+1

My experiences are mostly the same.  My big pike as seen in my avatar came on a 6" swim bait.  My thought is that fish prefer to feed as efficiently as possible which means they'll prefer larger forage when they can find it.

i dont think that i really agree with much of what you are saying about size. i know thats a pretty common thought among the fishing community but from my experience size plays a much smaller role than other variables.  i stick with pretty much the same size all year round. in the spring my lures are a little larger than the spawn so they stick out, an easier meal. in the fall they are smaller than the young of the year, so they stick out, smaller generally means weaker. in the spring i retrieve more slowly. cold water means fish dont move as well, so an easier big meal is better than a smaller faster one. fall i use a more erratic retrieve.

with that said, again i prefer shad shaped lures over minnow lures of the same length. i like the larger profile, more flash, more vibration. if that means larger?

Preacher wrote on May 8^th, 2012 at 5:19pm:

I agree. Some of the best large walleye and pike fishing I've found occurs in areas that also contain lots of hand sized small mouth bass. At times it's impossible to keep them off of a smaller trolled bait. Sizing up prevents them from getting hooked but they still try and you can feel them nip at the larger lures.

i found this in an article on another side, i thought it was pretty interesting...

"Anglers often experiment between stick baits and shad profiled baits and both lure profiles have their place in walleye fishing.  The biggest lesson I have learned from my years trolling is to keep forcing yourself to try and retry different things.  Don’t live by the fishing rules so many anglers are quick to throw at you.  Matching the hatch for example is a joke with walleye fishing.  Many walleyes for example have never seen a night crawler or fire tiger minnow.  Force yourself to switch between shad profiles and minnow profiles and let the fish tell you. 

Some fisheries seem to show certain preferences towards a specific size, color or profile but be careful not to get so hung up on something that you have no confidence doing anything else.  I have worked with Salmo for quite a few years and have caught a tremendous amount of walleyes on the Salmo Suspending Stings but the size 4 and size 5 Salmo Hornets can be deadly as well.  Other great shallow water trolling lures for walleyes include the classic floating Rapala and Husky Jerks.  Smithwick Rattling Rogues can also be great but are not tuned as well.  Size 5 Rapala Shad Raps in both deep diver and shallow runner are great lures.  The Berkley Flicker Shad is a solid lure.  There are many lures that work well and in the real world outside of promotional fishing, an angler is going to have several different lures in the box and good anglers are going to have four or five go to lures that they know will catch fish. 

I am not a big color fanatic but there are a handful of color schemes I like to experiment with.  I like to test gold versus silver and I also like to experiment with basic white/ dark back lures along with chartreuse or fire tiger patterns.  The rest however is a confidence game.  There are specific funky color patterns that just seem to have an aura on a specific fishery and most people are going to fish better with more confidence if they run some of these lures.  Often, color of lure confidence prophesizes success because anglers catch the most fish on what they have in the water the most and that often boils down to confidence."
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that last line is really interesting.

with that though, i think color matters a lot more than this guy does with shape being a close second. shape though tends to have a close correlation with color though (more/less color on the profile of the lure) and i suppose size could be tossed in there as well.

what i do know, is that the shad x rap in the larger body size (08) has caught walleyes as small as 10" and as large as 26" for me personally. it comes in a shallow and deep model to get to where the fish are.

same goes for the tail dancer. it comes in taildancer and deep tail dancer. same minnow body size goes to different depths. a company that specializes in the creation of fishing lures (although admittedly they target fishermen's wallets as much as fish) sees the importance of putting a certain size at all depths in the water column

When it comes to fishing for Walleye in places like Wabakimi and I'm guessing Woodland Caribou (I'll find out this summer) I'm pretty sure I could catch my limit using a shoe lace and a safety pin.  These place are so non-pressured that fish will go after just about anything.  For those targeting trophy wallys, well that takes more skill, obviously, and shape, color and size of lure, presentation, retrieve, time of day, time of year and habitat are all going to matter.  When it comes to Walleye, I have two favorite lures for late summer fishing - Rapala Taildancers that run 15, 20 and 30 feet as well as deep diving L.C. Pointers which run about 12 to 15 feet.  In stained waters I like chartreuse and yellow and I always seem to have luck with firetiger. This summer I'm going to try a few Husky Jerks as well, I'm told blue is good.  God, I can't wait to get out there! 

