In this article I will detail and illustrate how we set up and run them on our boats. We don’t claim to be the leading authority of big boards, however, we do spend a lot of time running them.

To put it simply, you have a planer board that you’re attaching to a line. As you let out line, the board planes out to the side of the boat as it’s being towed along. Once the boards are out then you send out a lure to the desired lead length. You attach a release clip directly to your fishing line. The clip does not allow the line to pay out any farther.

Once that’s done you now clip the other side of the release clip to the tow line, where it’s allowed to slide freely up and down the tow line. Letting out more line at this point will only put the bait farther away from the boat, but will not change the depth or lead. The first line you continue paying out your fishing line until the clip is nearly at the board.

From there you keep setting lines inside one another, stopping them short of the last one and leaving enough space as to not tangle them up. You always want the first line out to be placed in the farthest forward rod holder pointed straight up at the sky and working your way back from there with each additional rod.

Now you have the clips spaced out along the towline with the desired number of lines set. It’s time to start catching. Once you’re hooked up and you see a rod bending over, you need to release the line from the clip. Grab the rod from the holder, take it straight up and over all the other lines towards the back of the boat, then point the rod at the clip and jerk the rod tip up. This will release the fishing line from the clip and allow you to reel the fish in.

It is important to allow the fish to fall in behind the back of the boat before you start reeling, otherwise you risk dragging the fish across your entire spread causing a massive tangle.

After you have the fish unhooked you then just slide all the other rods down one space. Then let line out to re-space the clips and add the rod you just caught a fish on to the rear holder setting the new clip nearest to the boat. Take note that the spent clip will still be attached to the tow line. You will collect all of your clips at the end of the troll – or hopefully the end of the day.

The components of your setup will not make or break your success. There are many very good boards, planer masts and reels on the market. Most of them will do the job just fine. As far as that goes it mostly just comes down to preference.

We run the boards that Amish Outfitters sells. In fact, we also run the 800# tow line they sell. We use them out of convenience, as they are sold nearly everywhere around Lake Erie. If we need a set in a pinch we can have them the same day. We have Cisco Fishing Systems electric planer reels (no mast) on one boat, the Rachel Marie 2.0. The other boat – Walleye Wagon – has a Big Jon electric mast.

The setup for us is key to efficiency. The point where the tow line comes away from the boat is one of many important parts of the setup. You want the tow line to be high and forward. Ideally you want the line to come away from the boat from no less then 3/4ths of the way to the bow. The farther forward you can get the tow line the better but it comes at a cost.

Keep in mind you will need to have access to the tow line to clip your releases on. We use retractable dog leashes attached near the rod holders and clipped to the tow line so it acts at a tether to pull it in so you can reach it. If its all the way out on the bow it makes for more work pulling the line in. You will have to pull it into your reach to clip on the tow line from the back deck of the boat.

One of the advantages is you can turn quite a bit sharper with the tow line at the front of the boat. As the boat turns the boards don’t respond straight away. The tow line will swing in tight to the boat as the board falls back and can interfere with your rod tips. More distance from the point at which the tow line leaves the boat to where your rod holders are located helps keep this from happening.

Another advantage of having the towline forward is it helps keep fishing line from tangling around spent clips. With rods near the back of the boat and the towline forward it makes for more space between the fishing line and the tow line. The spent clips will live on the tow line until you bring your boards in. As the waves and wind take effect on your boat and boards, the spent clips will bounce around and spin on the tow line. If your fishing line is laying right along side the tow line, the wind and waves will be sure to send it in to a knotted mess – wrapping it around the clips and tow line. The more distance and harsher angle you have from the fishing line to the tow line the better.

The height of the tow line helps to keep the tow line out of the water, allowing you to send the boards out farther. This also comes at a cost. With the tow line being very high off the water it will change the depth of the baits.

Assuming the same leads from the line nearest the board to the line closest the boat. Sounds terrible right? Its not really a big problem as long as your aware of it. In fact it can be a very effective way to dial in a program. The lines – as they catch fish – release from the clips, leaving a spent clip on the tow line. If after a bit of fishing you notice you have a pile of clips starting to form at the center of the tow line – let’s say its halfway from the board to the boat – you can then conclude that the higher lines are doing most of the catching.

The opposite is also true if all the clips are out at the end of the line and there are few to no spent clips stuck between the other clips on the line. That also can be a good indicator that the majority of the lines are too far above the fish and don’t take a strike until they get moved farther out on the tow line allowing to them run deeper. With that being said you also don’t want the tow line up too high. As far as I can tell, you always want the tips of your rods above the height of the tow line. This helps reduce contact of the fishing line to the tow line and reduce tangles.

Selecting the right fishing rods for your setup.

Unlike fishing with inline boards – where you watch the boards to indicate a strike – with this system you’re going to be watching the rod tips. The number one most important aspect of choosing the right rod is that they are all the same. You’re going to have all your rods set up in a line pointed straight up at the sky while you’re fishing. We will talk about why we want them straight up later on.

Once all the lines are set, it’s very easy to compare each rod against one another. When a fish is hooked it will stand out like a sore thumb and be very obviously bent more then the others. We typically use medium action rods regardless of the length.

Lets talk about the length of the rods a bit –  or should I say the height of the rods. This is unique to each boat and setup. The height of the rod tip in comparison to the height of the tow line is something worth noting, especially if you’re having trouble with the fishing line coming into contact with the tow line.

