Usually by this time of year, I have several Saginaw Bay walleye trips under my belt. This year, because of a busier than usual work schedule, my Starcraft Islander didn’t hit the water until today.
It was a trip that was definitely overdue…but the wait was worth it.
A surprisingly strong northeast wind greeted me as I cleared the mouth of the Saginaw River. With that in mind, I decided to head out deep rather than fish my beloved shallow water. I figured the run to the “Spark Plug” would get nothing but worse if the wind picked up later, and I could always head back to shore with the waves following me if conditions got too bad.
Turned out, the wind later died and the waves turned flat. I’ll take those conditions over the famous “walleye chop” anytime.
I started out east of the Plug in about twenty feet of water trolling spinners (nightcrawler harnesses) and bottom bouncers on Offshore in-line planer boards. After some experimentation, I discovered the best presentation to be ounce and a half bouncers 32 feet behind the boards. I also ran ounce and three eighths bouncers at 27 feet.
Copper blades were the best, especially the proven “Confusion” color. I don’t think you can go wrong fishing for walleye with Confusion.
I’m not a big crawler fan, but I have to admit they can be very productive, and it didn’t take long to catch a dozen or so nice walleye.
The day was still young so I decided to try another technique…this time, one of my favorites.
I tied on some Michigan Stinger Scorpion spoons about six feet behind Walker Deeper Diver diving planers, again behind Offshore boards.
I tried a variety of lengths from 20 to sixty feet back, but found the most productive sets to be 50, 55 and 60 feet. Again, copper….and especially Confusion were best.
In all, I caught probably 25 to thirty fish from fourteen to 23 inches. Not bad for my first time trolling this year.
Fish on!