Had to make a trip down to chi-land & leave my binging smallies. Although I was bummed about leaving a hot bite, It was a very timely interruption that would gain me access to my tackle-making laboratory.
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Seeing as how I was running low on almost all lead, I tried to make the most out of the turnaround trip.
So, after about 26 hours, 1 Burts pizza, 1 Jays beef, & some quality time in my lab, I was on my way back north with about 300 new jigheads!
I brought a salmon stick with the intention of hitting 1 of the cheeseland harbors for kings on the way but that was not happening! Lake was all ripped up looking like mud with rollers breaking over top of the walls. Never even took a rod out of the car & just continued northward.
After some domestic duty & emptying a boat filled with rainwater, I went out in the blustery post-front conditions that developed in my absence to try & pick up where I left off...............WRONG!
Hit 2 spots that collectively spit out 20-25 decent smallies prior to the front & only had 1 bite & caught 1 bass.
Hit a deep hole near the house on the way back & found crappies stacked on a tree limb in 20'. Caught a few of them but the wind was cranking so much I got to the "F -this" point & cut it short figuring Id tie jigs instead.
Woke up early the next a.m. & thought I could get an hour or so in before doing a few things. Water was glass calm & no breeze so I figured Id hit that deep tree limb from the previous outing & try to find some slabs. This general spot is about 50 seconds @ 2/3-throttle from the dock & also is adjacent to the deepest point in the whole lake. I have caught walleye in the deep portion (28'ish) a few times, but not lately.
Well, I never did make it to the tree limb/crappie because the walleyes were hammering newly-tied hair jigs down deep! For a good hour it was pretty hard to swim it along the bottom without it getting hammered. Caught probably 12-15 eyes in about 1.5 hours. Most of them ran 12"-16", with a couple slightly bigger. Nothing huge, but still entertaining. The highlight was a 22" . 3 different boats came (&went) by doing the vertical jig/minnow thing but I didnt see it produce anything.
Making long casts & swimming/gliding 1/4 oz bucktails at a moderate to slow speed along the bottom was getting a reaction. The windless conditions made it very easy to fish a 1/4 in 22-29' on a ML setup w/ 4lb-diameter braid.. There wasnt much subtle about the bites, they were really wacking it. It definitely also seems the bigger profile, longer the hair is on a jig, the more attn it gets from both big & small fish.