Veteran Insights To Big-Water Trolling Success

“Which brings up an important point. Seldom are all the fish suspended at, say, 21.2 feet. Rather, they’re predominantly within a depth range several feet thick. You must establish this level by experimentation and position your lures within the fish zone. Active fish will rise to strike baits, but don’t run lures below the fish, where they can’t see them.

“When it comes to fishing cranks versus spinners, both rule. I now rank them equally important at all times of the year. The best thing you can do is run both and let the fish tell you what’s best. The fickle attitude of open-water fish prevents you from choosing what the fish want. Instead, you have to show them choices and let them tell you what they want to hit.

“Holographics for open-water Great Lakes fish are a big deal, both on spinners and cranks. Northland Fishing Tackle probably started the trend with their spinner blades. The recent addition of flashy spoons to the walleye trolling arsenal, largely popularized on the circuit by the Gwizdala boys over at Saginaw Bay, started my experimenting with Witchcraft tape on snap weights. The silvery tape makes the sinkers look like little baitfish. As a result, Bass Pro’s XPS Trolling Weights now have holographic tape, a natural adaptation based on observation and experience.”

Fundamentals Defined And Refined

“In the ever-changing world of experimentation, open-water trolling has become quite refined,” Parsons says. “In the early years, my fishing partner Keith Kavajecz and I often felt we had a big advantage and could dominate big-water tournaments because we had such a jump on the learning curve. But now, no. Many good open-water trollers on the circuit have taken the game to its current level. Strangely enough, I now look forward to tournaments where we don’t troll, because it’s become so hard to gain an advantage in open water.

“Still, there are fundamentals and tricks to raise your odds. Finding your own fish is key in tournaments, because shared fish become spooky fish. Limited tournament boundaries, established for safety reasons, diminish the possibility of finding unfished schools because it’s hard to get away from the packs of boats. Electronics are so good nowadays that you can bet the contestants will find the predominant schools in practice. But many anglers still make the mistake of fishing the packs too much.

“I usually fish the fringes of the main two or three packs. Suspended walleyes don’t like pressure and will turn off and drop to bottom. The most active pods of fish, therefore, tend to be on the fringes of the packs of boats fishing the larger primary school. Move a half-mile or mile outside the other boats and look for your own fish.

“Some fundamentals don’t change much, like fishing downwind most of the time, rather than struggling against the waves. Things have modified a bit in that regard, although any waves bigger than 1 to 11⁄2 feet are hard to navigate against, and you don’t want to sacrifice the stop-and go-action imparted to lures surging downwind in waves.

“In lesser waves, however, here’s a good trick. You can spin your boat around to work a pod of fish providing you have a long-shaft autopilot bowmount electric motor all the way down, at 50 to 60 percent of full speed, and angle into the wind on continuous thrust. The primary thrust comes from your kicker outboard, while the electric keeps the bow headed rock solid in one direction and maintains steady boat speed against the waves.