2010 14 rod spread

[Priority1]

We pulled 12 lines quite often through 2009. When conditions and crew were right, we let it all hang out. We most always had two rods over the side, with 3 oz bouncers, with crawler harnesses and the real deal. These rods were the first to be set and the last to come in. Ten Offshore 12s with Tattle Flags graced the sides of Priority1, to make up the 12 rod total. The rods with the boards, most often had 2 oz bouncers with harnesses and meat. I never thought that the 3 rod rule, for walleye fishing, would change things much for us, but it did. Having more lines in the water helped us zero in on color, depth, and type of bait. Zeroing in goes back to what I always say, "Find Out What They Want, and Give Em Lots Of It".

When Trolling for eyes in 2010, the back of Priority1 will look slightly different. Our Out and Down riggers will be left in the garage. I never used riggers at all, for walleye, through 09. Don't be fooled by the last sentence, thinking, I will not run riggers in 2010. I'm removing the Out and Downs to open up both corners, to make it easier to net the fish. I'll have two Big Jon Multi Set Rod holders on the Out and Down Swivel Bases. To get # 13 and #14 rods in the water, we will be running spoons, slow running cranks, or even harnesses off the inside riggers. Most likely these will be run 50 back and close to the bottom, to keep them out of the way of incoming fish. Our boards have been our most productive method, hands down. The riggers will not go down until everything else is in the water. I hope we don't have time to get #13 and #14 in the water. There were times when we couldn't keep 6 rods in the water.

[JWheeler]

Frank that sounds great! You know my program is a little different then yours in the sense that I run a lot of spoons of my big boards, however I have had good success off my DR's as well hugging the bottom. I've been toying with the idea of adding a couple of different depths next year as well, they would cover 10' down and 5' down, I have done some reading and some people catch em in the top of the water column. But this will be experimental, and when the fish start talking and telling me what they want that always dictates my spread. Can't wait to see you out there next summer. I 'm already prepping Ashley to go. I ask her what do we say when we start catching fish, and she says (in the cutest possible voice) "FISH ON DADDY".

[Priority1]

Our first boards out are always targeting the upper water column especially first thing in the morning. A lot of people think because I'm running bouncers, that they are dragging the bottom, and of course some are. The fish near the surface, fly under the radar unseen by sonar. If something gets HOT we may change everything to that depth, color, etc. It goes back to finding out what and where. Most of the time, walleye are not too particular how something gets put in their faces. Sometimes walleye are not spooky at all. SeaMac was with me last year when we had an un-baited harness hanging in the prop wash take a nice walleye, and this was in 12 or 13 FOW. That particular line was waiting to be baited, because of the flurry of action. Hit em high, or hit em low, we do anything to make em go. Gitter Done.

I'll bet Ashley will be yelling FISHON. In the GLs area fishon should be one word, and taught that way in all the schools.

[Adam Bomb]

I pitty you the day the white bass turn on Franky boy!!!...Been there back in my charter days with a 12 rod spread of Pa's....Ill take my 6 or 8 and be very happy. Good fishing to you aboard the "charlottes web"..lol Go get em tiger!!!

[Priority1]

I pitty you the day the white bass turn on Franky boy!!!...Been there back in my charter days with a 12 rod spread of Pa's....Ill take my 6 or 8 and be very happy. Good fishing to you aboard the "charlottes web"..lol Go get em tiger!!!

White bass??????? I think I only took two this past year. When I released them, they promised to go back to Linwood. Good fishin 2 U 2 bomber.

I seldom have less than 4 people onboard.

[Adam Bomb]

Im sure they did cause they show up in droves in August at times!...lol...Tear em up Frank, i know you will.

[GLF]

White bass??????? I think I only took two this past year. When I released them, they promised to go back to Linwood. Good fishin 2 U 2 bomber.

I think one of them ended up under the floor in Walleye Expresses boat.

[Priority1]

I think one of them ended up under the floor in Walleye Expresses boat.

Mike, I was thinking about saying something along them lines, but I got lambasted a few days ago for far less. Your timing is probably better than mine. Adam deserves a bravery metal just for mentioning white bass.

[Priority1]

Adam's reply about the white bass, and his 12 rod spread on a charter boat, brought back some fond memories from the 80s. We used to run a lot of PAs with home tied harnesses behind them. PAs was just one of our tools we relied on back then. I think today we pinpoint depths more accurately with snap weights, inline weights, and bouncers. I do hear a few guys still running PAs, and I still have a few in my tot box. A lot of the things from the past will still work well today. We evolve with our presentation methods, and fine tune a program that works best for us and conditions. Everyone has their favorite toys, and the older toys collect dust. When we have a slow day I may pull a couple of PAs out.

[jay d]

i love big spreds,i run as many rods as posible most days.

[mattmishler]

:lol:

i love big spreds,i run as many rods as posible most days.

jay does that mean you love big tangles

[Nailer]

We pulled 12 lines quite often through 2009. When conditions and crew were right, we let it all hang out. We most always had two rods over the side, with 3 oz bouncers, with crawler harnesses and the real deal. These rods were the first to be set and the last to come in. Ten Offshore 12s with Tattle Flags graced the sides of Priority1, to make up the 12 rod total. The rods with the boards, most often had 2 oz bouncers with harnesses and meat. I never thought that the 3 rod rule, for walleye fishing, would change things much for us, but it did. Having more lines in the water helped us zero in on color, depth, and type of bait. Zeroing in goes back to what I always say, "Find Out What They Want, and Give Em Lots Of It".