I believe that having the rod tips as high as possible helps keep the fishing line from being blown by the wind into the tow line. It really turns into a balancing act of how high you want the tow line, and how long of a rod you want to deal with in order to combat the height of the tow line.

For us, we use different rods for different presentations, and we have to store the rods on the boat when not in use. So more shorter is more better. Luckily with the height of the tow lines in comparison to the height of the gunnels on either of our boats, it works out that we can run 7 ft. rods on both boats.

The reason we want the rods pointed straight up is because the angle of the line coming off the tip of the rod at as close to 90 degrees as possible. That allows the rod to bend with the least amount of effort. Imagine for a moment if you had a fish on and you pointed the rod straight at the fish. No matter how hard the fish pulled the rod wouldn’t bend.

Now take the rod tip and point it in any direction away from the fish making the line come off the tip of the rod at a 90-degree angle, it will bend right over. There are two reasons this is important. One is that is allows the rod to bend showing us when we are hooked up. The other is it offers more forgiveness to a really aggressive strike.

You heard me right. I did say we use different sets of rods for different presentations. We do this because we like to run mono for everything we can. There are times we need to run inline boards and we prefer mono for them as well. It’s more forgiving for our clients and it holds in clips much better than braided lines.

Sometimes we need to run jet divers with spoons or crawler harnesses, and for that we run braid. Rather then trading out reels for reels with braid we keep a separate set of rods and reels pre-rigged with jets and spoons at the ready. When you have clients on board you can’t spend a bunch of their time rigging rods and not fishing. I understand there are other methods we could use for spoons and harnesses. Let’s keep that topic for another article.

Let’s talk about the Release Clips

The release clips are a very important part of the system. We have ran countless different styles of clips, and we have kind of settled into what we like by trial and error. We use a version of the pilgrim planer releases that we modify to our liking. The clips work fine as they are with the shower curtain rings, but we find that they do tend to fall off the tow line if they don’t get closed just right. After some use the shower curtain clips get bent and they just don’t stick around long after that.

We remove the shower curtain clips and replace them with a cable style key chain and a carabiner. Once we made this upgrade we very seldomly lose them. When we run braided lines we still use the clips, but we half- hitch a rubber band to the fishing line then put it behind the rubber pads on the clips so that the bands have to break in order to release the line.

At that point it’s not really necessary to use a release clip, you could just use a shower curtain clip or carabiner, it will serve the same purpose. It’s really hard to see them when they are all the way out near the board, so we use the release clips for a little more bulk that way you can actually spot them out on the tow line.

We use big boards for the majority of the season. They are a very effective method for running a huge spread and covering lots of water with a ton of lines. There are also times they are just not the right tool for the job. We don’t run them on smaller groups where we are limited to a small number of lines. Also, if we are in high winds and or waves exceeding 4-5 ft. we usually switch them out for inline boards.

In order for the big boards to work well you need to have some amount of speed. At low speeds they just don’t pull as hard as we need them to. We like to use them when we are moving around 1.8 to 2.0 mph or faster, such as in the early spring when we are fishing Oak Harbor and late fall running Fall Brawl and Walleye Slam charters.

When we are slowing down our presentation, we often fish at speeds much less than that. They are also nearly impossible to use in the dark. It can also be difficult to run them with very short leads.

Additional insight from long-time Captain Dave Fredericks:

I’ve been making/running big boards for 30+ years. Charter Captain for 15 years (retired in 2006). My setup consists of an electric reel that runs the tow line to a pulley on the front corner of my windshield, then out to the board. The pulley has a bungee between it and the windshield. I make my own bungees with silicon tubing, but any type bungee will work.

When I talked to Dave about this, he said he liked to put the bungee on the pulley at the boat as opposed to how we run them. We currently run board shockers at the board. His claim is that the shockers put to much drag on the board, causing it not to run quite as well as it would without it. By adding the bungee to the pulley he gets the same advantages – without the drawbacks. Here are a few pictures of how he has his setup.

I hope you find this article helpful. Please feel free to comment and let us know what we could add to our setup to fine tune it just a little more.

Want to experience this first hand? Book a trip today and let us show you how we roll.

Captain Tom Ullum
Lake Erie Charter Service LLC
JustWalleye.com

The post How to Run Big Planer Boards – Captain Tom Ullum appeared first on Just Walleye.

The transducer’s cone angle is an important thing to consider when using sonar. Generally, lower frequencies tend to use a wider angle, and higher frequencies use narrower angles. Every manufacturer is slightly different but for the most part, 83khz uses a 60-degree cone angle while 200khz is around 20 degrees.

This is important to understand because in 40-feet of water, a 60-degree cone will ‘read’ a bottom diameter of 40-feet (60-degree cone diameter is nearly equal to depth), and which is about 1250-square-feet of coverage area – while at 40-feet with a 20-degree cone will cover a diameter of about 1/3 the depth, making it a 13-ft diameter or 130-square-feet or coverage area.

As you can start to imagine this will make a big difference in how many fish your sonar unit is going to mark, just based on coverage area. There really isn’t an instance that I can think of on Lake Erie where I would want to run anything other than 200khz. It’s capable of marking fish in depths of up to 200-ft, and I don’t know about you but I’ve never caught a walleye that was 200-feet down.

