Advice Needed: Gearing up for Walleye

anonymoose

anonymoose

Well-Known Member
I'm new to walleye trolling and I'm hoping to get my boat in shape to find some fish next season. I don't have much gear, but I do have an old manual downrigger and one old trolling rod/reel. I have an old 17' fiberglass bowrider that I'm not afraid to punch some holes in. I'm not sure how slow I can get it to idle along. The boat has a kicker bracket but I don't have a kicker at this time (I've got a couple old short shaft tiller motors but I'm not sure whether they could hook up for steering/throttle). I'm not really interested in installing a planer board mast at this time.

My thought is to install the old downrigger, and use my existing spinning rods with it. It has 2 rod holders so I suppose I could stack 2 lines off of it. I'd need to get a weight and some clips. Looking for advice on what weight and clips to buy.

Next, install a rod holder on each side of the boat to use for dipseys. Looking for advice on what rods and dipseys to buy. I'm assuming line counters are pretty much mandatory? Thoughts on the Okuma Great Lakes trolling combos? What rod holders should I look for?

Last, I was thinking about installing a third rod holder and running leadcore down the chute using the old trolling combo I have on hand.

My thought here is that this would get 4-5 lines out at a reasonable cost. Any advice is appreciated. If you have any used gear you'd like to sell let me know.

Thanks!
 
Got my line counter rod real combo in Woodstock from fun time I think it's called but not 100%. $120 and they put braid on it. For most part I used #0 Dipsy 125ft back on #3 setting but this year I might try a #1 dypsy. Only thing I had to learn the hard way is measure your line to match counter
 
Okuma blue diamond rod for dipsy is my recommendation, can’t go wrong with the convector reel as a combo. I would use braid for the dipsy- makes it easy to pull the trip.

If your running straight out the back, why not run one leadcore and a dipsy on one side then use the downrigger on the other side and stack 2 rods with a cheater. Run the dipsy on 3 and lead straight back, get 10 colours on lead and you can use it all season. Just an idea.

Depending on where and how early you are going to start trolling you might not have to worry about going too slow. 2.5-3 was working good last year mid season all the way to the end. Sometimes 3.5.

If your running harnesses early in the season with bottom bouncers and harnesses, pick up a couple drift socks or make some with 5 gallon pails. You might not have great steering control but it’s a cheap way to slow down for a couple weeks.

I run a drift sock off the bow of my 14 tinner in reverse solo in st Clair early and do very well.

Regards dman
 
last year was my first year trolling walleye with my own boat. I got 2 Okuma Magda 30 with okuma GLT dipsey rods spooled with braid. Scotty power lock rod holders ($25)each. Deeper divers(same as dipsey but only $9)
Handful of spoons, a few cranks and harnesses. Ran my spinning rods straight out the back with inline weights when I had a second person. Economical caught plenty of limits. This year I am adding 2 leadcore rods to my setup with inline planer boards. I got great advice and highly recommend going to see Steve at Lambeth Rod and Tackle.
Plenty of guys run tiller kicker with no tie bar.
 
On a budget...Head up to Angling Outfitters in Woodstock and talk to Josclynn or Monty and pick up some inline planer boards and some snap weights. You can run varying oz's of weights to get down to different parts of the water column and you won't have sore arm's reeling in long lengths of lead! With the combo of divers such as bandits and husky's or taildancers you will be set good with your outside rods. Then pick up two dipsie rods and reels with and have them spool them with braid (Josclynn has a huge amount of very affordable entry level combo's!). I honestly wouldn't worry to much about the riggers as you will get ample amounts of fish off the sides of the boat and not directly under it! If you want to run a rod out the back just run deep divers flat lining out the shoot 200' back!. Should be able to get what I described above for $500-600

Good luck...Ryan
 
All good advise above so I really cannot add to it. But I would definitely run one rod straight off the back with a deep diving crank bait 180-200 feet on the line counter. I always pick a few fish up that way.
There is that one swap coming up, might be a good place to start looking.
 
