05/02/2020 04:51AM
I prefer 7' rods, med/light action, with 8 lb test on spinning reel.
I set my wife and I up with 2 each.
1) Slip bobber rig with red hooks, or beaver flicks, and leeches.
2) floating J9 or J11 rapalas in chartreuse, using a swivel.
The swivel, allows me to take the rapala off, and clip on a beaverhouse float rig. It's like a lindy rig, with a small colored floating ball (I like the chartreuse with pink dots), on about a 28" mono leader. the leader has a loop for a swivel connection on the opposite end from the hook, with about a 6 inch tag line. It's designed so that you can put a split shot or two on the tag line. So the split shots bounce along the bottom,with the leach floating up a foot or two depending on your drift speed. When the split shots get hung up in the rocks, most of the time you can paddle back and release them. However, if you can't get unsnagged, you simply apply slow steady pressure on the snag, and the split shots will pull off the tag end, and you get the rest of the float rig back. so I just keep a small bag of split shots, and can work a rocky bottom that way. When I locate the fish, I can switch to slip bobbers.
We either troll to locations we want to walleye fish, with the rapala's in 4-7' , or work the shorelines, for small mouth, casting floating rapalas to within 6 inches of shore. We target down trees, rocks, bushes, etc. Cast the floating rapala as close to shore or structure as possible. When the rap hits the water, we leave it sit for a few seconds. Give it a slight twitch. leave it sit a few more seconds, give it a 2nd twitch, then start to slowly retrieve. I suppose the theory is when the rapala initially hits the water, it gets the fishes attention, it's now approaching to investigate, by leaving it sit for a 2nd, the fish have a chance to come up from under the submerged tree, etc, and when you give it that little twitch, it will trigger the bite.
Over time,the wife has learned the drill. So now when we're near shore, she grabs the rapala set up and starts casting. If we're working lilly pads, cabbage, rock humps etc, she'll put away the rap, and grab the slip bobber rig. She's gotten pretty good at hitting targets close to shore. At first she'd put quite a few in the low hanging bushes etc. But has gotten much better with practice. If the caster is right handed, it often works better to work a lake clockwise. If the wind is up, I just paddle the rear, while she casts. I'll drag a floating rap behind me, or the bottom float rig with a leach, and not try to cast. I just work the canoe and keep it a good casting distance for shore, so she can work shore structure. If both people try to cast, when it's windy, the canoe will constantly get out of position, and you're either too far from shore to get within striking range (I like the rap to hit within a foot of shore or structure), or the canoe drifts into shore, and you spook all the fish. Molly would probably tell you, if the water is clear, and it's sunny, fish the shore early and late, and long casts. They spook easy.
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