Marking fish with a 20-degree cone – although it’s a fairly narrow cone – it can still be deceiving when you’re fishing depths that we often see on Lake Erie (40-60 feet or more). In 60-feet of water, the 20-degree cone is covering around a 20-foot diameter or a surface area of over 300 sq ft. The cone area halfway up the water column (or 30-feet down) would only be roughly half the area (30-ft).

If the fish were spread out evenly throughout all 60-feet of the water column, it would appear that there are nearly double the amount of fish marking on the screen at the bottom than halfway up and next to no fish near the surface. Just keep in mind that if you’re marking even just a few fish up high, it’s very possible that there are way more fish up high than your sonar is showing. Because the cone is so narrow that high up, the sample area is much smaller. You might also find that your marking most fish around 30-ft down but still have quite a few down lower. However, it’s more likely that you are being deceived by the sample size of the cone as it widens out down deeper and there are really way more fish around that 30-foot depth than there are down deeper.

Marking Fish at Cruising Speed

This is a very important part of being able to use your sonar efficiently to eliminate water. Lake Erie is way too vast to have to be at an idle to mark fish. You need to be able to mark fish while the boat is on plane. It’s really a fine art trying to get a sonar to work well at speed, and transducer placement is key. Some larger boats will use a through hull transducer with a fairing block, and even spacers to get the transducer under the turbulence caused by the strakes on the bottom of the boat.

I would recommend doing plenty of hours of research on your particular boat and type of transducer prior to drilling any holes. Possibly even adding a piece of mounting board to the transom to mount transducers on, so you can make adjustments or changes without punching a ton of holes in the boat. Consider hiring a professional to help you mount and adjust the transducer. Whatever you do, make sure you can mark fish at cruising speed.

Ghost Fish

We have had this scenario play out so many times we made a name for it. Here is how it goes. You’re running out and not really marking much, just a few fish up high but nothing crazy. You slow down to have a better look and hardly mark a single fish. Back on plane and you start to mark a few more up high but again not a ton of fish just a few.

Finally, it hits you the few fish you’re marking are the ones who didn’t get out of the way of the boat in time because they are not very deep in the water. They spook away from the boat and the coverage of your transducer is much narrower up high in the water column, making it harder to mark shallow fish. With such a small coverage area, when you slow down the fish have plenty of time to move off to the sides – so you don’t mark hardly ANY. You stop and set a few lines with short leads putting your baits less than 10-feet down and BAM – it’s fish after fish, all the while you’re not marking a single fish with the sonar but catching them on the rods.

Even on days when you are marking good numbers of fish down lower, it’s always a good idea to set a few lines up way higher than you would think they should be just to keep them honest.

Fish On The Bottom

Your sonar unit is not generally going to show you fish that are sitting on the bottom. The fish that appear to be on the bottom are at least 8-12″ off of the bottom – possibly more depending on how wide of the cone angle selection and the frequency settings. Higher frequencies give better target separation but they still have limits.

Down Imaging can be a much better way to find and target fish that are sitting near or on the bottom. If your unit doesn’t feature Down Imaging, all is not lost. If you start to notice a lot of marks on the bottom, you can assume there are more than what your sonar is showing you. If you have used a sonar unit while ice fishing you can see this happen in real time. Watch your bait as it drops down through cone. When it gets about a foot above the bottom the mark starts to blend into the bottom. When it’s on the bottom lift it back up and watch how far you need to lift it before your sonar starts to mark it again.

When It Matters

Finding fish on Lake Erie can be very easy depending on the time of year and what port you’re fishing. If you fish out of Lorain in June you will have a hard time finding a bad area. Come back in mid-August and you will need to rely heavily on your electronics. When the screen is loaded with targets you can put just about anything out there and catch fish.

When you’re fishing an area where the migrating walleyes have already left or haven’t arrived yet, a better understanding of what your sonar is telling you can help you dial in the program. Get your baits in front of fish faster and help you catch the few resident fish that are there. As far as trying to target big fish goes you can still use your sonar to help you narrow it down.

It’s not too often we find mixed schools of males and females usually it’s one or the other. If you find an area that has a lot of marks fish that area a bit if you find yourself catching a bunch of small males it might be time to start burning some fuel to look for a different school of fish and repeat.

Just keep in mind if you’re catching males it’s likely the large schools of females are many miles away farther to the east. Not all the females are going to migrate east as the summer progresses you can still find a few relating to cover, depth changes, and current breaks. This to me seems like a topic we could better cover with an article on utilizing Side imaging, down imaging, and GPS.

A very important aspect of becoming the best angler you can be is always being willing to learn. I acknowledge that I don’t know it all. I’m always eager to hear different anglers points of view on any fishing related subject. I would also point out that I am willing to give my point of view but I reserve the right to be wrong. If you feel there is something you would like to add we would be happy to hear it. leave a comment in the box below.

As always we would be more than happy to have you out fishing with us. We just a phone call to 330-309-5734!

Captain Tom Ullum
Lake Erie Charter Service LLC
(330) 309-5734

The post Understanding Sonar Displays – Part Two appeared first on Just Walleye.

For a good majority of the season, Lake Erie walleyes are found suspending. In most inland lakes, fish relate to some sort of cover such as points, rock piles, river channels, etc. On Lake Erie we find that walleyes tend to school up and follow bait fish and preferred water quality (temperature, clarity, dissolved oxygen levels).

