If you're getting Target Walleye for the first time, a friend probably signed you up! |
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How to rig BIG chubs for fall walleye (tail-hooking trick). |
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It's finally the time of year where walleyes strap on the fall feedbag and plump up for winter! No doubt there's lots of different ways to catch 'em...but it's tough to beat live-bait rigging with giant 4-6" creek chubs or redtails when it comes to sticking a true trophy fall-eye. Especially RIGHT NOW until the water temps drop to the mid-40s.
Lots of variations to the technique β you can make it as simple or difficult as you want. One of the tweaks is tail-hooking your chubs to get more action out of 'em, which seems to work especially well on calmer, sunshiny days...or really any time you're getting turned down by multiple marks on the graph.
Here's a video breakdown of my complete chubbin' program (locations, gear, tweaks, etc) and some specifics to the tail-hooking trick that have saved my last couple of trips from picky biters. π Hope you dig it!
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***Disclaimer: While pulling chubs by their tails could potentially save your fishing day...recent studies have shown that pulling other variations of tails are likely to be bad for your overall health, and may lead to painful and embarrassing side effects. Please use this trick in moderation and when in doubt, consult your local Target Walleye for safer alternatives.
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One of my favorite fishy Halloween costumes yet. π― |
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πππππ LOVE IT!
After a about a zillion comments on YouTube, social media, or while running errands...I'm probably going to take the easy way out β wear what I usually do β and go as country sanger Luke Combs lol:
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Ice fishing walleyes with NO live bait (treble-hook tweaks). |
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Some DIY if you've already hung it up (open water) for the year, or you get blown off the water one day.
You don't always need live bait to catch hardwater walleyes.... π Ever try adding a feathered- or glow-resin treble hook to your favorite jigging spoons? Or maybe a tiny willow-leaf blade to rattlebaits??
I've got nothing against live bait (it flat-out catches 'em!) but I think you'll be shocked at how many walleyes you can put topside with these treble-hook tweaks...just gotta step out of your comfort zone and get them on the water:
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Btw I put direct links to all the gear I talked about in the video description on YouTube β waaaay too many to list 'em all here. As always pls drop a comment on the video to let me know what you wanna see next. Thanks much for watching! |
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Sometimes even walleyes are surprised you caught 'em. |
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These walleye's facial expressions (= π€―) say it all hahaha.
First one comes from Gibson Tilley, who also included a little location tip for us:
> "Slow-rolling cranks like the Berkley Flicker Shads across gravel bars down into micro-holes of main-stem rivers is where you'll find the lone wolves nosed into bigger rock. Fish it right until freeze up!
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Another great shot Jake Billings ( @jthooker.outdoors) who somehow managed this snap while fishing catching from his kayak in SD: |
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Still can't tell if that last one is A) surprised, B) excited, C) cold or D) all the above: |
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Catch your cake and eat it too! |
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Another one of those "never know what Iβm going to find in the Target Walleye inbox." This time cominβ from TW fan Larry DeVore, who clearly knows how to gain access to private water hahaha:
> "My daughter (Katie's Kreations) hand made this cake for me to give to the owner's family of small lake I fish for bass. It's all edible besides the tooth picks.
> "The bass is solid dark chocolate airbrushed with some gold. The weeds, cattails, gone fishing sign, and rocks were all made with modeling chocolate. And the splash was made with homemade hard candy with blue added into it."
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Based on fisheries staff's fall electrofishing catch rates. They sampled up to 412 walleyes/hr on some lakes! To put that into perspective: Any catch rate >150 walleyes/hr is a very strong new year class...75-150 = moderate to strong...30-75 = moderate...<30 = weak.
One thing to keep in mind when reading the #s is these creel surveys are mostly done at public boat ramps. I've been out there a handful of times the last few weeks and haven't met anyone at the ramp doing a creel survey or asking what I've caught. But I have also been paying the $10-15 launch fee to dump in at private boat ramps at local resorts. And the times there's been an inspector at a public ramp when I'm putting in, they were no longer there when I was getting off the water.
3. Does anyone have more tags from banded walleye...
...than TW fan Jeff Dufek from northern MI?
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Heck of a collection!
Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited is having tourney angler and central MN guide Randin Olson speak at their Thursday, Nov 4 meeting. More info here.
> Total revenue of $1.19 bil, a 7% increase over the prior year quarter.
> Gross and operating margin were 58.4% and 23.7%, respectively.
> Revenue from the marine segment grew 25% in the third quarter with growth across multiple categories, led by strong demand for our chartplotters.
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Man, does that ever bring back memories. Do you remember when every single diehard ice fisherperson had one of those Lowrance iFinder H20 handheld GPS units? I thought there was going to be a riot when they stopped making 'em.
...nation's top high school marine training program:
> "Bennington...donated a T50 outboard and an F200 outboard to Impact Institute, a Yamaha Marine Technical School Partner in Kendallville, IN. Yamaha matched the donation with a 4.2-liter F300 V6 outboard. Students will use the motors and a certified Yamaha curriculum to gain a comprehensive understanding of the brand's outboard power systems and add value to Yamaha marine dealers around the country."
Part of an experimental program (would run from 2022β2025) to grow bigger sunfish and crappies. The proposals include:
- Reducing the sunfish statewide daily harvest limit from 50 to 25.
- Increasing the crappie statewide minimum size limit from 9" to 10".
- Implementing an 8" minimum size limit and a daily harvest limit of 15 for sunfish in [these 11 lakes] chosen for their potential to grow larger sunfish.
> The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) resident and CEO Frank Peterson announced he will step down...on Dec 31, 2021, and will retire on Feb 28, 2022. Peterson's retirement comes as RBFF continues its mission to increase participation in recreational boating and fishing, thereby helping to conserve and restore aquatic natural resources throughout the U.S.
> ...conducting an intensive invasive carp removal effort in Pool 8 of the Mississippi River near La Crosse thru Oct 29.
> "The snickering stops when someone brandishes a Lazer. A hand-auger, yes, but one with ninja skills and blades like Japanese throwing stars. In the right hands, the Lazer cuts to the quick, outpacing off-brand, bottom feeding hand-augers, even cheap gas-augers."
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Love that! π€£
12. Few recent fishing podcastsβ¦
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What's π₯ on Target Walleye's YouTube π₯
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Breaks down 2 very different jigging cadences depending on the type of structure:
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Warning: You have now entered arguably the best fishing of the season: |
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Sign up another fish-head!
If you're forwarding Target Walleye to a friend who loves to walleye-fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we'll take care of it! (We won't sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.) |
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Friends of Target Walleye |
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Who is Target Walleye
Target Walleye β walleye during open water and all species during hardwater β is brought to you by Al Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Jay Kumar, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-heads like you!
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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
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P.O. BOX 2782
Baxter, MN 56425
(218) 824 5026
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