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4608 Tower St.
Edina, MN 55424
(612) 440-7171
tcwalleyes@gmail.com
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Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited - Monthly Newsletter |
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Gone Fishing
Greetings Club friends! I can’t believe it is already June, where does the time go? We had another great turn out for the end of our club meeting season with our May guest speaker Troy Smutka. Make sure you check out the recap for some great tips to use the next time you are out on the water. Thank you Troy and thanks to all our club members who attended.
What a fun time we had at our club outing on Mille Lacs! The temps were on the hot side, and that trend seems to be continuing and a bug hatch was on, but there where plenty of walleyes caught! Congrats to Kevin Larson, his 25 ¾ inch walleye made him the champion of our spring outing. Check out all the pictures from our outing, including Kevin’s big catch on our web page under the Connect section.
As we take a break from our club meetings, make sure you follow us on Facebook or check out our website over the summer for any upcoming activities and news from the club.
I hope you all can enjoy some time on the water and I wish you all a safe and fun summer!!
Dale Meinders
President of Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited
Connect | Educate | Give
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Troy Smutka's Tips
May Speaker Re-cap
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Membership has
it's advantages
You can find out more information about Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited and our Events by going to our website and on Facebook
Connect | Educate | Give
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We are looking forward to our first mobile club fishing tournament by utilizing the FishDonkey Mobile App. The App loads pictures and posts a leader board, which looks like a lot of fun.
Look for more information to come out in an email later this week!
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Club Sponsor Spotlight
Rapid Marine
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A special welcome to the Rapid Marine Family of Dealerships who joined us as a Trophy Sponsor in June of 2021. We are excited to partner with the Top Boat/Marine Dealer and Servicer in Twin Cities and St. Cloud. Their Mission is to make your boating experiences magnificent and memorable. They are dedicated to supporting you and promise to serve you both on land and on the water!
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Rapid Marine offers
New and used boat sales featuring the best boats on the market. Click on the link or image below to learn more: rapidmarine.com
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Rapid Marine Special Offer for TCWU Members
TCWU members will receive 10% off Labor on Boat, Motor and Trailer Maintenance from July 1, 2021 through August 31, 2021. All you have to do is bring a copy or image of this offer with you when dropping your boat off for service.
Rapid Marine services include full boat, motor, trailer, maintenance and repair including:
- Accessory installation
- Winterization
- Boat Insurance repairs
- Prop and Skag repair
- Preventative maintenance
- Complete Trailer inspection and repair
- Motor inspection, oil and lube
To learn more about their full service and maintenance details Click on the link below. We ask you to check out the Rapid Marine experience and we know you won't be disappointed.
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More about Rapid Marine
At Rapid Marine, our focus remains on providing exceptional sales, value and customer service. We have an excellent selection of new and used boats for sale including Glastron runabouts and fishing boats from Lund, Ranger and Crestliner. We are also an outboard dealer offering Yamaha and Mercury outboard motors.
Contact Information and Locations
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Rapid Marine (formerly R&R Marine)
Address: 12827 Marine Dr
Shakopee, MN 55379
Rapid Marine - Rogers
Address: 21150 Rogers Dr Rogers, MN 55374
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Rapid Sport Marine - Ham Lake
Address: 1343 Andover Blvd NE
Ham Lake, MN 55304
Rapid Marine - St. Cloud
Address: 3302 10th St NE Sauk Rapids, MN 56379
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TCWU Guest Speaker Stringer
We are excited to share the list of great speakers we have lined up for our next club season. It's because you, our members, that we get to hear and learn from these amazing people. We are excited for upcoming season and hope to see all you at our meetings.
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Special Thanks to TROPHY Level Sponsors |
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Spring Club Fishing Outing Saturday, May 22, 2021 |
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We had another great turnout for our spring fishing outing at Lake Mille Lacs.
We partnered with Macs Twin Bay to access the lake and enjoyed eating out at their restaurant for the first time in a long while. Thanks for the awesome service!
Kevin Larson took home the coveted TCWU Open Trophy fishing Big Point with Slip bobbers. He and Brittany crushed 6 Walleyes and 3 nice Smallmouths before coming in for lunch. Big Point may be a early season hot spot next year as well.