Dmanwithnoname said:
Okuma blue diamond rod for dipsy is my recommendation, can’t go wrong with the convector reel as a combo. I would use braid for the dipsy- makes it easy to pull the trip.

If your running straight out the back, why not run one leadcore and a dipsy on one side then use the downrigger on the other side and stack 2 rods with a cheater. Run the dipsy on 3 and lead straight back, get 10 colours on lead and you can use it all season. Just an idea.

Depending on where and how early you are going to start trolling you might not have to worry about going too slow. 2.5-3 was working good last year mid season all the way to the end. Sometimes 3.5.

If your running harnesses early in the season with bottom bouncers and harnesses, pick up a couple drift socks or make some with 5 gallon pails. You might not have great steering control but it’s a cheap way to slow down for a couple weeks.

I run a drift sock off the bow of my 14 tinner in reverse solo in st Clair early and do very well.

Regards dman
Click to expand...
Some great tip’s there @Dmanwithnoname (y) Thanks so much for sharing & walleye’s and maybe rainbows also on this coming season!! (y):cool:
 
All great advice!!
In the early 90s when the walleye pops were massive like today, the HOT tickets were deep divers--I have a box of Bomber Long A deep divers that were the go too's then and still are.Long A.JPG Run them off of planers or just flat line then. Added inline weights for more depth if needed. No one was messing with lead core back then; we were using Dipsies and Pink Ladies but with the big lipped baits they wern't necessary unless you ran metal, and that was usually accomplished with downriggers. So, its easy to get going on the Erie walleye without a lot of the "specialized" rigs that have been popular over the last few years. Lead core and dipsies work great but do require heavier setups...which are good investments but not necessary if you want to use the tackle you have.

The other thing with heavy setups--it kills most of the fight...sorta like winching in the meat. I did/still do some custom rod building and I made a lot of custom Erie walleye rods because all that was around were downrigger rods...long but super slow actions. I made rods with the length for the lake--9.5'...but with fast action lighter blanks. They would handle the baits but allowed you to enjoy the fight. For a while, we were playing with really light setups--10-12' fast action blanks more suitable for steelhead fishing and light line--6-8lb test. It was a lot of fun, but did result in more lost terminal tackle!
 
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Personally if it where me and on a budget
I wouldn’t bother with riggers or dipsys for burwell or walleye on Erie.
Dipsys take all the fun out. Every fish feels like a monster you get all excited to be let down lol and your arms are rubber at the end of a morning.
And the right riggers are expensive.
Line counter real and lead core rod with copper line or lead core
I find lead core doesn’t get down as fast especially when you get up into high pound test and with certain lures you have all 10 colours out and that again gets tiring
But the fish action is much better
It’s like your actually fighting a fish no a log
Take some time and figure out what YOU like and what your confidence baits are
Then dive into the expensive gear
There some great suggestions up above
Nothing worse then being all excited spending a tone of money to only find out it’s not what it was cracked up to be
Also when you start down rigging ( which can be seasonal on Erie or more an Ontario thing )
Go out with some one with experience with riggers for the target species and let them show you some dos and donts
Riggers can be expensive to fix and they can do a lot of damage to other thing if not carful
Good luck man
 
Folks thanks for all these awesome replies! I like how you all cued in to the "on a budget" aspect here!!

For those saying that riggers are too expensive... I have a manual one in my shed somewhere - can't be that expensive to put a weight on it and drop it down, eh?

Definitely going to try the drag a bucket technique if I need to get the speed down. I'm going to have a tiller on my kicker bracket but figure it will be more for emergencies. Maybe if I lock it straight I could still steer with the main motor? @turtle is that what you're saying? How do they lock their tiller straight / hold throttle position?

@Dmanwithnoname are you saying you wouldn't run a dipsey rod on the side with the rigger?

Keep the ideas coming!
 
Yes. Lock it straight or just loose enough that you can turn it if needed. Most likely minor steering adjustment with main acting as a rudder. quick turns with the tiller. Costs you nothing to try it if you already own it
 
@anonymoose, I run 2 dipsys and a d/r including a d/r slider lure on the same side without issue.

