TCWU is excited to host one of our favorite local angler's and educator's Jon Thelen as our headline speaker at our Thursday May 1st club meeting.

Jon is an experienced professional angler who channeled his passion of fishing into a career as a fishing educator through media and speaking opportunities.

Jon truly enjoys sharing his fishing knowledge. Helping anglers improve their skills and success on the water, is a sincere passion for Jon. He really has this unique ability to share his fish catching strategies in an easy way we can all understand. 

We hope you are all excited to meet Jon in person, and learn from a life time of walleye fishing experience!

Fun facts and a little history about Jon

• Jon began fishing tournaments in 2003 earning his way to the PWT.
• He has written/contributed to over 150 articles and graced the cover of over 30 magazines.
• In 2015, Jon became the Field Producer and Host of Lindy’s Fish Ed Television
• He started up Destination-Fish, which features television shows, YouTube videos, Facebook page and his website Destination fish.com. Television 
• Jon mentioned that he used to keep secrets to himself when he was a Professional Angler. Now that he has become a fishing educator he loves sharing all his secrets away.

Jon received great news in January that he will be inducted into the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame in 2025. Congratulations Jon! and we look forward to seeing you at our club meeting on May 1st!

Learn more about Jon Thelen, Destination Fish, and more check out his Social Media links below.

Destination-Fish Video Channel

Facebook

Fish Ed TV

The Pure Fishing family of fishing products joined TCWU as club sponsor in 2022. They have brought valued support to the club and we are proud to feature them as sponsor and fishing partner.

Their portfolio boasts 20 of the most recognized, trusted and popular fishing brands. Their drive for quality innovation and advancements have earned them a reputation the worlds leading fishing company!

We encourage you to try their products if you haven't and check out their website for more information and the latest product updates.

Check out their website: Pure Fishing which features a complete product catalog, new products, and the Dock Talk Blog for fishing tips.

NWT and AIM Championship winner Eric McQuoid is tearing it up with Rosemore Rods and started off 2025 with another big win in at the Garmin Open Fox River Green Bay on the AIM Weekend Walleye Series!

To learn more and view their online shop click the links below: 

Website: Rosemore Outdoor Gear

Facebook: Rosemore Outdoor Gear

Check out the Minnesota DNR Fishing Home Page

The Fishing Home Page on the Minnesota DNR website is loaded with all the latest updates, tools such as Lake finder, regulations, helpful tips and more all on one easy to navigate page. Take a look If you haven't had the chance to check it out. We recommend bookmarking this to your web favorites. It is a one stop shop for all MN fishing information.

Click on the link below to learn more.

MNDNR Fishing Home Page

Lower St. Croix River has several regulation updates ahead of 2025 fishing opener

The following regulations have changed for the Lower St. Croix, which spans 52 miles from the Taylors Falls Dam to the St. Croix’s confluence with Pool 3 of the Mississippi River: Click on the link below to learn more.

Lower St. Croix fishing regulation changes

DNR sets open water fishing regulations for Upper Red Lake

Anglers fishing on Upper Red Lake during the 2025 open-water season that starts Saturday, May 10, will have a five-walleye possession limit, with only one walleye over 17 inches allowed. Click on the link below to learn more.

Upper Red Lake Walleye Limits

2025 fishing regulations for walleye on Lake Mille Lacs

Anglers on Mille Lacs Lake will have the opportunity to harvest two walleye daily during the upcoming open water season, which begins on Saturday, May 10, and continues through Sunday, Nov. 30. Harvested walleye must be 17 inches or greater, and only one of them can be over 20 inches. Click on the link below to learn more.

2025 Lake Mille Lacs Walleye Regulations

TCWU April guest speaker Joe Henry shares this “Pro Tip of the Month“ with Club President Kail Lavigne on using Bottom Bouncers with Spinners for Walleyes.

Thanks for the great meeting Joe!

Click on the photo below to hear what was shared!

TCWU welcomed Joe Henry to our April 2025 Club Meeting. Joe is the Lake of the Woods Tourism’s Executive Director and knows everything there is about catching walleye in that legendary body of water, all the way from the Rainy River to the Northwest Angle.

