Technical question

[Lakebumb]

Thanks Juls

The snap weight thing sound pretty neat.

Have to try that if I can catch an Eye

[coyotewhacker]

Doncha just love this place!!! Where else are you going to get info like that? The fishing mags would probably prefer to print a dramatic story about precision fizzing, when something simpler and safer for the fish is available.
Thanks, Juls.

[Lakebumb]

I fizzed 6 or 7 Walleyes this weekend. Worked great and only lost 1 fish and that was due to other issues.

[bullitt]

I'm still confused by the "fish you don't plan on eating" part.

[Hunter91]

I think that must be the non legal walleye. I didn't think there was such a beast over legal length.

I was impressed by Lakebumb's fizzing our walleyes this weekend. The only one we lost to other "issues" was due to LB kicking it back in the boat after it had come off the hook and out of the net right before it would have flipped out of the boat. Very talented partner there

[Juls]

bullitt said:
I'm still confused by the "fish you don't plan on eating" part.

Where do you see that statement Bullitt? I said to practice on fish you plan on eating and not releasing.

Juls

[powerdive]

Juls, Bullitt never met a walleye he didn't want to take home to mama...

[bullitt]

True dat! The redhead hasn't fried me a walleye in over a week. I may get the DT's!

[Tablerock]

Juls... Bullitt is really an OK guy and he doesn't catch enough walleyes to hurt the population much...

(Like me)....

[walleyesrus]

If you're going to release the fish immediatly, just release it the less handling the better. If however you are in a tourney or want to keep fish that you catch early in the morning then fizzing does work, I'm proud to say that I fizzed five of our 6 fish and they were all released successfully.

[bullitt]

Yeah Juls, I've caught 2 this year. I think that puts me one over my limit!
The shad are starting to ball up, so it may be time to start bouncing a spoon.

[Lakebumb]

I pitched a little walleye overboard immediatley after catching it out of 25' and it floated. Grabbed it up shook it a little and it took off for deep water. You gotta get them started in the right direction.

[powerdive]

When Estes and I spoon the depths in winter for crappies and walleyes, oftentimes when releasing a stressed fish we'll "spear" it back into the water. This usually revives the fish in a hurry. The subject of "spearing" came up at the tourney last weekend, but it just so happens our own pro friend, Jim Carroll, addressed the issue recently on another forum. Hope Jim doesn't mind my reproducing his words here...

---------------

I won't comment on your anti-tournament sentiments...

However, I can tell you there is a lot better way to release all those 30" walleyes you catch out of deep water then "sliding them back and forth until they swim away".

Hold the fish under the chin with one hand and grab the tail with your other hand. Drop/throw that fish like a spear headfirst straight down in the water. Something about their head entering first gives them a burst and gets their tail moving. Works like a charm on deep fish.

I caught my largest Lake Erie walleye, a 32" fish 55' down on a Dipsy at Dunkirk, NY. I watched that fish go straight to the bottom in 92' FOW on my Lowrance LCX-104 after I speared him down. You could have spent an hour trying to get that fish to go from the surface. Your goal, if you are releasing a fish, is to return him as quickly as possible to a comfortable depth. Rolling him around on the surface does nothing to achieve this. I've taken many walleyes out of the water that others have tried to release that were flipped over, speared them down, and they were gone. Put them in next to your transducer and you can watch them go.

Just a little wisdom from a tournament angler...Best Fishes. Jim Carroll NPAA #333

[Shannon Woods]

Thats what the pro I pre-fished with did to the fish we caught that day, they came out of 40 FOT, and they would swim right away!

[coyotewhacker]

I also fished with JC, and the walleyes we caught were "speared" back in the water...they looked like a torpedo chasing a diving submarine going back down with no hesitation at all after being caught suspended over 120 feet of water.