Saginaw Bay - Mid May

[JoeMan]

Your fishing Saginaw Bay (Linwood) in Mid-May. Targeting walleye. Just following a storm front and river runoff is strong. Winds are mild, temps in the mid 50's. You've got big planer boards, inline boards, divers, 2 & 3 cores. Where would you start in the AM and what type of lures.

[Priority1]

I'd probably start at the tackle shop. I would buy some in-line weights and some bottom bouncers. I would then go home and put the lead core rods, big boards, and divers away. That stuff takes up too much room, and it doesn't fit my MO. I have plenty of time so I probably would not fish until tomorrow. I would make it point to fish ahead of that front. By mid May a crawler on a harness would be my choice off in-line planers.

If it was a tourney and I was in it (had to fish), most of the above would apply. I would probably fish just off the weeds on the opposite shore the wind was coming off from. There are also a few areas that a slight front would not effect as much. Others would handle this situation differently, I'm sure. I usually go against the grain.

[Priority1]

Come on guys. What would you do?? I hope I didn't come on too strong and spook everyone off this thread. Well this should bump it back into the new posts, and maybe get a reply.

[JoeMan]

Frank, Thanks for the comeback. I realize anyone can drag worms around on a nice day. Heck, my brother does it on the bay all the time! Normally this time of year I would be at the river mouths targeting the post spawn fish. Except in this scenario the river levels and runoff should be high. I think your suggestion of watching the wind direction and looking for weed edges is good. What other baits would you consider this time of year. I have a couple of old erie-deeries but no one ever mentions them any more. I'm trying to put some Saginaw Bay action in this forum, all the scenarios can't just be on Lake Michigan.

[Priority1]

Andy, The weight forward type lures like the Erie Dearie can be very productive drifting and casting just off the weeds. I'm just old school, so I tend to just hammer away at the tried and true. Once I switch to crawler harnesses, I seldom run anything but. The walleye on the Saginaw Bay, are everything except fussy. I like to keep a simple presentation, and the bouncers and in-line weights just put the goods in their faces. I'm not against trying different things, but I get too busy catching fish to experiment. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm bragging. The great Dizzy Dean said, "It aint bragging, if ya can do it". Frank:)

One thing we used to do in the 80s that was different from others, was running a spread of Hot-N-Tots on one side and harnesses on the other. Everyone says you can't mix the two. Who said you CAN'T. We would troll in big circles, with the tots on the outside of the turn, and the meat on the inside. This gave the tots, and the meat the speed they needed. Everyone knows the tots run best about 2.5 and harnesses about 1.5. We only did this as the waters warmed up. Try this sometimes if you want to run both. Think outside the box.

[fishinmachine2]

Your fishing Saginaw Bay (Linwood) in Mid-May. Targeting walleye. Just following a storm front and river runoff is strong. Winds are mild, temps in the mid 50's. You've got big planer boards, inline boards, divers, 2 & 3 cores. Where would you start in the AM and what type of lures.

I would put 6 rods out on the boards with 1oz in-line weights and spinners at difffernt depths and 2 rods out with bottom bouncers with spinners right off the back of the boat!! As for location I would be out where ever the water was stained NOT dirty!! Water clarity is one of the most important thing when walleye fishing!! I dont want gin clear water and I dont want mud either!!

Scott

[Adam Bomb]

I agree with Scott whole heartedly.

[Nailer]

Andy, The weight forward type lures like the Erie Dearie can be very productive drifting and casting just off the weeds. I'm just old school, so I tend to just hammer away at the tried and true. Once I switch to crawler harnesses, I seldom run anything but. The walleye on the Saginaw Bay, are everything except fussy. I like to keep a simple presentation, and the bouncers and in-line weights just put the goods in their faces. I'm not against trying different things, but I get too busy catching fish to experiment. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm bragging. The great Dizzy Dean said, "It aint bragging, if ya can do it". Frank:)

One thing we used to do in the 80s that was different from others, was running a spread of Hot-N-Tots on one side and harnesses on the other. Everyone says you can't mix the two. Who said you CAN'T. We would troll in big circles, with the tots on the outside of the turn, and the meat on the inside. This gave the tots, and the meat the speed they needed. Everyone knows the tots run best about 2.5 and harnesses about 1.5. We only did this as the waters warmed up. Try this sometimes if you want to run both. Think outside the box.

That's a great idea Frank. Not knowing what we where doing the one and only time we fished the bay, we ran tot's a harness's in the same spread at 2.0. Too fast for one and too slow for the other.

[Adam Bomb]

Nailer, 2.0-2.5 is a great range for tots. Although fish will definitely bite worms at higher speeds youll likely need to add more wieght or adjust your leads to achieve depth as the increased speed will make them ride higher. Another good option for running both is a three way with a harness and tot...Works well with spoons as well. For spoons ill often times put a speed bead about 3' ahead of my tot, then clip on the spoon slider in the same manner as if you were salmon fishing.

[Walleye Express]

O.K. First time I noticed this new subject board. And if you would have asked me this Mid-may question 5 or 6 years ago, I'd say stick to the river or river mouths virtical jigging minnows. Or stay close along the S SE shorelines in anything from 2 to 6 FOW trolling or drifting harnesses with no or very little weight on them. But since the walleyes abundant natural reproduction these last few years, where we find them, the way we fish them and the times we fish them is changing fast and drastically. My successfull iceburg trolling trip this late winter reinforced that concensus. But I started last year on the 3rd week of May in my smaller boat. I missed the April night bite because of surgeries. I started running the big body baits in waters 6 to 14 feet and caught a few fish, but soon changed over to Rattle Tots and spoon sliders above them. Both bare and my own harness type of spoons. We did very well on them and I never changed a rig from that point on till mid-June, when I started catching just to many little walleyes on the bare spoons. Here are some pictures from an early (end of May) trip we took last year with friends for my first "shake down cruise" in my big boat. As you can see from the towers we were out in front of Linwood 12 to 14 FOW. In 2 hours we boated 31 walleyes, many doubles and a few triples, all but 10 were released. Only 1 or 2 came on the Rattle tots themselves. The rest on the spoons of both types ran as sliders above them. I plan on putting my big boat in 2 weeks earlier this year and starting out with the same game plan. If it ain't broke, well you know.