Cast as far out as you can and let it slowly sink to the bottom. Use a 3/8 to 1/2 ounce jig head tipped with either a plastic worm with a spiral tail, or a minnow hooked through the head. Walleye can be successfully caught from the shore in the early morning and during dusk hours. Below I have listed some helpful tips and tricks to increase your catch rate. Many people target walleye, but not everyone is able to catch a freezer full. Not only are they fun to catch but they are also one of the most sought-after fish to eat. Working with a worm harness does entail the cost of worms, which run about $2.50 a dozen at bait stores, though purchases in bulk can bring the cost down.Walleye fishing is a pastime that many outdoor enthusiasts take part in. However, the older bouncers, which require a three-way swivel to connect the working parts of the rig, fish just fine. The harness, which includes a flashing spinner or two as an attractant and two hooks on which to thread a night crawler, attaches to a leader at least 3 feet long.īottom bouncers sold today are designed slightly differently from the older-style weights, presumably to simplify the rigging of the main line and the leader with harness.

In the past few years, however, bottom bouncers increasingly have been put to use as a preferred method of getting a worm and harness near or at the bottom, where walleyes often hang out. Since then, many - considered relics of another age - have been lying unused in vintage tackle boxes and dusty drawers. Years ago, bottom bouncers were standard issue for trolling the shallower waters of Lake Erie. The weight pulls the worm harness toward the bottom, while the long, protruding metal rod skips, or bounces, over many obstacles that would snag an unfettered weight. “I think we got 12 of the 14 on bottom bouncers,” the captain declared while counting walleyes in the cooler.Ī bottom bouncer, which consists of a lead weight wrapped around a length of inflexible wire or thin metal rod, is a type of sinker that can be trolled without getting snagged easily. However, a considerably older, far simpler technology brought in most of the fish. The captain’s use of Dipsy Divers and planer boards to get the worms in harness down into the water and away from the boat is considered standard operating procedure on Lake Erie. A number of walleyes were lost, three or four of them at the net. Subsequent passes during the next several hours put walleyes, including a 31-inch, 10-plus-pounder, into the cooler.īob and his guests didn’t call it a day until the number in the box rose to 14. A second pass over the same area, as verified by GPS, produced another. The initial pass produced two good-size walleyes. Trolling worm harnesses in about 40 feet of water west of the Black River off Lorain, the captain found about a quarter-mile stretch of bottom that produced walleyes - when the aggressive white perch, white bass and sheepshead gave them half a chance to latch on to a hook. The two guests, guys to whom the word gourmand could be applied only laughingly, were thinking for their catch something more along the lines of bread crumbs, hot oil and a frying pan. Ceviche is believed by some Ohioans, the captain among them, to be not only edible but palatable. The captain claimed to be seeking a single walleye fillet from which he and his bride could concoct ceviche, a Latin American dish that brings together lime juice, peppers and raw fish flesh. Just the same, this trip was no chowder run. Or so the captain, something of a gourmand, testifies every now and then.

White bass, and probably the closely related white perch, are said to make a tasty chowder. Almost as often as not, the fish landed were big, so how much of a nuisance could a 12-inch white bass be? Walleyes were biting, and so were bait-stealing “nuisance” fish that included white bass, white perch and sheepshead. Bob and two guests aboard his craft on Lake Erie last Sunday were sacrificing to the fishing spirits prodigious numbers of the skipper’s large cache of store-bought night crawlers.

Worm harness bottom bouncer