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Today's Top 5
The only fishing product meant to STOP you from catching fish?! 🛑
Called the Toddy Stopper from Gambler and it's a little plastic dealio specifically designed for folks that are pre-fishing for an upcoming derby...it covers the hook point so you can shake off bites and stop "winning practice" lol.
Of course depending on what you're throwing, you can just cut the hooks off your bait...but no one wants to do that with something like a Z-Man ChatterBait JackHammer. 🤑

Definitely more of a fit in the bass tourney world, but just interesting how when you think you've seen it all – you haven't.
The one that almost got away.
Look on the bright side, Jason Makela...you didn't lose your Rapala Jigging Rap:
If that eyeball was about 3x bigger, I'd say it belonged to this one-eyed walligator Spenser Samplawski shared on his Instagram story the other day:
Imagine the stories those fish will tell their grandkids:
Might seem impressive it can track down baits with a missin' peeper, but could it actually make it easier...? Check this random pirate fact of the day:

> Some assume pirates wore eye patches to cover a missing (or wounded) eye…but an eye patch was more likely to be used to condition the eye so the pirate could fight in the dark under the deck.

Btw I've never met a real-life pirate, so no way of knowing if that's 100% legit or not....
What in the Elon Musk is this thing?! 🤣🧐👨‍🔬🚀
Apparently that is Merc's 600-hp V12 Verado. Of course for BIG boats with multiple outboards on the back...but considering there's walleye rigs out there taking 450s now, it's just a matter of time before this comes to our side of the boating world LOL.

And check this:

> The industry's first steerable gearcase on an outboard pivots independently underwater while the engine's powerhead remains in a space‑saving fixed position. This provides more room for multi‑engine configurations [or when walleye-nuts try to squeeze a kicker motor, 2 Talons and a Minn Kota Vantage all on the back but still want to steer 🤪] and a wider steering angle for agile handling. With help from contra‑rotating propellers, it also has better "bite" in the water for docking and other close‑quarters maneuvering.

Wild!
Don't see that every day.... 👀
Unless you’re Trevor Murphy apparently...who caught a humpback walleye AND a pike “that could hide behind a toothpick” in the same day lol:
Funny enough his most recent Instagram post prior to that ^ was of a huge 29.5” walleye they caught on the Rainy River that had a 12" sauger down its throat! Said they saw a big pod of fish on Side Imaging, turned around and pulled Rapala Original Floaters on 3-way rigs thru the middle of them, and this thing apparently wasn’t done eating:
#StrangerThings
You see the newest "Top 5" yet?!
This is Episode 19 that I snuck out over the weekend. Big thx to our friends at Sea Foam for making this fun video series possible! Hope you enjoy:
All of these "Top 5" videos run between-ish 4 to 7 minutes so you can quickly keep up with what's going on in the fishing world, and get a little chuckle in the meantime. If you wanna catch up on episodes, I've put them all in a single YouTube playlist here. 🍿
News

Holy crazies. 😳


That's going to sound really nice come Jan 6-8.


Features ICAST 2022 "Best of Category" winning products – some not yet available to the general public. All proceeds go to support Keep America Fishing – the voice of the American Angler. The auction runs thru 8pm EST on Fri, Sept 30. Still some pretty good deals on there if you snoop around....


...a QR code on a decal under the cowling that you can scan with a smartphone, and it'll bring you to a page with all the videos you need to do routine maintenance yourself? Change oil, gear lube, water pump, etc. Very cool.
Btw if you haven't ever used one of those QR codes you've likely seen all over the place...you just gotta open the camera on your phone like you're going to take a picture of the code, and then a little link will automatically pop up that you can click on.


At The International Centre. Believe that's in the Toronto area.


That EDGE Leader Management box looks slick.


Not a stinky one, but a muskie one. I haven't seen any stats posted yet from the 2021 entries, but I'm picturing something like this:

Day 28: Couple more small northerns.
Day 72: Still nothing, but it's just nice to be out.
Day 1,347: Call mama! I had a follow!!

Hahaha props to those of you able to keep your head in the game long-enough to #TargetMuskie. Tho forward-facing sonar would definitely help with that....


> ...to deploy 50 artificial habitat structures in C. Ben Ross Reservoir, which fisheries biologists hope will ultimately help grow bigger largemouth bass in this fishery. These structures were placed in locations to provide additional cover for juvenile fishes in the fall and over-winter when water levels are at their lowest after the reservoir has provided water for agricultural needs in the region.




Outta the Cumberland River in Stewart County. Micka caught and released the 118-lb 7-oz (54" long x 41: girth) swamp heifer on a "skipjack" and 30-lb line.
Headline of the Day
Few TargetWalleye.com Highlights




Note: The FishUSA links in this email are affiliate links, meaning if you go through them to make a purchase we might earn a commission...at no cost to you. Click here if you want to learn a little more about links in TW.

Tip of the Day

Sensitivity

> "If you're in 20' or less, you never need to add sensitivity, and in fact, you should reduce it some.... Dialing it back just helps clean the picture up, allowing you to interpret it better. I start to add sensitivity in that 50'+ range. Let's say if I'm salmon fishing in 150-200', that's where it really helps me pick up more fish down in the depths. Without the additional sensitivity, it will mark them faintly."

Frequency

> Another important sonar setting is frequency. Many sonar manufacturers use transducers capable of 83 and 200 kilohertz. Kilohertz is a measure of frequency equivalent to 1,000 cycles per second. Anglers can set their units to operate on either 83kHz or 200kHz. It's also possible to run both 83kHz and 200kHz together, known as dual beam or dual frequency.

> Frequency is important because it reflects the number of sound pulses that leave the transducer during a time interval. Generally, the 200kHz setting is going to offer significantly better detail. However, there are situations where 83kHz will shine. On flat, featureless lakes where fish suspend, 83kHz will outperform since it emits a broader sonar signal, which spreads out in the shape of a cone and effectively covers more area. The 200kHz setting shines when marking fish close to the bottom, when target separation and detail are important. The 200kHz setting has a narrower sonar cone angle, which helps to refine the image.

> "If you're fishing around structure and dragging things that are tight to the bottom, the higher frequency is the way to go.... You have better target separation and better bottom separation. With the low-frequency mode, you lose detail toward the bottom, but you have a broader range because of that wider cone angle. It offers way more coverage."
Quote of the Day
"Sometimes we go walleye fishing during elk season...."

- That's Hayden Gandy taking down my kind of bull 🎯 from MT's Canyon Ferry:
It's such a shame that fall can't be all year round – and most years we're lucky just to get a couple weeks of it. My biggest recommendation is to sleep when it's over.
Parting Shot
Awesome shot on The Next Bite's IG of Korey Sprengel heading towards his next hookset:
It's so weird how my brain works 🥴 literally everything I see and hear somehow automatically gets some kind of fishing correlation....

For instance when I saw this pic, the very first thing I thought of is how that road looks exactly like how I "S" down a breakline when I'm graphing for fish and trying to figure out how deep they're setting up. Then after a moment I realized: "Hey, this is a really sweet shot." Hahaha!
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Who is Target Walleye

Target Walleye – walleye during open water and all species during hardwater – is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Jay Kumar, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He's in it now, but still can't answer that question.... Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a "fishing degree" at the time.... Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com

To send us walleye pics, ice shots or whatever, just respond to this email or click here to email us. Or post it on the Target Walleye Facebook page.
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