I took a bit of a gamble on this trip. 1 rod with a line counter and 1 style of lure, that being large, deep diving crank baits numbering about a dozen lures.

That would raise an eyebrow (maybe both ) from folk who know me. I typically can set up a store and always have at least 2 rods and sometimes 3. I like options.

So I was locked in to what had worked for me in the past. And that was OK.......my goal was to survive what I knew would be a grueling trip and excess tackle would only slow me down. It was a sound strategy and I have no regrets.

If I had it to do over......I dunno. There seemed to be a fair amount of big northerns in shallow. Maybe the big rod and trolling a super shad rap in 15ft would of been the way to go........maybe even connected with the larger walleyes that way as well. Geez, I sound like I didn't catch em..........I did, I just didn't catch many big ones. And for me that's what it's about. Go ahead and call me a fish snob........I like the challenge of bigger fish, little guys bore me almost instantly.

Magicpaddler wrote on Oct 24^th, 2013 at 10:33pm:

OR maybe he just listens intently to what the fish are trying to say. 

interesting stuff indeed!

personally, i never fish deeper than 30 ft. trolling that deep requires too much lead or too large of a lipped lure that puts too much wear and tear on my gear and my shoulder.

jigging in water that deep pretty much requires the use of a no stretch line and im not overly fond of jigging with braid if i dont have to. that much mono has too much stretch and the loss of sensitivity drives me nuts.

for what its worth, as much as i love fishing and how often i fish, most of that is spring/early summer/ice fishing. when mid summer rolls around, my fishing endeavors decrease as come fall its hunting time.

KF speaks to the fish!!

I had a similar experience this past summer.  Having had great success in previous Augusts down deep, this summer I was fishing much shallower not only for Walleye but also trout and Pike.  I didn't catch any monster Eyes but I brought in 2 Pike over 40" and a couple over 36".  As for trout, last summer I was down around 60' and catching quite a few in the 6 lb range.  This summer I wasn't more than 25 or 30 feet for the same amount and size.  According to my Fish Hawk sensor the water was colder this summer, reaching 50 degrees at around 25 feet in  most of the lakes I was in (WCPP.)  I don't know why the water was so much colder, certainly the 3 weeks I was there it was a virtual heat wave.

August in canoe country has typically been a mixed bag for me as far as fishing is concerned. Typically the shallows are vacated and the larger fish have relocated, become concentrated and are fat and sassy due to the abundance of grocery choices.

In my experience in fishing the shield country of Canada for some 25 plus years late summer means the bigger fish are to be found starting at 25ft and going deeper, often much deeper. I remember one 8lb walleye coming off a spike in 55ft on a yellow jig and minnow combo......

But this past August was a contrast in style with KF generally fishing smaller lures and fishing shallower. I should of handed him his head on a platter but the truth was that I took a thumping and not just in numbers but also in size.

While I did OK with several eyes caught each day of respectable size (22/24) I only caught 1 over 26. 3 decent pike in the 33/36" class also made an appearance, but none over 40. kingfisher on the other hand put in less time and caught not only more fish but more quality fish than I did.

So what gives? I fished 25/30 and he fished 15/20. I can only surmise that water temps are a bigger factor than I previously contemplated even in August. This past summer was especially cool. Even the bigger pike were shallow as I had my chance at a whopper which towed the boat (and eventually broke me off) which ate in 15ft.

Contrasting styles. It was interesting and broadened my perspectives a bit.