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Otisco Lake Birthday Present


justtracytrolling

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I definitely shouldn't be posting this but...

 

I slept in this morning and got up at 530 hit the water by 6.  Had a fine time watching the sun come up.  finally to where I did a bunch yesterday and bang I'm tripled!  Get the one line back out while landing and releasing the triple. laying the second line and it goes off in my hand.  I come right and rigger goes off with a 3 color core.  This has been an unreal setup taking 2 10's and a couple 9s in 3+ weeks.  This walleye had been hooked a couple times I'm certain because it would pull drag then charge the boat, then scream sideways and back to the bottom.  Fish was barely hooked but my Denali 8'6" leadcore rod paired with a tekota A 400 did their jobs and I slipped my net under another 28+ 9+# beautiful eye!  Passed off my hottest setups to Gary and Terri and led them back thru em...Finished 7-7 and a big catfish.  I'm ready for bbq bacon wrapped walleye!  I'm gonna just troll around my big fish setup till dark and then cast tonight!  I'm looking for another actual 10lber for Kevin to mount to put in my Customer RV and  1 for the store... might be this one!KIMG0563.thumb.JPG.79a311a7f7d72d6c6c92532cce7866b7.JPG

Edited by justtracytrolling
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I definitely shouldn't be posting this but...
 
I slept in this morning and got up at 530 hit the water by 6.  Had a fine time watching the sun come up.  finally to where I did a bunch yesterday and bang I'm tripled!  Get the one line back out while landing and releasing the triple. laying the second line and it goes off in my hand.  I come right and rigger goes off with a 3 color core.  This has been an unreal setup taking 2 10's and a couple 9s in 3+ weeks.  This walleye had been hooked a couple times I'm certain because it would pull drag then charge the boat, then scream sideways and back to the bottom.  Fish was barely hooked but my Denali 8'6" leadcore rod paired with a tekota A 400 did their jobs and I slipped my net under another 28+ 9+# beautiful eye!  Passed off my hottest setups to Gary and Terri and led them back thru em...Finished 7-7 and a big catfish.  I'm ready for bbq bacon wrapped walleye!  I'm gonna just troll around my big fish setup till dark and then cast tonight!  I'm looking for another actual 10lber for Kevin to mount to put in my Customer RV and  1 for the store... might be this one!KIMG0563.thumb.JPG.79a311a7f7d72d6c6c92532cce7866b7.JPG

OMG stellar day! Thank you so much for the hot poles! Caught my first 26” and same for Gary! Caught mine on the Denali. I gotta have one of those. Maybe Christmas! Happy Birthday as well!!! Thank you again for all you have taught us. Gary and Terri


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4 hours ago, Jomat said:

3 color leadcore on a downrigger?....did I read that right?

if you want to catch ball shy big walleye you need some tools!  You don't wanna run my long leaders unless you know what you are doing...200' just about with core and leader... double digits again.... nothing too crazy 7 and an 8 lber...rigged up some copper last night and lengthened my cores, got a nap and the copper was the best followed by my 3 color rigger.  Wind wasn't too bad but the catfish, white perch, bass, and little 3-4 lb walleye were really a problem keeping lines in so we could catch decent walleye.  1 triple and a couple doubles... 

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18 hours ago, whaler1 said:

Any action tonight Justin?


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Miss em and I went out casting and it was just too flat...Jeff had one good bite and now he knows exactly what the bite is like and I'll bet next time he doesn't miss em!  Probably only had 15-30 minutes of action around us  and we quit early.  Probably have a pick tonight if it doesn't lay right down. 

