Night fishing

Ontario Fishing Forums

Help Support Ontario Fishing Forums:

salmotrutta

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
1,747
Decked out in full bug protection wear, went out for walleye tonight (and the odd rock bass).

I love fishing for walleye. They are elusive, and you can talk to old timers who have fished a lake for decades and never caught one, even though the lake may hold a good population of them.

The night sky was clear and blanketed by stars. Frogs, loons, beavers and raccoons could be heard. The air was crisp and cooling. Insects galore. Such is night fishing.

You put up with spiders using you to make their webs for a shot at some gold.

This guy was chillin' very close to me, waiting to ambush some unsuspecting prey. I tossed my white twister tail grub on a size 1 hook in front of him, with no weight (so basically a topwater presentation), and a few small jolts later I heard the splash I wanted and a fun fight on 6lb test line ensued.

22"




He was held up in the net for a while, and quite strangely, didn't move or flinch at all, until removed from the net. Mouth wide open - he remained flexed in that exact position for minutes after being netted. There's partly an explanation for this (see if anyone can guess), but really it was just strange, and goes along with the whole "walleye come in like logs".

I dispatched him with a knife, and after filleting, a pulsing could be felt from the fillet (freaky stuff!).

As a reminder, if you're keeping walleye in zone 16 and 15:

Sport license - limit 4; not more than 1 greater than 46 cm (18.1 in.)

Conservation license - 2; not more than 1 greater than 46 cm (18.1 in.)

Zone 17:


S - 4; must be between 35 - 50 cm (13.8 - 19.7 in.)
C - 1; must be between 35 - 50 cm (13.8 - 19.7 in.)

Zone 20 (Lake Ontario):


S - 4; not more than 1 greater than 63 cm (24.8 in.)
C - 2; not more than 1 greater than 63 cm (24.8 in.)
 
Great catch! Growing up in north bay this is one of the first species I ever caught or fished for.

There definitely elusive as I've fished the grand quite a lot over the last two years and have only heard of a couple guys catching them.
Then again I don't really target them nor really remember how to hahaah
 
Knuguy said:
He was probably thinking "I'm gonna hold still until somebody turns off that GD flashlight"!! Nice work(again!) ST.
That was just the flash from the camera in the first pic - second pic is headlamp on + flash turned off on camera.

My thoughts as to why the walleye held frozen like that..

1) It was hooked just in the tip of the lip - so it wouldn't have really felt the hook. If it was hooked deeply, it wouldn't have stayed still.

2) It had its spikes erect - so it was in a "don't f#$* with me" position, and wanted to stay in that position.

3) It's a freak of nature
 
awesome hooking it with the simplest rig. I've seen people fish for walleye with expensive plugs, crawler harnesses & spinners and got 0. good job.
 
used to fish for them strictly using a 3" white mr twister with a 1/4oz red jig head, just a straight retrieve, would end up with my limit in 45 minutes.
 
420fisherman said:
Great catch! Growing up in north bay this is one of the first species I ever caught or fished for.

There definitely elusive as I've fished the grand quite a lot over the last two years and have only heard of a couple guys catching them.
Then again I don't really target them nor really remember how to hahaah

they're quite easy to target, they are night stalkers (aka marble eyes) they like to sit near bottom or below a drop off shelf waiting to ambush small bait fish that swim over the edge. can be targeted with white twisters, senko worms, or a bucktail jig around weed lines. between me and my dad, we would easily catch 1200 from june to end of october fishing lake huron in sarnia
 

Latest posts

Back
Top