Second time at Balsam, Windy last night

[goforfish]

We got in water around 11:30am in the morning, windy a little bit not strong wind until 4pm, only got a keeping size walleye and couple small perchses , all the perches are look like same size,didn’t find any crappies and basses, wind becomes stronger after 4:30pm, we need put two anchors to stop our boat, very back thongs, our trolling was not working well(found out the problem and fixed after I arrived home),so we pulled out our boat before totally dark, may keep looking and trying next long weekend!

[crappeeeman]

That's great you caught a walleye, too bad you didn't post the picture. Must have been a beautiful day on the water. As far as the wind and putting an anchor down on the boat, you might try this next time you are out. Most of my walleye when I am in a boat are caught by just drifting with the wind. Walleye love the wind and more aggressive on a windy day. Obviously the wind has to cooperate. I will use Balsam for an example of wind drifting. Most wind on Balsam comes from the WEST, or SW, or NW. If the wind is coming from the NW we would start drifting at the north end and head south making adjustments here and there. And if SW wind start in the south and head north. You cover much more ground when drifting, many, many, many shorter casts down to the weeds. On a windy day I try and stay just hitting the weeds a little. Spring summer or fall on a windy day 15kph or more my baits don't go all the way in the weeds. Tempting the walleye out of the weeds with your bait works very well on windy days. When a walleye strikes your bait out of the top or out the side of a weed bed, the fisherman gets two benefits. 1st you get a much better hook set...2nd you are only fighting the fish and not a pile of weeds as well. Also with the shorter casts you get the walleye back to the net quicker. Now if you catch a walleye 22 inches or bigger, it's going to be a bit different. Take your time, a big walleye is going to fight and take some drag. My number one priority when I catch ANY BIG FISH is to not harm the fish. So I take my time, if I lose the fish who cares. And when releasing a big fish, I take my time there as well. My rule for releasing a fish is, when the fish splashes me in the face with water as it slips out of my hand, it's ready to go back to the weeds. The bigger the fish (muskie) The longer time you spend making sure that fish will live when released. Good luck next time you are out on Balsam. Stay safe.

[Fozzy47]

Excellent strategy CM. I would expect nothing less....lol.

[goforfish]

Yeah, thanks for share you experiences and tips CM, totally agree with you,one of us get the walleye, too excited forgot to take a picture and post it, we didn’t have so Much experience for fishing walleye,so I think your idea and experiences are very helpful and useful,have to try in the future,I guess more crappies are showing up in most of lake now, because the temperature are dropping,and the water of the lake are dropping too, it’s crappies season of the year now, hope we can get some next time, stay warm and safe!