Kyle Sorensen with OB Outdoors talks about the benefits of using the I-Pilot feature on your minnkota trolling motor specifically for trolling! Don’t miss out on the LIVE CATCH during the interview!
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Opening day of fishing season is upon us. Even though summer does not officially start until June 21st, I have always considered the first Saturday in May the start of my summer season. I, as well as anglers from all over the state, will head out to their favorite lakes and rivers in pursuit of the most sought after fish in the Midwest…walleye! My favorite place just so happens to be, the Bay of Green Bay.
The Bay can be a very intimidating body of water. When you head out to any one of the boat launches located around the lower portion of the Bay, the parking lot will be full of boat trailers but all you will see is miles and miles of open water and only a few boats in sight. Even though the surface looks the same as far as the eye can see, it’s what’s lurking below it that all of us are after.
Most anglers who come up to the Bay struggle with where to fish and which presentations to use. Either they setup near the boat launch, or they head out in the direction other boats are heading also looking for a group of boats. When they find them, they throw a few lures in the water and start trolling. Well that’s a good start, but most people spend countless hours on the water only to go home disappointed. We’ve all been there.
Here are a few tips and tools that will make you a more successful angler. First and foremost, you will need a good GPS locator. I prefer the Humminbird Helix series locators. They are high definition and very easy to use for the average angler. For those of you that are more experienced, the upgraded units are equipped with Side and Down Imaging. The next thing you will need is a map chip for your GPS. The Lake Master chip is made for your Humminbird unit and can highlight different depths of water making it easier to see the areas you may want to fish. This is going to show you where the structures are, eliminating the areas without structure and water that is deeper than 20 ft. That just eliminated 90% of the water! I recommend a set of trolling rods with line counter reels, spooled with 10 lb. to 12 lb. monofilament line. I suggest a quality set of planer boards. I use Churches Tackle TX-22 boards simply because they are of high quality, they cut through the water nicely, and when you stop, they won’t fall over and tangle up your lines. The last piece of equipment is a Minn Kota trolling motor. Most fishing boats sold today come with one mounted to the bow. They work so well, it’s almost standard to have a Minn Kota on your bow. When the Minn Kota trolling motor is equipped with I-Pilot, you will be able to fish and let the I-Pilot steer your boat for you. Just set a course, set the speed, and fish, it’s that easy.
Now for the fun part; catching the fish. We’ve reviewed the Lake Master maps so now we can focus on the areas we want to fish. In May, the walleye tend to feed on the rocky reefs and the areas with shallow weeds. The baits of choice in these areas are the Flickershad. Start out with the basics; purple, chartreuse, maybe a gray or white. Since it is early and the bait fish are small, use number 5’s and 7’s. It is a good idea to get the trolling app. This will assist you in determining at which depth the bait will run. The App will tell you how much line to let out in order to get your bait to a certain depth. For example, a number 7 Flickershad with 30’ feet of line let out will dive down 6 feet. With 40 feet of line, the Flickershad will dive down 8 feet. Speed will not affect the depth at which the lure will dive. You will attach the Churches Tackle planer board after you let out your set distance of line. The next part is speed. Since the waters are cold in May, you are not going to want to troll too fast. Keep your speed between 1.3 and 1.7 mph changing it often until you find a speed the fish prefer.
When setting your lines, start out with several colors and set them at various depths. Be careful not to set your baits too low in the water column. Walleye feed up and you do not want to put your bait underneath them. As you work your way over and through different reefs and humps and that first board goes back, make sure you keep track of the depth the bait was running. In addition, note your speed and hit a waypoint. This will be your first waypoint of many. Troll another 5-10 minutes and if you have not gotten another bite either turn around, if it is not windy, or pick up and go back to make another pass. The biggest mistake I see anglers make is when they catch a fish they just keep on going and do not return to that spot. This is your chance to make your first adjustment. Set a few more baits at or near that depth and make that pass right over the same spot. If you catch more fish, repeat the process and make another adjustments to your presentation, color. If the fish bit on the same color, add a few more of that color. Continue to refine your presentation until either you can’t keep your lines in the water, or they quit biting. If they quit biting, move on until you find the next bite. Sometimes you will have to go back to different depths and colors until you get something to work.
Another place you can find these fish is shallow. Yes, I did say shallow, 2 to 3 feet shallow. On bright days, in the mid to late mornings, the sun is warming up the shallows. Walleye will head into these waters even if the water is crystal clear, it’s warmer, and it only needs to be 4 to 5 degrees warmer. This is when your planer board comes in handy. I’ll run my closest planer board 100 to 150 feet from the boat. These fish will spook easy, so being stealthy is critical. Using the Minn Kota is really important. In this case, you are only going to put 6 to 8 feet of line out behind your planer board. These areas are generally sandy and you want the front lip of the bait to either tick or slightly dig right into the sand. This will help entice a strike. These fish are not the same fish as the ones you were finding on the reefs. These are generally the larger females coming into the shallows to feed. It is very important to keep your distance, if these fish even see a shadow from your boat, they will be gone!
Another bait I like to use is the Team-Outdoors inline blade attractor. They come in 10 different colors and 4 different sizes. These are attached to your line about 12 inches above the crankbait. These will attach to your line without tying a knot or cutting your line. Crankbaits rattle, and wiggle, but they don’t always have flash. The attractor blades are either a #3 Colorado or a #3 willow blade. This adds additional flash and vibration to your crankbaits without affecting the depth or action of the bait. If I pass over fish and they are hesitant to bite, I usually add these to a few of my lines. If the waters are a little murky, again this is a great way to add flash to your presentation.
