Big Walleyes But Not Mine!

Jared's 28 inch LOTW Walleye!

Last week we celebrated the fact that time does not stop, the problem is trying to make sure one is not left behind.  This year seems that there has been a little bit of this, especially for ice fishing.  Maybe it's just getting too difficult to trudge through the snow and slush, I don't know, it seems like I have a ton of excuses!  One problem is trying to figure out who to go with as I get older, it's always nice to have another person with to help in case one has any issues.  In the meantime it is fortunate that my friends share their fishing experiences and this week was no exception. The first picture is of my best friend, Kevin Aiona's grandson Jared.  His dad, Ben left his ice house at Springsteel Island Resort from our January 9th trip.  He has been back there 2 times since, once on Superbowl and last weekend.  Admittedly fishing has been slow on Lake of the Woods. They have been fortunate not to have the deep snow as well the ice thickness is approaching 30 inches.  Arriving last weekend, Friday was slow however on Saturday a big mark appeared above Jared's jig on his Vexilar.  Ben told him to lift it up and the fish, almost on script the walleye followed it up and smacked his lure.  Getting it up the fish was about 28 inches, a very nice walleye.  Of course Jarred struck a nice pose, I am glad he will be around when I get really old!  They really didn't get many fish this trip however Ben did head out to 16 Mile Reef, an area we fished years ago with Toby out of Arneson's resort.  Ben was able to get out there via his Polaris Ranger that has tracks instead of wheels.  I suppose he could have dragged his house out there, a good 10 miles, yet Kevin was with and they decided to stay closer to the known roads.  the story is that in another month the fish will move closer to the reefs and fishing will improve.  With Red Lake being a slush fest, Lake of the Woods has taken a lot of the pressure this year and maybe that pressure has had an effect on the slow fishing but it's hard to say.  There is talk about planning a trip after the first of March.  My friend Adam Mayerich is up with a bunch of guys fishing the Southwest side and am looking forward to talking to him when he gets back.

Kevin's nice Winnipeg Green Back Walleye

Another very interesting walleye picture is on from a fellow Team Walleyer, Kevin Jayson.  Kevin has fished a bucket list destination of mine, Lake Winnipeg, home of the giant "Green Back" walleyes.  Here is a giant that Kevin caught so I poached it from his Facebook post as this fish is quite amazing for sure.  Hopefully I will get to discuss with him the technique, location and details of heading to Canada to catch one of these beautiful fish as it certainly is impressive.  It would really be nice if one could haul a wheel house out and stay for a few days on the ice. Hopefully we'll have some interesting information by next week.  In the meantime one can only wish!  The bulk of my time is getting things cleaned up in the pole shed as getting the fishing equipment organized and waiting for my boat to finally get finished.  Also the weather continues on a roller coaster script.  In the 40's a couple of days, 4 inches of snow the next couple of days, -15 the next couple of days.  Thank the Lord we are not like Alaska where my friends report record cold (after a record hot summer) with temperatures dropping to -59... Uffda!!

FG Knot

So one of the things I am guilty of is once I get an idea in my head about a new technique for fishing, the tendency is to jump in with both feet.  I have never been much of a braided line user for jig fishing other than for ice fishing.  One of the advantages of braid while jigging is it doesn't exhibit the line twist like monofilament lines do. The negatives are it takes more finesse when setting the hook as braid has virtually no stretch and one can pull the jig right out of the fishes mouth very fast.  Also the braid is very visible and it can be difficult to tie new jigs to braid.  The standard way to overcome this is to tie a fluorocarbon leader to the braid.  This can be done with a simple swivel to make the braid/fluorocarbon connection or a more acceptable way is to tie the braid and fluorocarbon together as there are a couple of knots like the Alberto knot, or double Uni Knot however it is well acknowledged that the FG knot is the strongest knot as well as the smallest diameter knot to tie however after looking at the YouTube video's, it also looks like it's also the most difficult.  I am very focused on learning this knot and maybe heading down this path will make jigging for walleyes on Lac Seul a lot easier with less line twist.