When Trolling for eyes in 2010, the back of Priority1 will look slightly different. Our Out and Down riggers will be left in the garage. I never used riggers at all, for walleye, through 09. Don't be fooled by the last sentence, thinking, I will not run riggers in 2010. I'm removing the Out and Downs to open up both corners, to make it easier to net the fish. I'll have two Big Jon Multi Set Rod holders on the Out and Down Swivel Bases. To get # 13 and #14 rods in the water, we will be running spoons, slow running cranks, or even harnesses off the inside riggers. Most likely these will be run 50 back and close to the bottom, to keep them out of the way of incoming fish. Our boards have been our most productive method, hands down. The riggers will not go down until everything else is in the water. I hope we don't have time to get #13 and #14 in the water. There were times when we couldn't keep 6 rods in the water.

Good luck with it next year Frank. I'm sure it will work well. By the way, what is a PA?

[Priority1]

Good luck with it next year Frank. I'm sure it will work well. By the way, what is a PA?

The Pa's are similar to an Erie Derie weight forward but they have a big lip that will take them down about 15-18 ft with 100 ft of line out. We used to run them with harnesses off the back of them.

[jay d]

matt,dont have to deal with big tangles much.i run red line so you can see it, really helps to keep lines clear of each other.

[Adam Bomb]

Yup, we used to pound them on Pa's!!! Didnt take the company long to catch on that everyone tossed that guady looking gold hook an replaced it with their own crawler harness. Then the Pa's crawler connection was born.....Ah the good old days, less fish, but much better quality...I dont know about you Frank, but i liked the original Pa's the best. Once they put that lead fin on the bottom of the bill there were a percentage that wouldnt run true. Seems to me they did away with that and went back to their original plan, but i could be wrong....Anyhow, a great tool and we used them allot, but as you said we as fisherman evolve in our ways of presentation and next thing you know you have tackle collecting dust. I still have a ton of Pa's and haul them out on every trip, but they rarely hit the water. Its tough to compete with the short amount of line and effisciency an inline weight or BB gives you. All great tools, might have to break them out again myself. Pygmies are another favorite of mine. Walleye absolutely love em!!!

[Priority1]

Adam, I only have the original version of the Pa's. You are dead on about the inlines and BB. Half the line out, and more direct to the fish. In the 80s we would have a couple of 8# fish most every trip. I seldom fish for hogs, just table fare. The fish are not fussy, and will hit anything that's put in their faces. Gotta Luv what we have going on the Saginaw Bay.

[Adam Bomb]

The other large swing as well from the Pa's in the snapweights to inlines and BB era has been the phasing out of hard baits, or in Saginaw Bay's case, the hot n tot. It was once the #1 presentation and i remember Franks had, and still does have, the best selection when it comes to color selection of hot n tots. TONS and i mean TONS of custom colors came out with their wide spread popularity. They were ordering 600-800 if a single color just to keep all of us raging animals stocked up and happy. I can only imagine the fear the first time they started making orders like that. But what a succsess for both Franks and the fisherman of Saginaw Bay. Man we used to really pound the fish on those tots. Theyll still work very well today, they just dont see the run time for many anglers, myself included, that they once did....It still pains me to see the 3/8 Rattle Tot get scrapped....That is a walleye thrashin machine!....So many lures, so little time.

[Priority1]

TOTs: We ran a lot of them also. The green and blue with chrome, and if they had a red bill, even better. I pulled some this year, but they never gave me the consistent action that the meat achieved. It's an ever changing game, and on any given day, some things will out produce others.

[Walleye Express]

The other large swing as well from the Pa's in the snapweights to inlines and BB era has been the phasing out of hard baits, or in Saginaw Bay's case, the hot n tot. It was once the #1 presentation and i remember Franks had, and still does have, the best selection when it comes to color selection of hot n tots. TONS and i mean TONS of custom colors came out with their wide spread popularity. They were ordering 600-800 if a single color just to keep all of us raging animals stocked up and happy. I can only imagine the fear the first time they started making orders like that. But what a succsess for both Franks and the fisherman of Saginaw Bay. Man we used to really pound the fish on those tots. Theyll still work very well today, they just dont see the run time for many anglers, myself included, that they once did....It still pains me to see the 3/8 Rattle Tot get scrapped....That is a walleye thrashin machine!....So many lures, so little time.

I never did get on the Pa's bandwagon. Of course running meat never was my favorite technique anyway, until I started adding a piece to the front of my rattle Tots. I've also ran both large and small plastic cranks behind Keels and Snap Weights to target walleyes in different water depth zones with great success. Thinking outside the box kept both the plastics and me in the game long after crawlers took over the scene. Some guys get stuck in a rut with one technique and are lost when and if that technique fails them. Last season was the first time I was forced to come over to the Dark Side more with harnesses and spoons. But even then, most days I ran every rod with keels and every other harness rod with Gulp Crawlers with pretty good success. I also added 2 lead core rods (to make it 10) off the corners and out the back last year, with a twist. A 2 1/2 to 3 ounce bottom bouncer was ran on the core so it ran almost literally straight down and out of the way. Didin't hit a lot of fish on this. But the ones I did slammed it.

Edited November 19, 2009 by Walleye Express