The single most important aspect of catching fish on Lake Erie? You have to be on the fish.

Fish Arches

When and why fish show up as ‘arches’ can also help you interpret a lot of what your sonar is displaying. To understand this you must understand how sonar works.

The transducer sends a sound signal down into the water and waits to hear the echo or return signal back. It measures the time it takes the signal to hit an object and then return back to the transducer. However, there is much more to it than that. We could spend days discussing all the technical details.

The good news is you don’t need an engineering degree to understand the important parts of sonar. What you do need to understand is that the transducer signal is projected down to the bottom in a ‘cone’ shape. I find a lot of anglers think of it as more of a triangle. This is not accurate it’s a 3D cone. When I’m trying to explain this to someone, I like to have them imagine the beam from a flashlight. Take the light and set it down on the floor then slowly lift it up higher and higher. Take notice of how the area of coverage gets wider as you lift the light. the angle of the beam stays the same but as the distance increases the area of coverage gets wider.

The beam or cone of the transducer works identically to the flashlight. The deeper the water, the wider the area of coverage will be at the bottom. The angle of the cone will usually be determined by the frequency settings – we’ll touch more on cone angle later. We have a three-dimensional cone under the boat but only a two-dimensional screen to display the information on.

The two dimensions the screen displays are time and distance. From top to bottom represents the distance. From right to left represents time. The right side of the screen is the present time and anything left of that point is in the past. The amount of time displayed is directly related to the scroll speed in your settings. The higher the scroll speed the less time or history is displayed, and the slower the speed the more time or history is displayed.

Let’s imagine the boat is sitting still. A fish enters the cone and swims directly through the middle of the cone and then exits the cone on the other side at a steady, but slow speed. The screen will start to show a return starting on the right side the moment the fish enters the cone. This return will continue to get longer much like its being printed out onto the screen. This will continue all the way up until the fish exits the cone on the other side.

The length of the mark on the screen from right to left does not represent the size of the fish, it only represents the amount of time the fish spent in the cone.

Once enough time has passed, that mark will have made its way all the way to the left of the screen and eventually exit the screen. Now let’s say that same fish was spooked by something and it came racing back through the cone at the exact same angle and the same depth, just in reverse – entering where it left and exiting where it had previously entered the cone but at a very high rate of speed. Again, the return would begin to print out from the right the moment the fish entered the cone it will continue to print getting longer and longer until the fish exited the cone. The same fish will have spent much less time in the cone and will be displayed as a much shorter mark on the screen.

That same fish has entered the cone at two different points within the transducer signal and swam in opposite directions each time it passed through the cone. It could have entered from the bow and exited the stern side of the cone, or it could have entered at the port side and exited the starboard side of the cone, or any angle in between.

The sonar unit doesn’t care – it’s only displaying a target in the cone for the amount of time it’s within the cone, no matter from what side it enters or exits. If a fish hangs out in the cone for long enough it will print a mark that reaches all the way from one side of the screen to the other. It will only stop when the fish exits the cone.

The other dimension is the distance from the transducer, this is displayed vertically on the screen from top to bottom. Let’s say the fish we’ve been talking about – let’s call him ‘Joe’ – entered the cone 20-ft down in the water column and the boat is in 30-ft of water. Joe maintains the same depth as he enters the cone as when he leaves the cone. When Joe enters the very outermost edge of the cone, the distance from the transducer to Joe is slightly longer then it will be once he makes his way directly under the transducer in the center of the cone.

The sonar is only able to represent distance as depth as Joe makes his way to the center of the cone the distance shortens until he makes it to the halfway point. Then the distance starts to increase again as he moves away from the center, up until the point he exits the cone. The sonar will start to print out his return slightly deeper at the start and as the distance gets shorter. The mark will start to print out onto the screen higher until he reaches the center of the cone and then back down lower as he exits – giving the mark on the screen that ideal ‘arch’ shape.

The same thing happens to the sonar return as the boat starts to move. The sonar doesn’t care if Joe is moving or if the boat is moving over Joe. The same rules apply, the sonar displays how long Joe was in the cone and what the distance from the transducer to Joe was at any given time as he passes through the cone or the cone passes over him. At higher boat speeds the marks on the screen are going to be shorter, and at slower boat speeds the marks are going to be longer. The distance will stay consistent regardless of how fast or slow we pass over Joe. As he enters and exits the cone, the geometry of the cone and his position in the cone will change the distance to the transducer as he nears the center of the cone.

There is sort of a third dimension being displayed on your screen and that is color. When Joe passed under your transducer his return strength was depicted by the brightness of the color displayed on the screen. This will also increase and decrease as the fish enters and exits the cone. However, this can be deceiving as Joe might not always pass under the transducer in the center of the cone. He could easily be off the port or starboard side making him appear to be a weaker return that some anglers would simply call a smaller fish.

Too Many Unknowns

There are too many variables to take into consideration when trying to decide how big the fish you’re marking really are. If you could keep the variables constant and have a large fish enter the cone and then a smaller fish, the sonar display will show the bigger fish as a larger mark and the smaller fish as a small mark. Here are some variables to consider.

Fish in deep water can look small, and fish in really shallow water can look huge because they are much closer to the transducer and make a stronger return. I hear guys making claims on the radio and at the dock of some big fish marks they found, but ultimately it’s too hard to say if the fish was simply swimming in the same direction at the boat, making it appear to be a longer mark.