Joe has fished professional tournaments and even has a Coast Guard charter captain's license. In addition to being an experienced angler Joe has brought major global events to Minnesota and created key alliances with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Canada and the province of Ontario. He is constantly working with media outlets, municipalities, economic development groups and other civic, public and private organizations to spotlight Minnesota tourism.

Joe gave an Eye-opening presentation on catching walleyes on spinners with bottom bouncers. He breaks down and shares all of the tactics he uses to catch more fish. It was truly a great meeting and for those members who missed, not to worry. You will find a detailed re-cap of Joe's presentation below.

Trolling with spinners and bottom bouncers is a Versatile Bait Delivery System that allows you to cover more fishing area, keep your baits in the strike zone, and easily transition from shallow to deep water, which allows you to fish all structurers effectively from weeds to rock reefs.

This technique is Joe's favorite tactic for catching walleye, and he uses it the entire softwater season.

Rigging Harnesses – A harness is basically snelled piece of line with beads, a spinner and with 1, 2 or 3 hooks

Joe uses Use fluorocarbon leader line because it disappears in water.

• He says "Use 15 pound test because you can, the fish can’t see it. If you can use stronger line and not sacrifice catching, why wouldn’t you add a little extra security?"
• When fishing crawlers use Octopus style hooks #2 or #4 or #6. Joe typically uses the #2 hooks, which are the larger of the three
• When fishing minnows Joe uses Aberdeen long shank hook, through the mouth of the minnow, out the gill and all the way to the eye of the hook, which allows you to extend the point of the hook past the head of the minnow.
• Use Styrofoam pool noodles to store your harnesses. They have a larger circumference, and they float. It’s a real nice way to store your snells
• Use quick change clevis on the harness so you can quickly change your spinner
• Pick blade colors based on the forage in the body of water, and also the color of the water
• When fishing stained water such as Lake of the Woods use Hammered Gold, pinks, chartreuse, orange and glow all work well
• Clear water use silver, blues, whites, natural colors
• Blade size = #4 Colorado blade deep cup
•  Note that different blades create different blade frequencies, experiment!

Why are harnesses so effective?

Most walleyes sense your bait before they ever see it. Their lateral line is very sensitive and detects the vibration of the spinner, then they hone in on it, then they see the flash, then they see the color and finally smell the scent of the bait you are using. This is the key reason harnesses are so effective. Sound travels through water 10 times better than air and their inner ear detects very low frequencies.

Joe prefers to fish crawlers and use a two hook harnesses.

• Hook the crawler as close to the tip of the head as possible, which will help keep the worm from spinning on the harness and allow it run straight through the water.
• Pro-Tip: pinch your crawler off if it extends more than three inches past the second hook, to ensure you hook up. It’s common for a walleye bite the tail end of a full crawler off and miss the hook. Two  or three inches past is all you need and will help you get the fish on the hook.

Question, at what water temp do you start pulling spinners?

“ I target 50 degrees, however I have crushed them in 39 degree water with minnows on Lake of the Woods. Walleyes are eating all year long, if you present in a good manner in front of them, you’ll catch fish”

Setup, Rigging and Catching

• Start with a 6 foot leader, you can always cut it shorter. Joe uses a 6 foot when fishing clear water and 4 feet in stained
• Mix up your beads gold-pink is a great combo one Lake of the Woods stained water.
• Color matters and can change throughout the day based on sun angle and weather changes. Experiment with your colors to establish a fish pattern
• Advantage of spinners with bouncers - You can cover a lot of water, putting lures in front of a lot of fish, you can run over rocks, and catch multi-species (Bass, Northern, Perch and even Blue Gill
• Weights - Use a 2-ounce bottom bouncer, it’s the perfect weight and it’s so versatile. It’s especially effective when working shallow and dropping into deep water.
• When you pull a spinner with a bouncer your line should be at a 45 degree angle. You do not want it too far back, go to a heavier bouncer as needed to maintain 45 degrees
• Trolling speed - the big thing is you want your spinners spinning and at that 45-degree angle. 1.25 mph is the perfect speed to hit these requirements.
• Let out enough line to just touch the bottom. You don’t always have to make contact, getting in the strike zone is the key

Setting the hook – Walleyes don’t hammer this rig like a crank bait, they grab on and load up. What’s going to happen is that you are going to feel that extra weight on your line and since the leader is short, its important to follow/consider Joe’s approach to successfully setting the hook