We want to give a shout out to long time Macs resident/vacationer Chelsea Jordin for talking fishing with the group and taking pictures, Thank you Chelsea, you are an awesome fishing ambassador!
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Grinning and winning! Kevin Larson hoists his trophy winning catch for biggest Walleye last at the TCWU Open on Lake Mille Lacs.
Congratulations Kevin!
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Good News for Lake Mille Lacs Fall Anglers in 2021
Late season walleye harvest and night fishing are back!
Early-season walleye anglers on Mille Lacs Lake will be able to keep one walleye 21-23 inches long or one longer than 28 inches. Summer will bring catch-and-release walleye fishing, with a mid-season closure, before the potential for a one-fish limit returns in the fall starting on Thursday, Sept. 16, through Tuesday, Nov. 30. During the late season, the DNR also will allow anglers to fish from 6 a.m. to midnight.
Upper Red Lake walleye regulations announced for open water season
Anglers fishing during the summer season on Upper Red Lake in northern Minnesota will have a three-walleye bag limit, with only one walleye longer than 17 inches allowed, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Reminder: Anglers can help prevent the spread of
aquatic invasive species
The approaching fishing season comes with a reminder from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to always follow state laws to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species. It’s also important for anglers to take a few minutes for invasive species prevention every time a boat comes out of the water.
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Thank You to all our Lunker Level Sponsors |
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TCWU Pro-tip of the Month
Featuring Troy Smutka
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February guest speaker Troy Smutka shared this “Pro Tip of the Month “ with Club President Dale Meinders. Thanks for the great meeting Jon!
Click on the photo below to learn one of Troy's secrets for success
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Thank You to all our Slot Fish Level Sponsors |
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TCWU Guest Speaker Re-cap
Featuring Troy Smutka
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TCWU hosted Troy Smutka at our May Club Meeting. We had a huge member turnout and an awesome night. Its great to see many of our friends for the fist time in a long while and we are glad things returning to Pre-COVID times.
It was truly refreshing to have Troy share his story from Teacher, to Coach, to Fishing guide (Great Day on the Water Guide service). Troy really knows fishing and shared detailed fishing techniques that are easy to learn.
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For the club members that couldn’t make it in person we share Troy's fishing secrets below.
Enjoy the re-cap everyone!
Techniques and game plan for early season walleyes
- Troy likes to start shallow on the inside edge of the weed beds and work his way deeper on the outside weed edge.
- His technique is to cast and use a jerk bait presentation. Vary the jerks depending the bite
- Look for and fish around Cabbage and Coontail
- Starts out with aggressive with reaction strike baits #10 X-Raps or Rippin raps. Favorite colors are Pink, Purple
- On the stained city lakes he starts in 4-8 feet. In clearer lakes like Mille Lacs target a little deeper weed beds and edges due to clear water.
- If they are not hitting well, he switches to hair jigs
- Does catch weed walleyes on drop shot rigs, set your bait 3 to 4 feet off the bottom
Locate and fish river mouths during spawning. The water is warmer and you will have good chances to pick off females
- During spawning the males and females will group up.
- The males will stay in the spawning areas a little longer, while females that are finished will move out a little deeper to avoid relentless males.
Snap Raps and Jigging Raps
- The Snap Rap is the open water cousin of the Jig Rap. It has a Flat Back and Rounded Belly and provides more action. They work awesome on sandier flats.
- Walleyes will these baits hit on the fall
- Smallies will hit them on the rise and hang on!
- Start out jigging slow and change to a faster cadence
- You can fish over the side of the boat when you jig rap
- Tip - turn down your cone angle to really dial into the fish fishing over the side of the boat
Slip Bobbers
- Tie on two bobber stops to ensure they hold for an all-day fish
- Use a Jig head and no sinkers to keep all your weight at the end of the line, which prevents tangles when casting.