If the signal strength was much better showing some really strong return colors on the screen, could it be that there were a few fish that just happened to be positioned just perfectly center under the cone, while the rest of the fish were more off to the sides? Could three or four fish be in the same depth together in such a tight group that the sonar couldn’t separate them, and showed one bigger stronger return as if it was one fish?

I think it’s quite possible that all of these situations are often claimed to be big fish when realistically it’s your sonar playing ‘tricks’ on you. Now, I have invested countless hours watching sonar displays and I can usually tell the difference in small baitfish schools, large shad, white bass, or white perch as opposed to walleyes. But trying to tell the difference between a 20-inch walleye and a 28-inch walleye just by the sonar returns I think could prove to be next to impossible. There is one, 100% accurate way to tell if you’re marking big fish and honestly, it’s fairly simple. That method is to catch them!

Stay tuned for Part Two!

As always, we would be more than happy to have you out fishing. Call 330-309-5734 & join us!

Captain Tom Ullum
Lake Erie Charter Service LLC
(330) 309-5734

The post Understanding Sonar Displays – Part One appeared first on Just Walleye.

If you talk to the majority of successful entrepreneurs or business owners from just about any walk of life, the claim seems to be the same. The best return on investment they see is always investing in themselves. They use webinars, lectures, and classes to short-track them to success.

In the Lake Erie fishing industry, you can spend thousands on: fishing gear, rod holders, jets, snap weights, rods, reels, different types of lines, and the list goes on. At some point, the purchases you made on gear that wasn’t really relevant to the goal you’re trying to achieve may outweigh the cost of a knowledgeable guide. Hiring a charter could save you money and get you catching more fish, faster.

If you are an experienced angler who has fished for walleye all over the country, or someone who has never picked up a fishing rod but wants to experience our great fishery – take a second and read this. We have people who travel from as far West as California to as far East as Maine to come and fish Lake Erie.

Our Lake Erie walleye fishery has truly exploded over the past decade. The walleye population has been climbing – but so has the number of fishermen. If you browse the internet, you will see that everyone is a professional guide but do not want to help you learn.

Which is the opposite of our charter captain philosophy.

Here at Lake Erie Charter Service, we take your experience in fishing into consideration as long as you have an open mind, and you’re willing to learn on the water. We can show you different lures or patterns and help show you ways to present them that have been successful for us. Yes, walleye are walleye but they all act differently in different bodies of water due to the lakes design, forage, water temperature, or their seasonal movements.

Fish behavior is a major factor on Lake Erie. No matter how experienced you are as a fisherman, the first time on this lake it can be intimidating. Invest in hiring a charter and the Lake Erie Charter Service Captains can show you; what to look for on your electronics; how to navigate the lake safely; where & when you should be investigating certain areas of the lake; plus, what structure to target and the best places to launch a boat in your future outings.

Lake Erie is 240 miles long – there is A LOT of water to filter through.

Another advantage of hiring a guide service is that they can help you save time and money by avoiding unproductive areas and using the most effective techniques. For example, depending on what side of the lake you are fishing from, reefs in front of Davis Bessie or trolling in 65 ft. of water by Cleveland. The equipment being used and how to properly use it differs.

The skills we can teach you in both areas will save you money and important vacation time.

Each angler is different in the way they want to catch the fish. For example, jigging, casting worm harness or trolling. We can help you with all of them.

For the anglers who own their own boat and are interested in fishing Lake Erie, we always suggest booking a charter on the first day of your trip or each trip you make. You save a ton of time looking for fish, choosing the correct lures, trolling speeds, target depths, etc.

Simply, it will set the rest of your Lake Erie fishing trip up for success, taking a lot of the guessing out of it. It will help you be able to focus on having a good time with your friends and family, instead of being bummed out…while catching no fish.

When you come out fishing with us, we’ll help you perfect the craft in your passion – no matter which technique you prefer. Trust me, there is no better feeling than getting my clients on fish and helping them grow as a fisherman.

Finally the last topic I wanted to touch on is my least favorite. When choosing to purchase a guided charter trip the cost of hiring a guide varies depending on the length of the trip, the number of people, and the services provided. People who are both experienced fishermen or greenhorns will sometimes cringe at the cost of a charter.

Well, let’s talk about costs.

When you own a fishing charter business you need to have: a boat, rods, reels, lures, copious amounts of line, and terminal tackle. Then, you factor in expenses including gas, dockage, insurance, etc. The price of fishing can be terrifying. Please understand that we are fishing at a high level, and can show you the differences between needs and wants. We can show you how to be a successful, budget-friendly walleye fisherman, or show you the gear needed to take your sport to the next level.

Like the old saying says, you get what you pay for. Here at Lake Erie Charter Service, we pride ourselves in making sure you have the best experience possible. An incredible experience that brings you back every year or helps you in your own pursuit of walleye.

However, there are some things you can do that will help save yourself some money. You can get a large group together and all can help split the cost – or go on a shorter trip.

In summary, whether or not to hire a charter for your fishing vacation to Lake Erie depends on your experience level, knowledge of the area, and budget. If you are new to fishing or the area, or if you want to improve your chances of catching fish and learning new skills, hiring a charter can be a great investment.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to call us at 330-309-5734. We’re here to help!