2 dipsys and a lead core straight out the back on the other side.

6 lines in total for 3 in the boat.

Looking to add an inline board on each side for this year for when 4 onboard. (already have 4 of them, just never got them wet last year.)

Food for thought, the first time I was on Erie with my boat, it was with my neighbour. The boat came with 2 d/rs and 2 rods. I bought two dipsy rods and he brought all the tackle as I didn't have any yet.

Go slow as equipping can get out of hand quickly.
 
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I just thought if your running 4 lines stack the down rigger, run a dipsy on 3 and run a lead straight out the back. Won’t take you long to get pattern going with that spread. Might not matter this year, it’s looking real juicy again.
 
I rigged up a kicker steering system using quick-connect air-fittings and copper pipe. If you can sweat copper, it's an easy thing to do. If you can't depending where you are, I would be happy to help out with the design and implementation of a system.
 
For a rookie, I’d recommend not stacking the down rigger instead only run 1 rod but add a slider/cheater line off it to all you to get 2 lured off of your rigger still. Sometimes stacking it can cause massive tangles, especially when you hook into a bow. Then with the money saved without buying a second rigger rod, invest in more lures as they are more key to a good success than rod setup. Like stated above, in line weights are a way cheaper version than leadcore. From what you described, you would easily run the rigger off the back of the boat, along with a dipsey and flatline/leadcore off each side without needing planer boards
 
When I started fishing the lake i Cought damn near everything that swims in there once I added a GPS sonar to my rig. I could read my speed,water temp,see structure of all sorts. And mark exact locations for another day. Bought a line counter reel only becouse it was on sale. Took it out and within second I realized..how come I don't have more of these! Soo I set out to get the whole spread. I only bought gear when it was on sale in the off season. Reel by reel rod by rod, inline planner boards,all on sale in the off season. Cought boxes of fish??. My dad gave a leadcore combo and 1 dipsy diver becouse someone told him "this is what your boy needs if he is going to fish the lake"!. I Put it to work and boom! Another marvelous tool for fishing . Then I started on dipsy,leadcor &riggers. Couldn't cough up for riggers so bought into dipsy,leadcore &in line wieght techniques. I bought everything in the off season always on sale again. I have 6 line counter All spooled with 30&40lb braid for dipsy inline boars or long line trolling & 2 lead core rigs and an extra reel with leadcore in case 1 gets all tangled and useless.
Okuma cold water.
Okuma convetor.
Penn warefar.
Shimano takota.
Diawa accudepth.
No of these reels have never let me down. Some costly some not so. Some nice and smooth some not so much but no of them let me down. I always use an 8.6 rod for why, I don't know. That's what worked the first time and still works is all. Now I have had a couple rods break on my boat! A lightening rod and a diawa accudepth. The only rods that broke. Okuma and shimano seem to hold up nicely. I have boaght 130$ rods and 50$ rods and a couple in between...the 50$ rods are still in action..?. According to my journal I had 703 eyes come over the rail using dipsy,leadcore,in line wieghts&inline planner boards in 2018.
My buddy swears by down riggers. He runs 4 altogether. 8lb black balls and off shore black clips. 20 lb big game mono on all his rigs. Catches fish and numbers with the best of them. All techniques work from what I have noticed..to each his own kinda thing. I'd say It will come down to what you like to use on your boat once you have a tried this and that once or twice.
Don't just wait for some 1 to hook you up on a deal,search the web & tackle shops for sales is my best advise to you. We're in the off season now and the sales will be on here and there off and on till the ice melts. 20%off 500 will get you another yard to invest with! I my self like to fish every day more then make money every day. Lol. Only buy if its on SALE! You have a good 4,5 months to gear up I would say.

I hope you can find some usefulness of this.
 
Lots of good advice here and all I can add is there's so many walleye in the lake right now I think just about anything works. The last 2 years rarely did I need to change a lure from the ones I started the morning with getting very quick limits 95% of the time. From most reports limits are what almost everyone has repeatedly experienced. It's a great fishery so enjoy but just wish the perch would show up once in awhile also. :)
 
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