When casting cranks and getting a short/missed strike, it's very often effective to immediately throw back a shock color in a smaller size. For bass I believe immediately throwing back a plastic is the ticket. This may also work for walleye but I've never tried it. I'm talking a specific target for this tech not a Tailrace "general area" current situation. Missed strikes in current are often remedied with downsizing.
this.
I mean contrast is the ticket.
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If I have my wits about me, on a short strike, I stop immediately and flip open the bail and wait. Every now and again I get a second chance. Always makes me smile when I outwit a creature that has a brain the size of a grain of sand.
This fall, wading and throwing cranks, I was floored when one night (fishing by a bright light) how many misses I actually saw. I saw, with my own eyes, a fish swing and miss three times, at a crankbait with three treble hooks. I saw and felt each hit and never did catch that slippery summin-abadge.
One of the, if not the best walleye angler I know is color blind. Just sayin.....
Huff lives far enough south, he's got a little reservation in him.
Uncle Steve is a pure, dyed in the wool proponent of the nightcrawler. When he deviates he chooses lures with a combo of "match the hatch" and shock. Ain't nothing like listening to a good long Uncle Steve vid to get one sound asleep.
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I don't understand the "open the bail" concept. This sounds like the makings of a mess.
I'm telling you Jay, you MUST keep that lure working with a very low rod tip as far toward the shore as possible. If you're on the bank that means until it's back is out of the water off to whatever side. I'm telling you man, walleye, pike and LM will rush out of freaking nowhere and nearly beach themselves. I guess it's like killer whales after seals. I do this every time with every shallow running crank/jerkbait or topwater. I'll pause a topwater in ridiculously shallow water for a long amount of time.
Spinnerbait from a boat: Before lifting the bait for another cast, lower the tip fast and allow it to slam hard back in an unseen "follower's" face. None of this is "all the time/every time" but it's real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekiZYSVdeQ
The only thing I learned about what color lure to use fishing was from my grandpa Vern:
"Any color works to catch walleyes -- as long as it's chartreuse."
but does the carpet match the drapes?