Captain Dylan Nostrant
Lake Erie Charter Service LLC
(330) 309-5734

The post The Value of a Lake Erie Charter appeared first on Just Walleye.

The types of jigging I intend to cover with this article will pertain to Lake Erie. Most of the jigging is done in the Western basin from Port Clinton to Toledo, OH.

Pre-spawn Jigging

This type of jigging isn’t the typical method that most anglers think of when we talk about jigging. You will be fishing deeper flats just outside spawning areas, targeting fish that are staging and waiting on the spawn to get underway.

The easiest way to explain this is to imagine ice fishing from a boat. The boat will be anchored and you will drop a bait down to the fish. Usually dropping it to the bottom then lift slowly 6 to 18 in. up and slowly let it back down, never really letting the bait free fall – just a slow up and down motion. Let the fish tell you what they want. Sometimes its 4-6 inches of vertical movement and other times it’s 1-3 ft.

Then move the bait up a few feet in the water column and repeat. They are not always on the bottom. The depth of the fish can change by the hour, and usually any decent sonar can let you know once the fish start suspending.

Similar to ice fishing, jigging spoons with several shiners on the hook or a jigging rap with or without shiners are the baits of choice for this type of fishing. These fish are not usually actively feeding, but they are not going to pass up on an easy target.

Jigging the Walleye Spawn

Jigging during the spawn usually takes place on the reefs and on shallow flats surrounding them. The males, like most men, are anxious to get the spawn underway and they’ll start showing up in the shallow spawning areas usually around mid to late March they will stay there for about the next eight weeks. The females, however, will only move in to drop their eggs and then return to deeper waters, only spending a short time in the spawning grounds. Leaving the males to fertilize the eggs and guard them against predators.

For this type of jigging – the hair jig is king. 5/8-ounce and 3/4-ounce hair jigs with a stinger hook are hard to beat. As far as color goes, you can use any color you want… as long as it’s purple or black. As always in fishing, there is much debate on what lines, rods, reels, etc. are best. I like a little more of a firm rod, (6’6″ medium heavy fast action) for this and braided line 10-15# with a mono leader.

Set up upwind of the area you want to cover and drift over it. Keep in mind the fish that you’re targeting are fairly shallow, therefore running the boat right over them can be counterproductive.

For more info on drifting and boat control refer to our casting article.

The actual retrieve is going to be dependent on the conditions you find yourself in. Wind and water clarity are going to decide for you how you want to work your jig.

Let’s get water clarity out of the way. Remember these fish are not here to feed. They are here to fertilize and guard eggs. I like to imagine this like a birds-eye view, in cleaner water the fish tend to ease off the bottom giving them a better line of sight over a larger area. Whereas in more stained and even muddy water they need to stay tighter to the bottom to see anything at all.

The hair jig is so effective for this because it resembles a small predator trying to eat the eggs they are guarding, triggering a reaction to kill the threat rather than feeding. Heavy jigs move fast and appear to be jumping down onto a nest of eggs. The fish doesn’t have time to try to distinguish what it is, just that it needs to be stopped. In low visibility conditions, the fish cant locate a bait that is 2 or 3ft. over them nearly as well as a bait that is only just a few inches away. You will find staying close to the bottom tends to be more productive in stained water.

Just the opposite seems to be true in clearer water. Lifting the jig higher allows it to be spotted farther away and get more attention. It also seems a more aggressive sort of snapping action to the rod can generate more strikes in clear water, as it makes the jig move faster and give the fish less time to look leaving no choice but to attack. I think this is why adding live bait to the jigs is usually not that effective. (I said what I said.)

Wind plays a factor in how we work our jig because it directly affects the speed of the boat. With little to no wind, you really only have two choices: you can vertical jig, or you can cast and retrieve.

When casting you want to make a long cast then allow the jig to hit bottom. Start working it back to the boat all the while reeling up slack fast enough to keep the line from getting too much slack, but only moving the bait with the rod itself. In a fairly quick jerking action point the rod at the jig then with a quick flick of the wrist, jerk the rod tip up. Then with the reel keep a very slight tension as you lower the tip back down to do it again. It might be necessary to go to a lighter jig so you can slow down the retrieve a bit without snagging up on every nearby rock.

When the wind is moving the boat along with a little more speed it’s usually not necessary to reel at all – just let enough line out to keep in contact with the bottom and pop the rod tip up. Then follow the jig back down to the bottom keeping the line tight. Then just repeat this as the boat keeps moving you along. This seems to be the optimal condition as it allows you to keep presenting your jig to more and more fish as you cover water. As boat speed increases you might need to go to a heavier jig to keep contact with the bottom and keep the jig from swimming along instead of jumping along.

But wait – there’s more.

The blade bait is also a commonly used lure that can be very productive during this time of year. In the last few paragraphs, you could replace the word jig with blade bait and have similar results. They can be used just about the same way as a hair jig but they do require a bit more of a pull to get them vibrating. There are times when they just simply outperform the hair jig, the vibration they put off can be heard or felt from a very long way. Some guys will claim them to be the way to go in stained water, but I have found them to be very productive in both clear and muddy water.

The moral of the story is to try them often because the fish just seem to be temperamental and you never know what’s going to trigger more strike. I don’t recommend using these without a leader. Using braid straight to the bait seems to cause a lot of problems as a leader of a stiffer mono or equivalent goes a long way in keeping the line from wrapping up around the bait and hooks.

