justtracytrolling

For walleye, perch, bass, and anything else in less than 100fow imaging is the play imo. I can see individual fish on bait 200' left and right of the boat. Can't get your spread that wide....or your sonar.

Nice work bud and nice fish! Let me know if you want to try the casting/trolling night bite here. Tracy n I did very well Friday night.

I'd say 39-41, but like Andrew said exact size doesn't matter. I seldom measure them accurately as it's just a more thing to get in the way of an easy safe release. Congrats

Fish are still cooperating...my group Saturday and Sunday did 15 casting with fish each day over 30 inches, and temps are in the 60s. Let me know if you guys want to use the gas grill or the Traeger wood pellet grill. Sent from my E6810 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Another good weekend...bite continues to be solid for walleye and tigers. Even caught walleye running jerkbaits during daylight.

Still haven't caught one on true top water dead sticking yet this season but I had on blow me up but somehow missed the lure. This year the jig bite is the best I've seen and they hit it so hard. The jig seems to be have the biggest advantage over sticks on flat clear conditions.

We ended up with 23 eyes casting for the weekend...kept 13.

I'm on walleye for a while now, though that doesn't necessarily keep the tigers off, but I hope some of you get after em!

Andrew that purple and white 3" in the pic is a perfect color pattern!

The tiger musky bite is as good as I've seen it right now and the weeds are still below the surface enough to fish over them trolling or casting. Anyone looking to catch tigers it's a great time to give it a go! Mix it up between floaters and suspended lures until you figure out which they prefer. Same goes with speed. There are numbers and some size if you pick thru them. Usually fast is how we think of fishing them, but I had excellent results going extremely slow on a couple recent outings. I'd stick with alewife patterns right now and alewife sized lures as well.

Well the water hasn't warmed much,52 sat afternoon, but overall things are shaping up. Walleye We are just starting to catch casting at night in several locations. Bait is just starting to show up so things will continue to improve. Weeds aren't a factor yet, but will be in couple weeks. Daytime trolling is also producing on shelves in 15-20 fow. It's a tough troll unless you have an accurate map and boards are the play. I boated 7 and released 5 between casting and trolling. Still struggled to land them trolling below 2.2 GPS speed. Tigers Bite is on 10-15 fow fishing over weeds for small to low 30s fish. Trolling is especially effective. I boated 8 in an less than an hour. Big fish are deep still to my knowledge, but catchable. Smallmouths Smallies can be found almost anywhere, but for bigger fish look for them staging in 15-20 fow on shelves waiting to move up to spawn. I didn't have time to try casting for them, but trolled over a dozen in the 3-4 lb range in those locations. There are some tanks already suspended feeding on bait...I trolled 2 over 6lbs. Crappie Nice catches of crappie in the 12" range are coming from the pond side in several locations. I haven't tried for them up north or heard anything from that end. Overall Friday to Saturday evening was very productive by all accounts.

Trolling isn't casting for sure, but can be the only viable option in many situations. Try working a bottom bouncer while running your electric. It's less like trolling because the rod is in your hand and it allows you to follow some structure. Kevin Legg is an expert on this up on the st Lawrence, and might have some tips for you. You can do a subtle version on jerk trolling with the right diving stick bait also and Ive had good luck doing this on my way in on tough casting nights. Drifting and jigging is another good play. There is almost always a way to find a style you enjoy that will give you some action. Just takes patience and persistence. Ive taken quite a few guys out and taught them techniques to target walleye where it's difficult, as in targeting eyes that are working spawning alewives. Once you learn how to fish for them over bait it literally works anywhere that has alewives and walleye from Sandy pond to the several of the finger lakes to a few places in PA.

You can definitely catch them during the alewife spawn. That's mostly what I fish casting. Chances are early the eyes have slid out to the drop offs and half way down the drops.

I often throw a swim jig early in spring when they tend to be even more bottom oriented. As the water warms and bait gets active you see walleye cruising higher in the column at night, and occasionally even right on the surface. By the middle to the end of the spring bite when the water column is starting to stratify it's all about floating sticks and even dead sticking. If memory serves one night when you were out with me Brent caught a dandy boatside dead sticking while he was just sitting there. Nice work bud!

Way to go Kevin! You're always on em somewhere! Sent from my E6810 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

With the weather being so inconsistent it makes patterning eyes more difficult. We tend to want to fish for walleye based on prior experience rather than starting from zero and sometimes you have forget what you did previous years and figure it out anew. Eventually things repeat but it doesn't have to in the short term. I don't normally have the riggers on the boat if I'm primarily casting, but when the fish aren't where you expect them you have to explore elsewhere with different tools. Be flexible and it pays off. Same thing with choosing the hours you are going to fish. Sent from my E6810 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

We had 47-49 Friday and 51 Sunday. Bite was plenty hot on Otisco Sunday if you had a spread that allowed you to be versatile enough to figure anything out. I ran 9 lines, 3 over open water for suspended fish, 3 riggers which we worked up and down constantly to follow the drop offs, and three up on the flat shelf where there is one. My first bite was just after setting lines before 7 and we caught our 2nd fish (last bite) was nearly noon. After dropping 3 fish at 2.0 I slowed down to 1.7 to see if that would help and that was the only stretch of time I didn't get a bite. So when that didn't work out I went back to 2 and dropped another fish or 2 immediatly. I upped my speed to 2.3-2.5 and bingo the next 2 eyes choked the baits. BTW, I personally have never seen Oneida when it was fishable and I couldn't pull at least 1 limit of hammer handles. Can't compare Oneida to any other walleye fishery in the state for numbers....the place is literally overpopulated with starving fish compared to Otisco. Last couple years their fish are starting to fatten up some. Everyone has their own reasons to fish...for me I want a serious challenge and if successful a serious reward! On Otisco a keeper is nearly a 4lber and avg fish is 5lbs at least. I like the Susquehanna out my window for numbers and size, but between unstable water levels, pollution, and difficulty accessing much of it by boat I ended up elsewhere. Sent from my E6810 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

I wish I could say I am exhausted from all the fish I caught, but it was tough opener for me. Friday night we fished from 12 till Dawn and never even saw an eye. Saturday we casted for tigers in the middle of the day and didn't see a single tiger. Saturday evening I decided to load some trolling rods and work some deeper water. I ended up missing a couple fish and landing 2 tigers. Sunday I put the riggers on and ran a full spread hoping to figure something out. I ended up losing several fish that I'm fairly certain were walleye before we could even get the board off or in some cases out of the rod holders. We finally landed the my first 2 eyes of the season when I bumped our speed hoping to get them to hit better. Along with the 2 eyes we caught 2 more tigers. None of the fish were noteworthy but it's a start. The bigger eye, 6lbs, and the biggest tiger, upper 30's both came on a spoon off a rigger 30 down on steep structure occasionally banging bottom...tough trolling! I was hoping for eyes ON shore at night for casting sticks, then I hoped for eyes suspended, or eyes on a sand flat, but if it was easy they would call it bass fishing! I definitely felt I was getting things figured out.