Pre Season Tips

I hope everyone has survived the winter season. We are about six weeks from the walleye opener at Witch Bay. There were some pictures in the paper of a couple of guys waterskiing on the bay in Kenora. But the trucks are still on the ice roads and there are plenty of people still ice fishing.

I am looking forward to a great spring season. I have taken a full time position on the pro staff at Witch Bay, so I will be fishing everyday this year.

I wanted to talk a little about some of the early season (opener to mid June) lures and presentation, for walleyes.

For the most part an assortment of 1\16 to 1\4 oz. jigs in a variety of colors, last year pink was really hot, but chartreuse, white, brown, and black are all good colors to start the search with. We will be tipping the jigs with live baits, crawlers, leeches, and minnows. For those of you who are new to Witch Bay all of these live baits are available at camp. For those of you who are looking for a bit more challenge we will be using a wide variety of plastic. When you are selecting your plastics just remember that the walleyes at this time of year are looking to feed on small bug larva and small newly hatched fry, so keep the size of the plastics small. I like to be in the 3 to 4 inch range, whether it is twister tail, paddle tails, finesse worms, of the new Gulp series of minnows and leeches.

As far as presentation is concerned I only have one word- SLOW!!! If there is one thing I tell people in the early season it slowdown. If you think you are fishing your lure slow enough stop, lay your rod down get a drink of water enjoy the scenery for a couple of minutes and when you pick up your rod you will very often be surprised to find a walleye has taken your lure.

For those of you who like casting the hard baits this is a great time of year to use the suspending jerk baits. For the most part I like to use the natural colors, perch and shad, at this time of year because the fish are still a little neutral from the long winter and tend to shy away from the more flashy colors. And here once again you will want to keep your lure size small and fish it very slow.

Hopefully some of our Witch Bay regulars will offer some of their early season favorites to add to everyone’s must have list. But if you are new to Witch Bay or one of the seasoned veterans all you will need is a pole and a hook and Steve and Gail and the staff will make it the best fishing trip you have ever had.

Looking forward to seeing everyone,
Dick Wilkening
Witch Bay Pro Staff