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EASY TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR FISHING SUCCESS by L.A. Van Veghel WFC Member Per the late and great Joe Ehrhardt, instructional fishing clubs, like the Wisconsin Fishing Club Ltd., are the quickest and best ways to learn how to fish and where to fish. You are reading the second best way. Reading about fishing is an excellent learning tool when you aren't actively participating in fishing or attending a fishing club meeting. Talks by angling experts at sports shows and by TV experts are often beneath the knowledge level of serious anglers. To maintain their popularity, these speakers appeal to a mass, less-informed audience, and the speakers are forced to talk beneath the levels of educated anglers. Effective communication is best when it reaches the most people. Fishing clubs are special interest groups. Communication is at a higher level because the members want to learn and have learned a lot via club attendance, their time on the water with fellow members, and by reading. Since we are not on the water or at a fishing club meeting either as I write this or as you read this, here are some easy tips to help improve your on the water success. JIGS AND YOUR ROD TIP Jig fishing for walleyes is a technique best learned on the water, but you have to learn what to do once you are fishing. It’s important to maintain direct feel with a jig. When slowly retrieving and for the best sensitivity, I put the line in the crack of my index finger. I like to feel the bite. I’ve started doing this while ice fishing for panfish on mild days. This way it doesn’t matter how sensitive is the rod tip or spring bobber. The feel is instantaneous, and the fish won’t feel the rod tip It works best when there is some bending in your fishing line due to using as little weight as possible to get your bait into the fish zone. Placing the line across the tip of your finger is less sensitive. The skin is tougher and sometimes calloused. I also watch my 2# line to see if it straightens or becomes slacker. Line slackness can indicate a fish striking upward. As your sense of feel improves when jig fishing on the bottom for walleyes, practice letting your jig have no feel once a walleye strikes, especially in rivers. To do this when feeling a tap, drop your rod tip slightly forward and set the hook. Walleyes tend to drop the bait to get a better bite. Do not give the line too much slack, as you won’t have enough rod power during hook sets. This is in contradiction to the old way where you would feel a tap, keep the line taut by reeling in line until you felt the weight of the fish, and then set the hook. The drop and set method takes less time, and this means walleyes have less time to spit out baits they suspect as unnatural. Anglers new to jig fishing will find this difficult, as you are still learning what bites feel like, especially when they are light. With practice, seasoned anglers should enjoy improved success. COLD WATER CRANKBAITING Crankbaits were once a no-no as the gamefish season opens. It was thought that fish didn’t like them, or that the water was too cold. This has proven false. In fact, crankbait trollers in cold water won many of the most recent Governor’s Opens I’ve attended. Trolling is slower, and shad type crankbaits are great for walleyes and northerns. Baits such as Shad Raps, Fat Raps, Walleye Divers, C.C. Shads, and similarly shaped lures are effective. I like using silver, gold, orange, chartreuse, and white crankbaits. If you’re fishing during a shad die off, try a long-billed, minnow-type crankbait. This is when you want to stop-and-start, or “rip-and-pause,” your lure during retrieve. We’ve all heard about making a crankbait look like a dying minnow, well this is when you do it. Thanks for reading my article, and feel free to drop in and join our fishing club. You’ll be surprised how many anglers know more than do the pros, especially on Wisconsin‘s waters. We are in the sport because we love to fish. We aren’t in it just to make money. We’re happy to share our knowledge with fellow members.
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