1. First thing, you are dragging a long crawler and you don’t want to pull the hook out of their mouth
2. Second, you don’t want to give it line because the weight of the bouncer will drop and impact the catch
3. Pro-tip – Let your rod go back at the speed of the boat for a count of 1000-One, and sweep the hook set
4. Try putting your rod in the rod holder. The wave action provides a different presentation than when you hold it in your hand, which can improve your catch rate

Live Bait vs Artificial - Joe uses live crawlers exclusively unless:

1. There is a lot of Sunfish, and Perch in the lake that are stealing your worms
2.  Or when pulling through weeds, because you can rip the bait through them and not lose the bait, which saves a lot of time and bait

• There are quite a few good artificial worms on the market, Joe likes the 7-inch Uncle Josh crawler and he does trim the length as he would a live crawler. He also recommends the Berkeley Gulp SR

Where and how to spinner rig harnesses

Spinners in shallow weeds – There are a lot of walleye in shallow weeds and you should try this same set-up with one little change.

• Switch your weight from a bottom bouncer to a 1/8 to 1/4 ounce bullet sinker and cast out into the holes in the weeds, over the weed tops and weed edges.
• Pro-tip, Texas rig your plastic worm in the weeds.
• Weed walleyes often suspend and or will come up 4 to 5 feet and hit your bait. You don’t have to target the bottom

Trolling Structure and Sunken Islands is a great way to learn where the fish are on and around the entire structure, a few important tactical steps are:

1. Troll with the waves, because its easier than trolling against them when you start
2. Start your pass out off the structure in no man’s land to see if there are any fish out there
3. Work your way into the transition of the structure, where the mud or sand meets the rocks or gravel
4. Work your way up the structure. Pro-tip, if you are in rocks try to keep your bouncer off the bottom to prevent getting snagged up. Its okay to let it tick every now and then but react to keep snag free
5. Then work your way on top
6. In clear water try casting spinners to stay off the structure and prevent spooking the fish. Switch your bottom bouncer with a 1/2 ounce sinker to make casting easy

Reels, Rods & Line

• When charter fishing Joe always uses the rods provided by the boat
• His personal preference is a medium power rod with fast action-tip
• Joe likes to use a bait cast setup, which makes it easy to adjust your line on the drops, with one hand
• Uses 10 – 4 Braid with a 15 pound fluorocarbon leader

Nuances for success

• Pinch the tail off your crawler 2 - 3 inches past the trailing hook
• Try adding a stinger hook with a small treble hook on your second hook if you are getting bit off or missing fish. Just let it dangle, all you start catching these fish
• Change up your trolling pass by letting out a little line to pause the bait or try speeding up. A little change can entice a bite. Try a rip and fall technique.
• Try artificial baits when casting
• Don’t always troll in a straight line, try adding some turns in your trolling pass to add some different action
• Try dropping your lures back to entice fish to strike

Question, where to you buy your blades from? Check out the retailers for clearance opportunities and online from Jann’s Netcraft

• Local lakes will surprise you, they have big walleyes
• Try bigger blades, Joe uses up a number 5 or 6 blade to catch big walleye. They emulate Tullibee’s
• Pull spinners into September and then switch to cranks or vertical jigging
• Coordinate with your fishing partner to use different colors and blade sizes until you discover the best fish catching combination
• Doesn’t use a worm blower when trolling spinners but will when Lindy rigging. Pro-tip – inflate the back end of your crawler not the front to keep the tail up
• Try dropping your trolling motor when trolling with your outboard for better boat control

Special thanks to Joe for joining our club to talk fishing. We had an amazing meeting and appreciate all the walleye fishing tips along with the different techniques and presentations you shared. 

Joe is an amazing angler, innovator guide and educator. He is is active on social media, which provides a great source of information, on the latest techniques and fishing tips.

If you fish or plan on fishing the amazing Lake of the Woods area you need to utilize the Lake of the Woods Tourism fishing page. Its loaded with valuable information such as fishing reports, maps, boat access locations, Lodging, articles, outdoor adventures and more. To keep in touch with all the latest fishing news, we recommend that you sign up for their newsletter.

Joe Henry Facebook