights.
Seeing believing
I’m often asked how I know when a fish has hit my lure when it’s being pulled behind a planer board. And I admit, it can be tricky.
As soon as all lines are out, I’ll take note as to where the planer boards are tracking in conjunction to the boat. If one drops back, I know there’s either a fish on, or, I’ve snagged up on something like floating vegetation.
Once a walleye strikes, it may swim along with bait in mouth. Because of this, anytime I see a planer board move back, even so slightly, I’ll reel the line in as if there was a fish on.
Get a hold of yourself
Thinking back to my days of youth once more, before the advent of the in-line planer board, we would just hang on to our rods as we trolled. And although it was fun to feel the fish strike, there were some difficulties with this. You could only fish one rod per person, and, there were often tangled lines.
This was extremely hard on the person who was driving the boat. Having rod holders rigged to the boat’s gunwales would have saved the day back then. Today, rod holders they are essential when trolling with planer boards.
Little details
Is trolling speed important? “Nope… It’s imperative! If you’re trolling too fast, or, too slow, you won’t get bit. Period. Thus paying attention to your speed at all times is a must.
With my Lowrance HDS-12 Carbon, I can watch the unit’s GPS speed intently, noting it right down to 1/10 of a mile per hour. Overall, when trolling crankbaits for suspended walleye, I’ll keep my boat moving along at speeds of 1.5 to 2.0 miles per hour. If trolling spinners, I’ll drop the speed down to .7 to 1.5 miles per hour. I adjust my speed often to see just how fast the ’eyes want it.
And getting my lures into the strike zone is also of the utmost importance. Once I’ve determined the depth of the baitfish and bugs on my sonar, I am adamant about getting my baits in, or just above that zone.
To get spinners down, I use 1-ounce in-line weights, or, Church Tackle’s Sting ray diving disk, attaching them about 6 feet in front of the spinner. In general, the rule of thumb for using 1-ounce weights is when they are trolled at 1 MPH, they will pull a spinner down 1/2 of the amount of line out. An example would be 10 feet down for 20 feet out, or 20 feet down for 40 feet out, and so on…
I’ve learned a lot about the wandering ways of walleyes over the years, and today’s tools and technologies were the teachers. They have not only helped us discover that walleye suspend, but allow us to get out offerings to them without spooking them.
Finding fish and forage on a quality sonar, fishing crankbaits and spinners in front of fish un-spooked, using rod holders so as to achieve better boat control, and paying close attention to trolling speed as well the proper depth my lures are running are all essential when getting back to basics for suspended ’eyes.
Mark Martin is a touring walleye tournament angler and instructor with the Ice-Fishing Vacation/School. Check out his website at markmartins.net for more information about Mark, the school, and links to all the products listed in this article.