Watching Walleyes Strike On Sonar

“I also use the Thill Euro-style wagglers. Standard slipfloats lean toward you when being pulled, but wagglers have the line flowing through a hole in the bottom of the stem and lean away from you when being pulled. That connection makes a waggler less likely to get blown around in waves, where the brightly colored stem above the water is tall and highly visible, so I like waggler-style floats when fishing 30 feet from the boat or more.”

The spread and placement of bobbers on a drifting boat is called a “drift set.” Proper positioning covers the water more efficiently and avoids tangles when fish run with the bait. Bohn never fishes more than 6 rods. On a typical day, the first set is lowered into the water along the boat adjacent to the transducer. The second set goes out about 15 feet from the boat just beyond the main driftsock. A third float is placed 15 feet out and 15 feet or so from the second, and the rest are staggered strategically out to about 30 feet. “Beyond 30 feet, most days,” Bohn advises, “you can’t see the float often enough in waves, and you can’t catch what you can’t see when using floats. When repeated strikes occur on sets placed out at 30 feet, it’s a sign that walleyes are spooked or in a finicky mood.”

Bohn gets to know an area with his electronics before drifting through, looking for points, inside turns, and breaks, in an effort to plan his drift. “Slipfloat presentations work best when the bait is positioned 1 to 3 feet off bottom,” he says. “It’s not always possible, but if you get to know the area first, you can plan a drift that keeps most of the baits in the zone 80 percent of the time or more. Avoid snags by setting the depth of each rig a foot higher than the shallowest point you marked when first patrolling the spot. Walleyes generally prefer to surge up out of woodcover or rocks to take a rig, rather than scrounge for it on bottom.”

Bohn also uses GPS plotter trails to follow the same track after a hot drift, or to stagger each drift after following a dead trail. “Never interfere with the drift, stop the boat, or make speed adjustments when strikes are occurring. Once you interfere with that successful rhythm, the strikes stop coming every time.”

Bohn baits his rigs with minnows, crawlers, or leeches, usually carrying all three options on the boat on any given day, often with a variety of minnows ranging in size from small fatheads to larger red-tail chubs. “Let the walleyes tell you what they want,” he says. “Having preconceived notions about what they’re going to eat can ruin an entire day. Cover all the bases.” It should be noted that In-Fisherman staff members had great success last season with Berkley Gulp! Leeches, wacky-rigged Berkley PowerBait Crawlers, and other scented plastics under floats, as well. In fact, these options often produced more action than livebait. At the very least, softbaits keep you in the game when tragic things happen with baitwells or when the bait supply simply runs out.

Bohn’s slipfloat tactics work spring through fall in big lakes, little lakes, reservoirs, flowages, rivers—even the Great Lakes. He learned he could improve his odds every day on the water by watching walleyes react to slipfloat rigs with electronics, adding new wrinkles and improved efficiency to any slipfloat program. “A drifting slipbobber system excites walleyes, regardless of lake choice, time of year, or fishing conditions,” Bohn concludes. “Catching walleyes with slipfloats is always fun. But watching them strike on screen, right below the boat, is priceless.”