Set Your Hook

Posts Tagged ‘tips’

Over the last months, I’ve given you fishing tips on how to catch a variety of fish (trout, catfish, walleye, bass, etc) with a variety of lures. I’m sure by now your tackle box is full to bursting with all your gear.

You can catch different species of fish with the same type of lure but in different sizes, colors, and with different hook sizes. So, to make sure you’ve got the right tackle for the fish you’re going after, you can set up multiple tackle boxes.

For example, my main tackle box has all my tackle to catch trout and bluegill. I know that if I grab that box, that’s what I am equipped to fish for. A different box has everything I need for bass.

ESP Boss also has multiple reels with different line strengths. All he’s got to do is switch a trout reel (about 4 lbs. test) for a bass reel, grab his pole, and off he goes! Make your decision about which tackle box to take based on what fish are in the lake and which you want to try and catch that day.

Not sure which type of fish lives where? EatStayPlay.com has the answers for you!

Readers Weigh In:

• What time-saving tip do you have when you are switching from one fish species to another?

Walleye are considered one of the finest tasting fish available. The meat is white, flaky and has a very mild flavor. So, this week’s Set Your Hook article gives you some general fishing techniques for catching walleye.

Do you know where to find walleye in your area? Are you looking for a lake where you can fish from shore or go out in the boat? Find lakes, rivers and streams on EatStayPlay.com

Walleye Description

Walleye are known by their yellow-olive back with a brassy cast. The sides are brassy-yellow with dark mottling, and the belly is white; there is a dark spot at the rear of the spiny dorsal fin. The eyes of a walleye are opaque-silver in color. The fish have moderate canine-like teeth. They range in length from 12 to 29 inches and can weigh between 10 oz. and 12 pounds or greater.

Walleye Location & Habitat

Walleye are a bottom oriented fish, due to their sensitivity to light, preferring to stay in deep water during the day, moving to shallow waters during the night. The walleye prefers moderately deep lakes with gravel, rock or sandy bottoms. It is found primarily in cold water lakes but has proven to survive in some warmer water impoundments. They spawn in spring, in relatively shallow water, over clean gravel or rocky bottoms.

There are eight lakes in Arizona that have walleye, but you can only eat the walleye from 6 of them (mercury issues!) Before you consume ANY fish, be sure to check your local Game & Fish to see if there are any restrictions.

Walleye’s Favorite Foods

Walleye will eat virtually anything they can catch and get in their mouths. They prefer small fish and will eat crayfish, worms and insects.

Angling For Walleye

Because of light-sensitive eyes, walleyes feed more actively early in the morning, late in the evening, or at night. Effective lures and baits include, minnows, night crawlers, jigs, crankbaits, spoons, small spinner baits, and minnow imitating plugs, as well as plastic worms and grubs. (Be sure you can fish with live bait in the lake!)

This fish can be somewhat wary and prefer the safety of deeper, darker water. Try fishing for walleye from sundown to midnight, particularly during the heat of summer.

Fall Fishing For Walleye

Top Baits: Jigs, crankbaits and spoons. Fish shallow to moderate depths in the mornings and evenings. As the sun rises, move deeper and use small spoons or jigs.

The Easy Way To Clean Fish: ESP Boss’ 4 Step Process

Have you ever done a Google search for cleaning fish? You’ll come up with a million and one ways to clean a fish! Holy cow!

Some fish really do have a specific way that you have to clean them, like catfish. But for your garden variety, run-of-the-mill trout, I wanted to share with you ESP Boss’ 4 Step Process.

Before you begin, make sure the fish is clean of mud, bait, and other nasties. You’ll need a sharp knife and a cutting board. Running water is a help, but not required.

If any fish still have the hook in them, set them aside for last!

Here’s how we take care of a fish that has swallowed the hook and we can’t get it out: put TWO of the metal stringer hooks through it. That way, we can tell it apart from the others!

Step 1

Insert the tip of your knife at the anal fins. Cut the fish’s stomach area all the way until you reach the gill cover. You want to cut completely through the skin, but not into the spine.

Step 2

With your fingers, remove the insides of the fish. It’s best if you reach in toward the head, firmly grasp the entrails and pull them out working towards the anal fins. Run your finger firmly along the inside of the backbone to clean out the vein that runs along the bone.

Step 3

Rinse the cavity of the fish. If you have running water, great! If not, rinse out the cavity in a pan of clean, cool water.

Step 4

With the fish laying on a firm surface (so you can see one eye), slide your knife up and under the gills. Firmly cut through the backbone so the gills stay attached to the head.

Discard guts and head. Or, save the head to use to catch crayfish!

And that’s it! Because trout don’t have extreme scales, there’s no need to remove the scales or skin. We typically cook them using the Fish Basket BBQ recipe.

Readers Weigh In:

• How do you clean trout?
• Any tips or tricks that I could share with newbies?

My Sure-Fire Trout-Catching Setup has been one of my most popular articles ever. And since it’s just the tip you need to fish for trout in weedy, rocky lakes, I wanted to illustrate just how to set it up.

ESP Boss discovered a worm threader about three years ago while on vacation in the White Mountains. NOTHING was working to catch fish; not PowerBait, not salmon eggs, not corn: NOTHING. But, there was one “old geezer” who seemed not to be effected by the lousy fishing conditions.

He told ESP Boss and The Queen Mother his fishing secret:

Worms

But not just sticking a worm on a treble hook and tossing it in. Nope, the man explained that he was fishing with night crawlers and a worm threader.

Of course, like most good fishing tips, there was a part of the worm threader tip that the man didn’t explain: how to USE the thing. Now, a worm threader seems pretty simple, but there is defiantly a technique to making it work well.

You’ll need:

• Night crawlers or other live fishing worm
• Worm threader
• Single hook with a leader (as opposed to double, or treble)

For all these photos, I use a whole night crawler so you can really see what is going on. When I’m using this set up for trout of sunfish, I usually use 1.5″ to 2″ of worm.

The first step is to insert the threader through the body of the worm. You don’t want to go from end to end, rather begin by puncturing the worm about 1/4 of the way up from on end.

This can be difficult since the worm will slide on the tip of the threader and try to curl around your fingers.

Once you have inserted the threader, you will slide it along the mud vein and out the end of the worm. The threader is now encased in the worm. You’re not “sewing” the worm onto the threader but rather sliding the theader through the body of the worm.

The tip of the worm threader has a small hole in it. That is where you will place the point of the hook.

Holding the worm threader in one hand and the leader of the hook in the other hand, you will then slide the worm OFF the threader and onto the hook and leader. This is where it can get tricky!

Tips:

You’ll be forming a V with the threader and leader. It’s a lot easier to do if you keep the leader taut to maintain the V shape.

If the tip of the hook comes out of the tip of the worm threader, you’re best bet is to take the worm off and start again. You can’t really fix it at that point.

The hardest part (once you get the worm started) is getting it over the knot and eye of the hook. The fishing hook is thicker there. You might want to use a shorter section of worm.

Once you have the worm threaded onto the hook, you can cast like normal. Since the hook is incased in the worm, you’re less likely to have a fish steal the worm. And, it makes it very difficult for the worm to fall off. (Always a plus!)

Readers Weigh In:

• What’s your favorite way of fishing a worm?
• Have you ever used a worm threader? What are your tips for making it work well?
• What is your go-to bait (or technique) when the fish just aren’t biting?