Can't say I've ever been a walleye fisherman though I've stumbled on a few over the years. On our Canadian trips my son and I would use them as a go-to when we'd lost too much blood to pike. More often we'd accidentally hook one of the dumber ones, think, "There could be walleyes here," and if we were ambitious, switch to a jig and twister tail. Of course last year's trip to Ontario found us on walleye lakes and after we'd accepted the fact big pike weren't in the cards, we lowered ourselves to trolling.
I've never found trolling to be the same as fishing. The difference lies in being skunked. Over the years I've learned there are many ways to not catch fish and that includes using bait. I've considered wearing rubber waders in the shallows to electro shock bass like the DNR when they do a fish count but that's way too equipment heavy for my tastes. The thing about casting lures or winging flies with the long rod is even if you're skunked, you're at least honing a skill that'll come in handy when the stars line up.
However, this year walleyes are a priority. My nephew has a thing for them and my son-in-law and grandson have never caught one, so it'd be nice to catch enough to kill and eat. We'll probably be trolling and as I said, that's not a skill. To get around the lack I'm tying my own walleye spinner rigs—never done that before—so I'm learning a new skill. They're the real deal tied from what I had on hand. There won't be a lot of color variety but since I like red and white and that's what I had, that's what they are. Throw in jigs and divers and if we don't catch 'em I can always blame the lack on it being summer when walleyes take it easy. If anyone gets huffy I'll blame covid-19, the Canadians or our simple minded President for closing the border just to keep us away from fishing heaven up in northern Manitoba.
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