With all this information you might think to yourself “boy, there sure is a lot to having success jig fishing”. In all honesty, when the bite is good you have a hard time doing it wrong. They do seem to have times when they are more aggressive. The weekends especially seem to be an early bite, and they seemingly shut down after just an hour or two into the day and then they fire back up in the last few hours of the day.

I believe we can contribute this to a large number of boats out on the weekends. The noise of all the boats moving around, along with most of the aggressive fish being in coolers headed back to the dock. It doesn’t take long and you will be scratching your head thinking how can they just flip “The Switch” like that?

Thanks,
Captain Tom Ullum
(330) 309-5734

The post Jigging for Lake Erie Walleye appeared first on Just Walleye.

Before we get started I would like to mention a few things. The vast majority of our fishing time is spent trolling. It fits the clients’ needs better in most cases. We don’t recommend casting for inexperienced groups.

As far as fishing goes I personally consider myself an apprentice. Even more so on this particular topic. We’re always trying to learn new things in trying to be a better walleye fisherman. In my claim to not knowing everything, I hereby reserve the right to be wrong.

Drifting

Drifting is a very basic concept. You need to find fish to target, then run into the wind until you have reached the edge of the school or the end of a reef you intend to fish. Shut the boat down and let the wind and waves push you back over the area you want to cover. You want the boat to drift sideways. Try to get the wind blowing onto the port side. Most outboard and I/O boat configurations do best with the motor or outdrive turned all the way to port. That should keep you drifting sideways. Every boat drifts a little differently.

Inboard boats do have an advantage here with a low and centralized center of gravity, they don’t rock and roll nearly as much as a lot of other boats. They seem to drift sideways regardless of the steering wheel position. One thing they can do is change course slightly while drifting. Say you have a west wind, and your setup with the wind on your port side and moving to the starboard side. In this scenario, the bow would be pointed north and the stern south. Turn the rudder to the starboard and the boat will slowly move southeast as it drifts, and to port it will go northeast.

This is very helpful if you’re in a pack of boats, keeping distance from slower moving boats, or to fine tune the drift to target a certain area.

Ideal drift speeds can vary based on the type of fishing you’re doing. While trolling for steelhead we often catch walleye. The speeds we run often exceed 3-mph. Don’t be afraid to allow the boat to drift fast, just know that you will need more weight to get down to the fish.

All boats are different. On windy days it might be necessary to use drift bags to slow your boat down. Some days the fish are just not willing to chase a fast-moving lure. This is all just trial and error and fishing the conditions you are dealt.

On days when the wind is hardly blowing, it might be necessary to go to lighter weights and reel faster to make up for the lack of drift speed.

Casting

Casting or cast and drift fishing can be a fun way to put a limit of walleyes in the boat. In fact, I get much more enjoyment fishing this way than trolling. For this style of fishing I like to use a 6 1/2 ft. rod with a medium or medium light action. There are hundreds of options as far as rods and reels go. A good bang for your buck is the Pflueger President series.

There is much debate on what line is best. I like to use a light, braided line 10 to 12lb. test with a mono leader. It offers much better sensitivity and with its lower diameter, it falls faster too. There is more to having a successful day fishing this way, than just simply casting out a lure and allowing the boat to pull it along as it drifts.

Walleye are much more likely to strike a bait when it’s just slightly above them. The general rule is a 3/4-oz. weight will sink at a rate of about 1.5 feet per second. If you want you can start by giving yourself a baseline. Make a short cast perpendicular to the wind count from the time your lure hits the water until it reaches the bottom then do the math.

We are not building rocket ships here, we just want a repeatable method we can use to keep our baits in the same area of the water column. Using your sonar as a reference, look to see how far down the majority of the fish are suspended. With some simple math we can get a starting point. For example, let’s say you’re in 30 ft. of water the fish are marking at 15 ft. down. Using a 3/4 oz. weight, we would want to start with a 10-second count down (10-count). Cast out and when the lure hits the water – start counting (one thousand, two thousand, etc).

When you get the desired number (10) start reeling at a steady pace just fast enough to get the blade spinning. It is absolutely imperative to pay attention. Treat every cast as if it was within inches of a trophy walleye. With about every tenth cast, add or subtract a few seconds off your count. Keep changing the count until you get a willing participant to latch on.

With all the excitement of the first fish, it’s easy to forget where you were on your count when you caught the fish. You don’t want to have to start over, so pay attention until you have it dialed in.

Walleyes are much less likely to strike a lure that is just swimming in a straight line at a constant speed.

When you’re fishing from the center of the boat, changing your retrieve speed is about all you can do. Try to vary the speed of the bait by keeping a constant reeling speed, but pulling the rod tip to one side in a sweeping motion thus pulling the bait along much faster. Keep reeling, but slowly move the rod tip back pointing it back at the bait. Once you’re pointed at the bait give it another long sweeping pull to the side.

This can also be done in a vertical motion allowing for more change in depth. This motion should feel somewhat like you’re picking up your coffee off the table, taking a drink, and setting it back down, slowly. At no point should you allow slack in the line even as you’re letting your rod tip back down. Try both, as sometimes one is working better than another. If the boat is drifting fast enough it may not even be necessary to reel at all.

This next tactic is simple but extremely effective. If you are fortunate enough to be at the bow or stern of the boat, you have the advantage. The boat should be drifting along sideways. Wind and waves hitting the port side pushing the boat to starboard.