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I passed out all my core rods to a couple boats that morning and the only way you can put those rods on a board without catching is to cut the hooks off!  Even then those baits are hot enough and the cores are so dialed would not  shock me if I landed a fish or two with out a hook.  I know the rods and drags are forgiving enough!  I had 8 core setups and 2 copper setups to fish 7.5 feet of column leading up to my birthday fishing marathon.  Each core is less than a foot deeper than the previous and only 4' longer in length.  I wanted to be able to see just exactly how much column I have to work with day to day.  That way when I make adjustments during a season where the bite isn't great I know just how accurate I'll need to be.  Let's just say 2 weeks of testing showed the window for active fish can be conceivably between cores cut every half color (15')  That doesn't mean you wouldn't catch a fish I'm just saying in order to get a rod to fire more than once and to notice any real action you need the cores cut every quarter color (7.5').  On the best days I  had 5-6 of column and on the worst days less than 2 feet and it was tough to get 2 different rods to fire without shortening a core by clipping on a bobber or by adding 5- 10 feet of braid after the core before the board. So on my birthday I had em all dialed so close that I knew I could get both board rods and my hot core rigger all going and the bite was wide open.  The next morning I was with Gary and another seasonal camper and every single rod in my 9 rod spread fired with an eye at least once.  I had em so bunched up to show those guys exactly how good the bite really is that I was a nightmare turning and working fish around the spread.  Fun few days but I'm never gonna troll 9 lines so close together because it was impossible not to tangle just turning easy and you couldn't land a fish without catching another line.  Tomorrow I'm back after some tigers and that bite is literally the best it's ever been for deep trolling and bigger fish.  Of course I probably jinxed myself!

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Justin,

 

Congrats on the big day! I'm imagining 9 rods on a day when the bite's hot!

 

Most guys know Kevin and I have a pretty successful program going here on the SLR. Your post highlights MY biggest flaw: when I get a pattern working, I beat it to death until it stops before I change it up. By waiting till then, new patterns that might have worked great when the fish were active don't get a fair test.

 

The best time to experiment is when you know fish are catchable. Kevin and I have talked about this before. Whey do we catch most fish on the same two patterns? Because its what we put out first! If they're active we catch fish and say that's the golden lure or presentation. I don't try the rest of the tackle box until the bite slows. Not a fair comparison. The same goes for location, depth, lead lengths, etc.

 

Case in point: Picked my rigger up to mid depth this week even though I usually chase the bottom and have had great success. Past 2 trips, limits, and some of the best fish of the season. Also left the structure for the flats, even when I knew I could get them there.

20200916_073532.jpg

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I passed out all my core rods to a couple boats that morning and the only way you can put those rods on a board without catching is to cut the hooks off!  Even then those baits are hot enough and the cores are so dialed would not  shock me if I landed a fish or two with out a hook.  I know the rods and drags are forgiving enough!  I had 8 core setups and 2 copper setups to fish 7.5 feet of column leading up to my birthday fishing marathon.  Each core is less than a foot deeper than the previous and only 4' longer in length.  I wanted to be able to see just exactly how much column I have to work with day to day.  That way when I make adjustments during a season where the bite isn't great I know just how accurate I'll need to be.  Let's just say 2 weeks of testing showed the window for active fish can be conceivably between cores cut every half color (15')  That doesn't mean you wouldn't catch a fish I'm just saying in order to get a rod to fire more than once and to notice any real action you need the cores cut every quarter color (7.5').  On the best days I  had 5-6 of column and on the worst days less than 2 feet and it was tough to get 2 different rods to fire without shortening a core by clipping on a bobber or by adding 5- 10 feet of braid after the core before the board. So on my birthday I had em all dialed so close that I knew I could get both board rods and my hot core rigger all going and the bite was wide open.  The next morning I was with Gary and another seasonal camper and every single rod in my 9 rod spread fired with an eye at least once.  I had em so bunched up to show those guys exactly how good the bite really is that I was a nightmare turning and working fish around the spread.  Fun few days but I'm never gonna troll 9 lines so close together because it was impossible not to tangle just turning easy and you couldn't land a fish without catching another line.  Tomorrow I'm back after some tigers and that bite is literally the best it's ever been for deep trolling and bigger fish.  Of course I probably jinxed myself!

Amen. A couple 26 in for Gary and I and a couple 20 inch. Plus a good size sm. Thank you Justin! You’re the best!


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I found something interesting and have been working on a new program with some hand painted lures I've been doctoring in my free time and while I'm fishing.  This morning I ran the new setups and finally got these fish to go very early.  Went 1-2 and lost the bigger fish before I could even work it....27" and 9lbs

KIMG0567.JPG

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I'm not closing up until I run outta customers or water!  I just did 4 more big ones and Im on to something big time!  Not to many guys make major changes when they are getting the consistent results I have been but when you put the time in to pattern a different level of walleye its surreal to actually put it together!  5-7 and nothing under 9!!!

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