Creekmaikids - The Education Place: The Countdown To Michigan Fishing Is On - We Can't Wait To Try Our New Lures

If you don't have the best tackle, you use what you have. You use what knowledge you have. You wear what you have. You use the boat you have. Today we have more knowledge, better tackle, waterproof shoes, Gor-Tex bib pants, and a boat and trolling motor designed for the kind of fishing we do.

Big lures catch big fish, but these lures are twenty-five dollars, they need a baitcaster rod and reel with braided line, and you will wear yourself out casting for an hour. But they sure are fun to look at.

The Rapala Flat Rap is a new lure for me this year.

If you are fishing for walleye: You can put on a light jig (1/8th or 1/16th oz) and cast along the shore and retrieve it quite aggressively as the Walleyes are very aggressive this time of year. Use bright colors like red, chartreuse, yellow or white. Walleyes that are feeding will hit the jig. Walleyes that are not feeding will still hit bright colors because they are defending the spawning grounds and bright colors aggravate them. Generally, white is always the best color. In the daytime and in early spring, your will most likely catch smaller males, which stay at the spawning beds. The bigger females usually take off into deeper water during the day. If you are going after size instead of numbers, fish off the areas where Walleyes were spawning and fish deeper in the 10 to 15-foot depth. That's where the big females are. How do you find that special spot along the shore where the Walleyes are congregating? In the spring, put on a small Original Floating Rapala or Thunderstick and troll really slow right along the shoreline. The Walleyes will be in 2 to 4 feet of water. Red, Blue, Chartreuse and Fire Tiger are the best colors in the spring. If you keep trolling past a spot and hit Walleyes, then that's where they are. In this case, stop the motor and start casing. Trolling back and forth too many times will spook the area and they will stop feeding. A few years ago in very early spring (just after ice-out), we fished right along the shore. If we were more then 10 feet away from shore; we would not catch anything. Across the lake was a bunch of guys that were staying in a different camp. They watched us fishing along the shore and catching Walleye after Walleye. They were fishing out in the middle of the lake and catching nothing. They watched us catch fish all day. We told them the Walleyes were right on shore yet they would not listen and fished out in the middle of the lake and continued to catch nothing. If you are going to be a stubborn fisherman who never tries anything new or will not accept the fact that the fishing in Northern Ontario is different then down south, then all you'll catch is disappointment. In early spring, 95% of the walleyes will be in water shallower than 5 feet. In the afternoon, the big females will go deeper to protect themselves from the sun, Muskie and Pike.

In the middle of the afternoon try trolling 30 feet from shore in deeper water using down-deep Husky Jerks to try to pick up those big females that leave the shore in the daytime.