Let’s assume you’re lucky enough to fish from the bow. You want to cast upwind at about a 45-degree angle, as soon as the bait hits the water close the bail on your reel. Quickly reel up just enough to keep a very slight tension on the line – just enough to keep in contact with the lure. Often fish will hit the bait on the fall.

Start your count and when it’s time to start reeling just reel fast enough to get the blade spinning, it should feel like it’s thumping. As the boat starts to get past the lure it will start changing the direction the lure is headed in. Your lure will basically make a turn as the boat starts pulling it along. You should feel the speed of the blade starting to increase. Your reeling speed starts to be coupled with the boat’s speed as it gets further and further into the turn or “the swing”.

At this point, you can try a few different things. You can slow down reeling to keep the speed consistent, or you can continue allowing the bait to race. I like to give a swift snap of the rod right at the peak of the swing, making the bait dart. Then a pause to let the lure free fall for just a second then back to reeling. The takeaway here is to keep trying different things as you go until the fish tell you what they want. Just be sure you’re paying attention so you can repeat it over and over until your cooler is full.

Let’s talk about the lures we use.

To be honest there are a ton of different lures out there, but for the most part they all do the same thing. The main ones are: weapons and weight-forward spinners. They are the exact same thing – only totally different.

Weight forward spinners are pre-configured and have the weight built right into a complete package. Just add a bit of crawler and you’re ready to go. The advantages are they use steel wire as the main line and the spinner spins on a clevis, mounted to the steel wire. They don’t typically fail due to the clevis spinning and as long as they are kept free of rusting they can last forever. The downside to them is that you need to have tons of them to cover all the different weights and color configurations you might want.

With the weapons, however, you can have just a few and cover just about every weight and color combination you could ask for.

If choosing to tie your own, you can use a quick change clevis that allows you to change to blades in seconds. You can change the color and blade profile (Colorado, Indiana, willowleaf) which can transform the bait entirely. Just be aware the quick change clevis takes a bit more speed to get the blade turning than the standard metal clevis.

With weapons, you will use an egg sinker. Your main line will be terminated with a small snap-swivel, and the end of the weapon will be tied into a loop along with a bead. Simply slide the loop through the hole in the egg sinker and then clip the line in the snap on the end of your main line. (Pictured below,) when you want to change the weight just unclip the snap, trade out the weight and you’re on your way.

They to are not without flaws. They tend to tangle around themselves more often, especially for less experienced anglers. They are usually tied up with a monofilament line. The constant spinning of the clevis on the line can cause them to fail. Mono also breaks down when exposed to sunlight.

I didn’t have a weapon laying around so I used an old harness and tied a loop with a bead, you get the idea.

One mistake I see people make very often is putting way too much bait on the hook. A big balled-up bunch of nightcrawler can cause the bait to not sink as fast as it should, and hinder the action of the bait as it’s being used. It’s not the bigger the gob, the better the job as some might think.

What you want to do is start with either end of a nightcrawler and thread it onto the hook. You want to cover the straight shank of the hook from the eyelet to the bend. Once you have enough worm on the hook to cover the straight shank, poke the tip hook out and slide it up the hook to the eyelet leaving the bend exposed. Leave around a 2-inch tail off the back of the hook. This will allow the worm to kick and have a swimming action as the blade of your lure thumps and vibrates. It should take about half of a night crawler.

Hopefully this is enough information to help you get started with cast and drift fishing. Please feel free to drop us a note with a comment. As always, if you want to go out and try this technique first-hand, we would be happy to take you on the water.

Book a trip now with a simple call or text to 330-309-5734.

Thanks,
Captain Tom Ullum
330-309-5734
Lake Erie Charter Service, LLC

The post Casting & Drifting for Lake Erie Walleye appeared first on Just Walleye.

With in-line planer boards, most people over-complicate the process. The most important method in fishing is the KISS method. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Perfecting the basics is what makes for the best fishermen.

I run my boards exactly how they come in the package – minus swapping the rear clip out. The red rear clip I remove and those get used for snap weights. I install offshore OR-18 Snapper Clips on the rear. I choose not to run tattle flags because I can read the boards. I also don’t like the way the boards run with the tattle flags.

Use the “pop method” for popping the line out of the front clip. I use monofilament for this set-up (12# test). Popping the line out of the front clip allows you to fight only the fish and pull lines out of the middle of the spread without reeling other lines in.

To start with, you make a loop then twist it 5-7 times. You will then install the twisted part of the line into the clip.

This twist needs to be nice and clean – sloppy loops will cause problems. You want the loop part to be just big enough you can get your finger out when it’s in the clip. Then install the line in the rear snapper clip. Make sure to snap it forward so that the pin goes into the hole.

Setting lines out with boards is an easy process. Start them out and set the clicker on and allow the board to go out while setting the next line and stop it at your desired distance. The longest lead should always be the farthest from the boat and the shortest is closest. This allows you to pop the boards and bring fish out of the middle of your spread.

This also allows you to set them back out in the middle of the set-up in the same spot. I like to run a minimum of 50 feet distance between my boards.

I think if you give these things a try you’ll become a more efficient walleye angler.

Captain Terence Smith (The Loin Smith)

The post In-Line Planer Boards – Setting Up for Success appeared first on Just Walleye.