Targeting bottom composition transitions with Trigger X artificial baits for Mille Lacs walleye
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Mille Lacs lake in central Minnesota is a structure fisherman's paradise. Hidden within its 132,000 surface acres are shallow rockpiles, deep mudflats and gravel bars, and weedy flats that are year-round homes to trophy walleye, smallmouth bass, jumbo perch, pike and musky. Whether you prefer to troll, cast, drift, or bobber fish, Mille Lacs has structure that both holds fish and is suitable for your favorite presentation method. Many of the primary structure types found in Mille Lacs are easy to identify with a locator and a decent map, like the high-resolution GPS map available from Lakemaster. However, one key structural feature is absent from paper and electronic maps and charts: changes in bottom composition.
Dr. Jason Halfen
Professional Walleye Angler
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Fish, particularly active ones, often relate to the edge created by changes in bottom composition, particularly from areas of soft bottom (muck) to hard bottom (sand or gravel). While it is possible, through careful interpretation of traditional 2D sonar returns, to see these transitions, Humminbird Side Imaging fishing systems allow the angler to not only identify the transitions, but also to observe them extending for hundreds of feet to either side of the boat (rather than being limited to identifying a soft/hard transition that occurs immediately beneath the boat). On a recent trip to Mille Lacs, my guests and I found that nearly all of our fish came from these soft bottom/hard bottom transitions, and we relied on Humminbird Side Imaging to identify the transitions that were populated with biters.
Here is a screen capture from my Humminbird 1197 that shows an isolated hard bottom area (bright white) surrounded by soft bottom (dark-light blue). There is no depth change moving through this area; it is all 30 feet deep, so it doesn't appear as depth contours on a map. The only ways to find these transitions in bottom composition are to drive randomly around with a traditional 2D locator, which can identify individual bottom transition spots through careful interpretation of the bottom colors, or to use a Humminbird Side Imaging Fishing system to map the entire area and easily outline ALL of the composition changes in a particular area. If you can distinguish white from blue, you can find changes in bottom composition with Humminbird Side Imaging.
Fish on!
Now you know where I've been fishing lately. Here a bit about how we're putting these Mille Lacs walleye into the boat. For the past several weeks, the only way I've been fishing has been pulling spinners on bottom bouncers or 3-way rigs. My rigs are relatively simple: 3 oz bouncer or 3-way weight, 4-5 foot leader to a crawler harness (2 or 3 hooks), with a large (#4 or #5) hammered metallic deep cup Colorado blade. We've found hammered silver, hammered gold, and hammered copper to each be productive at different times of the day and with different sky conditions; all of my trips begin with every angler fishing a different blade color until we zero in on a preferred pattern. Live crawlers are working; however, the abundant perch in these areas will just peck your crawlers to death, and all of that rebaiting keeps your bait of the water and therefore unable to connect with a Mille Lacs walleye. We've also been running pheromone-infused Trigger X 6.5" crawlers on our rigs this season. These baits are just as effective as live crawlers, and the perch can't destroy them with their constant pecking. Don't get me wrong....the perch still hit them, but Trigger X crawlers are tough enough to take the perch punishment and still keep your rigs in the walleye zone. My most recent trip saw 25 walleye come to the boat, with 5 of them over 24" and the big fish of the day, a beautiful 26 incher, taken on a Trigger X crawler. I won't leave shore without these baits, and I encourage you to incorporate Trigger X into your repertoire as well. If you'd like to see Trigger X in action (and witness our 26 incher coming to the boat), and learn more about our key bottom transition areas, check out the short video at the bottom of this page. See you on the water!
Here is another screen capture from my Humminbird 1197 that shows the transition between soft bottom (dark blue) to hard bottom (bright white). I had just fished through the transition in composition, and at the time that this screen capture was recorded, the boat was over the hard bottom area. This hard bottom area had some scattered gravel and small rocks, which are apparent in the upper portion of the left Side Image. This entire area is consistently 28-29 feet deep, and the transiton in bottom composition does not appear on any map. Nevertheless, the fish are there, and these transitions can be easily identified by Hummminbird Side Imaging.
A hard bottom-soft bottom transition walleye from Mille Lacs