- Troy recommends the Slow Poke Jig, which sinks slowly and horizontally, instead of plunging nose first to the bottom like a weight-forward round ball jig
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- Try to match the size of the Bobber with the wait of the jig head
- Troy adjusts his bobber rig depth at different heights depending on the depth he is fishing. He will set his bobber rig 8-10 feet off the bottom in 35 feet of water off the mud.
- Use the Wing-It by Carlyle X bobber. It casts further, resists wind and the bobber goes down with less resistance. They use slide on bobber weights to increase the weight of the bobber for casting.
- Try Power Corking! Troy explains this awesome technique with one of his YouTube videos. Awesome video, and an easy must learn technique.
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Planner Boards
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Troy uses in-line Boards on sunny days to get the lures away from the boat when they troll
- He likes minnow baits at 1.4 to 1.9 mph. Find the right speed that creates the best action for the lure
- Boards are simple to use during the day but not at night.
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Need two people to work boards
Lines
- Recommends braided line – Fire line Ultra 8 is round, abrasion resistant, sensitive and features small diameter for longer casting
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Small diameters allows your line get deeper and its so sensitive you can feel everything. You will feel the snag before you get snagged.
- Ties 4 foot leaders - Berkley Vanish and or 100% fluorocarbon directly to the braid.
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Use a fluorocarbon leader in clear water– Dirty water you can stick with the braid in snag free areas. Remember that braid is virtually unbreakable, mono leaders break much easier and will help you get out of snags.
- He likes to equalize his line weights when tying mono to braid. When using 8 pound braid he will equalize with 10 pound mono for example.
Equipment
- Troll with a 7 - 8 foot medium moderate rods. They give the right amount of flex, which is important when placing them in rod holders
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For casting he prefers a 7 foot medium with a fast action tip, which improves hook sets and catch rate.
Lures
- Uses 3 inch natural minnow colors and some with color as well; Pink, Purples and Blues
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Plastics - Start out with a 3 inch plastic and work up and down in size from there. Go to bait is 4 inch plastic paddle tails and minnows.
- Flat side VMC jigs create a little more action. Pink and Chartreuse Jigs are his favorite but uses Purple and Blue. Also likes the Google Eye Jig with Rattle.
- The Shad Rap is the most versutal bait
- Flat Raps Have a little more wobble (bigger action)
Electronics
- Trust new technology it always leaves you wishing you would have got the new stuff when it came out. Its tested and you can trust it.
- Likes the Mega Imaging and side finding
- Favorite setting GPS, Side Finder, and DI
Scattered fish – "If you can see the bottom they will scatter"
- Use Long Line in clear water. 160 feet will give the fish a chance to come back in after scattering
- Mille Lacs is full of walleyes all sizes
- Drive around find fish and then power bobber.
- Figure out where they are on the mud flat and what they want and pattern this on other flats
- Start on the top edge and work your way out
- Walleyes will move out in the basin off the mud
- Boat traffic can push the walleyes away from the mud up to 350 yards
- Troll with 3 way rig (bottom bouncers with spinners)
- Loves the combination # 5 shad raps with Lead core
- Light winds are the perfect conditions to try drift bobber fishing and when you get a fish, hit the spot lock
Other nice to know tips
- Walleyes in Twin City lakes will cruise the weed lines when feeding
- Tokyo Rig might be good for river fishing = snag less
- Sometimes Walleyes set up and feed one direction try fishing both directions and pattern the bite.
- Summertime on Tonka = cover water and work the deep weedlines. They roam them and are never in the same place very long
- Fall fishing in and around the channels in October/November can be excellent
- Fish big Perch and Sunnies on Big Stone lake
- Berkley scent will help cover your scent. Troy will spray his plastics with Super Sauce. It has a long shelf life. Don’t spray into the wind.
- When walleyes get done spawning they don’t care about the weather time of day, nothing. They are eating.
- Muskies are currently out in the basin chasing tullibee
Thank you for the great meeting Troy! We appreciate all the tips you shared and taking the extra time to answer questions with the club members after the meeting.
We hope you have a very successful softwater fishing and a normal school year this year!
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Thank You to all of our Keeper Sponsors |
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Thank You to all of our Club Donors! |
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TC Walleyes Unlimited, Inc. |
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