Finished out our open water guide season with some incredible fishing for walleyes up north in Michigan. I have to be honest, we struggled for the first two hours covering lots of water without a bite. We fished deep and shallow with zero success. It wasn’t just us - we didn’t see another fisherman boat a fish. So we moved to a confidence spot, and almost immediately caught fish. Here’s what we learned from our time on the water:

1. Controlling our drift speed was critical to catching fish. Lots of boats were around us and we saw two fish caught - even though we pounded fish. Everyone else was either drifting with the wind or had drift socks in, but I had the trolling motor slowing us way down.

2. Spot lock feature = increase catches. Lots of times thoughout the day I would just randomly spotlock and hold an area. And again, our experience was, the slower our movement, the more fish we caught. The walleyes wanted the baits moved more slowly - twitched more than jerked. And this was huge - every time we hooked up - we spot locked and would catch 3, 5, 7…one time we caught 9 fish almost in a row.

3. Cadence of the baits was also critical. Longer pauses increased our bites. We fished the lightest jigs we could throw for conditions (1/8oz Old Fart Lures Walleye jigs - green pumpkin).

4. Rod style and feel made a huge difference. I have seen this more times than I can count. You might be fishing a bait with the exact same cadence as the guy next to you, but his rod has a softer tip and he out fishes you 10-1. The St. Croix 7’ ML Avid is usually one of my go to rods for jigging, but this fall it’s proven itself throwing jerkbaits. The softer tip has proven to provide a bit of a shock absorber for when the fish are smashing baits as well as allows the fish to load it up when they are just grabbing baits.

5. The ole’ adage - don’t leave fish to go find fish proved true. On this specific trip (water temps ranged from 47-51 degrees), when you found fish they were podded up.

6. My Garmin Lakevu HD Ultra Lake Mapping software made a huge difference. I pay close attention to where I’m catching fish on my lake map. All of my success was coming in specific areas and so instead of making long drifts over unproductive water, I focused my efforts in areas that I knew were holding fish. Guys were on drift 4 making huge drifts and I had methodically covered a small section but with lots of success. Don’t know where I’d be without my Garmin technology!

Hopefully my learning experience will help you at some point be more successful with your time on the water. Love to know if this was helpful - leave a comment if you’ve got any questions!