@db, how does that color pattern work? i personally havent had much luck on the light blue/silver/orange combo. i have the deep husky jerk with the black back and silver sides with a kinda cream colored bottom and that works well.

jaximus wrote on May 10^th, 2012 at 12:39pm:

That lure was new to me last year. (August)  Blue always works for me mid-day and I like orange or some red on bellies and it was big so....

I used it on two lakes, one clear and one stained at two different times and locations on each. It always caught a walleye within 5 minutes. One liked it so much he hit it at the boat after I released him. The longest troll it went on ended when I noticed the vibration wasn't exactly quite right. That turned out to be a six inch eye. So YEAH! I like it! That's why I took the picture. I want to remember what it looked like so I can replace it after it gets bit off by a pesky northern or wedged between too rocks.

Maybe it the time of year, but small has been my go to strategy. I have caught almost all of my big pike on small lures. I just came out of quetico on sunday actually and between two canoes we had about 15 or more pike over 36 landed in our 8 day trip and it all happened in one spot... all the fish but one were one a 3inch flat rap. and over the years i have caught the majority of my big pike on that bait. including a 46 a couple years back. also a buddy i typically fish with almost exclusivly fishes a mistertwister casting all day and he will catch multipile big pike every year on that bait and ive even seen him catch big walleye on it too. on the flip side his brother spent 10 day period with us only fishing big baits as in muskey baits and did not catch any big pike on it. I have never gone later then june and that may have a part in it but for me shallow and small baits have been my big producers.

DB,

I fish that same color pattern on the Rapala Husky Jerk HJ-14.  It works great for shallow walleye and pike.

With regard to pike, I am definitely in the big baits = big fish camp.  80% of the time when I am pike fishing, I'm throwing musky jerk baits, glide baits, bucktails, etc.  When I get tired, I'll downside to a big spoon or a #5 Mepps. 

Incidentally, fishing large lures does not necessarily keep the small fish from attacking.  A couple of years back I was trolling a 16" UKKO musky bait on Basswood when I felt the strike.  As you can imagine, I had visions on a monster pike hitting my 16" bait, so I set that hook pretty hard.  As it turned out, I ripped a 2" slot into the top jaw of a pike that was only about 18" long.

- Dave

Sometimes I'll tie on a big popper just to watch the little fish try to hit it.

Minor highjack...

Steelhead vs. Rainbow?
They're the same species, right?  The difference being that the Steelhead has left the river for the ocean (or Great Lake) and returned to spawn?

Quote:


I thought that too, and it may be true, but I met a old guy up there (74) who was a dedicated river fisherman, had a custom jet boat set-up and everything. Retired at 56 and has been fishing ever since, even working as a guide for awhile.
According to him, a Steelhead besides spawning in the lake/ocean is a sub-species of the Rainbow?
He seemed very knowledgeable and fishes almost everyday from early spring to late November.
But I don't know for certain and would like to know if anyone knows for sure?

If I'm reading this right, then they are the same species changing appearance when the go to lake or sea. I see why people would say they were a sub-species, but it appears that isn't factual.

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I brought a new guy along on my recent QP trip.  He is an experienced angler.  He fished almost exclusively with small spinners: mepps and french spinners.  He out-caught us all!  He caught everything on these little spinners: northern, walleye, and bass. 

I was amazed.  I've never used spinners in the QP, but may try them on the next trip. 

prouboy

solotripper wrote on Jun 13^th, 2012 at 1:11pm:


What sizes do you prefer?
1,2,3,4,5?