Time spent on the water is always special, so enjoy it, have fun, and most importantly, be safe.
I’ll see you on the water,
Captain Jeff Boutin
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When you say the word swimbait around a bass fisherman, many times their thoughts go to big baits that cost a lot of money and only work for targeting big bass. However, the soft plastic swimbait is also a great lure option to target big bass in a variety of fish holding cover.
The soft plastic swimbait has also evolved into a versatile option to present bass with a natural presentation in numerous situations.
One of the ways that soft plastic swimbaits, both solid and hollow bodied can be rigged is on a Texas-rig. By rigging your baits this way you are able to fish the bait through heavy cover, thus presenting a very natural looking presentation in the dense cover that bass live in.
Some of the areas that this presentation shines in include, shallow vegetation, such as eel grass flats and lily pad fields. You can fish this bait along the edge and let it just tick the vegetation or cast it into the grass and bring it through the cover; this will look like a baitfish or bluegill fleeing a predator.
The two other areas of shallow water cover that a Texas-rigged swimbait is a good choice are laydowns and boat docks. The bass that inhabit these areas see countless jigs, spinnerbaits and even shallow running crankbaits. So if you can present something different to them, you are likely to have some great days on the water. Around boat docks there is a plethora of baitfish and bluegill, so a swimbait mimicking that forage will tempt bass to come out from underneath the dock to hit your presentation.
Some of the tackle that you’ll need for this presentation includes a hook, the two options you have include a standard extra wide gap hook with a small tungsten weight in front of it, or a specialty swimbait hook that has a corkscrew up at the hook eye and a weight on the shaft or bend of the hook. My two choices would be a Lazer TroKar Magworm (TK120) 4/0 or 5/0 hook, depending on the size of the swimbait, with a 1/16 or 1/8 oz. tungsten weight pegged in front of the hook. I’ll use this setup when fishing in and around vegetation, as it will come through the cover with ease. When fishing around boat docks or laydowns, I’ll opt to go with a swimbait hook like the TroKar Magnum Weight Swimbait (TK170) hook. 
Regardless of which rigging option I go with, I’ll use a long 7’6” Witch Doctor Tackle Voodoo II Medium Heavy Power Fast Action rod. I can make long casts, feel exactly what my bait is doing and then have the power to get that bass out of the heavy cover. For line, I’ll either use 15 or 17 lb. test Seaguar Inviz X Fluorocarbon line, as it is very abrasion resistant and I can make long casts with it.
Another reason that the swimbait is so versatile is that it makes a great trailer for several lures. Using a swimbait as a trailer on a swim jig, vibrating jig or spinnerbait is something different than a standard grub, thus giving your bait a bigger profile and different than what other anglers are presenting to the bass.
Since the lures I mentioned above are used to replicate baitfish or bluegills the majority of the time, adding a swimbait as a trailer makes a lot of sense because it completes the lure package and makes it look very natural in the water. Two of my favorites are the Zoom Swimmin’ Super Fluke Jr. for a smaller lure profile in the water, or the bigger Boot Tail Fluke to show the bass a big meal.
Selecting colors for swimbaits as a jig trailer can go in two different directions. The first being, match the hatch as they say, meaning if you are fishing in clear water and the bass want a natural presentation, then go with a swimbait that looks like what the bass are eating. If they are eating shad, go with a shad colored swimbait, and if they are eating bluegills, go with bait that has more of a brown, green and blue color pattern to it.
The other color selection possibility is when fishing in stained water, go with a swimbait that stands out and brings attention to your lure. Such as when fishing a white swim jig or spinnerbait in the spring on a stained river, use a chartreuse colored swimbait, this will really make your bait pop and catch the bass’s attention.
A subtle soft plastic swimbait that I rely on is a soft plastic jerkbait, like the Zoom Super Fluke. This bait has the body of a baitfish and a uniquely shaped fork tail, that when left still, will move ever so slightly. Fishing a soft plastic jerkbait like this is ideal when an active school of bass has shut down feeding. Casting a white soft plastic jerkbait out to the school, letting it sink down, and then ever so slightly working it back to the boat with minor twitches of the rod tip will drive hungry bass wild.
I will also employ a soft plastic jerkbait in areas where other topwater presentations would get hung up. A weedless soft plastic jerkbait can be fished through heavy vegetation and dead sticked in the sweet spot to coax a tight-lipped bass into biting.
It is important to use an extra wide gap hook when fishing a soft plastic jerkbait, as the bait has a lot of plastic that needs to slide up the hook when you set the hook. If I’m fishing light line on a spinning setup, I’ll use the standard wire Lazer Trokar TK-110 Extra Wide Gap, but when I’m fishing around heavy cover and with baitcasting gear, I’ll go up to the TK-120 Magworm hook.
If you are looking to add a new fishing presentation to your list of options this season, give swimbaits a shot. They can help you catch bass in tough situations, along with help increase your chances of catching that big bass you’ve been looking for.
Glenn Walker has been fishing tournaments for over ten years, spreading his passion and knowledge of the sport via articles and videos. He keeps busy fishing events across Minnesota and on the Mississippi River. Glenn’s sponsors include: Bass Boat Technologies, Humminbird, Mercury Marine, Minn Kota, Plano, Rayjus, Seaguar, Snag Proof, The Rod Glove, TroKar, War Eagle Custom Lures, Witch Doctor Tackle, Wright & McGill and Zoom Baits. For more information check out glennwalkerfishing.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/glennwalkerfishing.
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