First timer for Potholes, any advice for a first time walleye trip?

[mmullins]

I have the boat and now its time for my first walleye trip. Taking the family over to Mardon for a couple nights in late June. Would really like to hook into some walleye. Any advice, Ive done some research and it looks like there are a few way to fish Potholes. I am planning on using wedding bands tipped with a night crawler and using my kokanee trolling rods and reels. Do people have luck with hoochies and smile blade? If anyone has any advice or if I am way off base please let me know.

[carlyoungs]

If you go on wdfw website they have a section for how to fish for eyes in potholes. We used bottom bouncers with different colored spinners that were tipped. Caught a couple nice ones and plenty of perch on the same set up.

[hunthard]

Ask them for help in the store, they will show you what has been working and where to go, we got into them real good last year.

[daddysprad]

Blade baits and deep divers, second pole with slow death roll set-up.  Check out the fishing reports on:  http://www.northwestfishingreports.com/LatestReports.aspx

[JJB11B]

bring a few extra dozen worms if you plan on using spinners, I went through 2 dozen worms the other day in a few hours fishing from a bank near the potholes. walleyes bass crappies were HUNGRY

[mmullins]

Thanks for the help so far! I am looking on getting some gear from Amazon. What size of bottom bouncer would you guys recommend. Was thinking 3/4 oz?

[BigGoonTuna]

i think 3/4oz is the lightest i use over there.  if you plan on fishing the deeper water, 1 1/2 - 2oz might be a good choice.  i like to keep a few different sizes on me.

and ditto on the extra worms, i think i paid the meseberg's mortgage payment last time i was over there, the catfish were pretty thick in the dunes.

[hunt_fish]

I'd stick with buying 2 ounces, we fish up to 4 ounces depending on how bad the wind is but by the end of June most of the time the wind isn't bad.  We use slow death hooks also like Daddysprad said, they give the worms good action and if you do that just use half a worm so you don't get short biters if you're using one hook.  Bring your crappie gear too, if you want to, early mornings and sometimes in the evenings the crappie bite well off the dock.  I usually start going there to fish off the dock around that time unless the perch start schooling up earlier in June.

[aaronoto]

Macks Double Whammy tipped with a night crawler is all we ever used. It was a combo that produced some big fish!!

[Bullkllr]

i think 3/4oz is the lightest i use over there.  if you plan on fishing the deeper water, 1 1/2 - 2oz might be a good choice.  i like to keep a few different sizes on me.

and ditto on the extra worms, i think i paid the meseberg's mortgage payment last time i was over there, the catfish were pretty thick in the dunes.

At some point in that process, we figured out the watered grass areas around the resort were full of crawlers. Never paid for bait at the store again.

[mmullins]

Alright. 4 more days of work to go before the big trip. Leavin. Thursday afternoon and plan on launching the boat early Friday morning. My plan is to head over to the crab creek channel and target walleye using smile blades with slow death hooks tipped with a crawler. Biggest question is the lake. I'll be launching from Mardon and will be heading east/north east to get to crab creek. Is there dunes I need to worry about running into headin up there or can I motor up there?

[lokidog]

The biggest walleye I have ever caught, 32" and 10.2 pounds, was caught there on a bottom bouncer weight with a stickbait of some kind on the SW end. We caught smaller ones another time but I was with some other people and can't honestly remember what we were using.

Good luck!

[Bill W]

on bottom walkers a good rule of thumb is 1 oz of lead for every 10 feet of depth.

[mmullins]

Would running a sliding swivel with a cannon ball dropper (like trolling for salmon) work as well? I bout a couple 2oz and 1 1/2.  But if I get hung up j have plenty of cannon balls.

[Ridgeratt]

Would running a sliding swivel with a cannon ball dropper (like trolling for salmon) work as well? I bout a couple 2oz and 1 1/2.  But if I get hung up j have plenty of cannon balls.

I run my bottom walkers off of slider's that way I am in direct contact with the lure and not feeling the spreader, But every one has their preference.

It also allows to make a change on the size of bottom walker quickly.