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What are the three most important factors to consider if you hope to consistently put walleyes in your boat?
I expect you’d get a variety of answers to those questions if they were asked of a large number of anglers. Fishermen are famous for having their own firmly fixed thoughts of exactly how this or that needs to be done.
I’m of the opinion the answer to those three questions are a lot more meaningful if they come from someone with an established track record as a full fledged walleye-catching expert. Such a man is 38-year-old Richard Fike, of Farmington, Pennsylvania. If you’ve read my last two columns you’re aware that Richard and his brother Mike teamed up to win the 2006 Cabela’s Team Championship in June. Then in early July Richard joined with a different partner to win the Northeast Walleye Circuit Championship on Lake Erie.
Richard didn’t hesitate 10 seconds in coming up with the three factors he deems essential to walleye angling success. The first point he mentions is versatility. “It’s essential that you be flexible in your approach,” he says. “You must constantly be willing to try something new if that’s what it takes to get hits.”
The way Richard put Mack’s Lure Hot Wings to work along with his Smile Blades to win the Northeast Walleye Circuit Championship provides evidence that Richard practices what he preaches in this regard.
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Top walleye anglers like Richard Fike change their approach until they start
getting hits. In a recent tournament on Lake Erie Richard trolled a combination of a Mack's Lure Hot Wings and a pair of Smile Blades ahead of his bait set up. He and his partner wound up winning the event. |
“I first used Hot Wings while fishing at Saginaw Bay in Michigan,” Richard says. “They played a major role in our winning the recent Lake Erie tournament. We fished our lures off planer boards. Because Mack’s Lure Hot Wings have so little drag it let us get our planer boards off to the side where they needed to be. The lack of drag also made it a lot easier to tell when we had hits.”
Richard and his partner fished an area of Lake Erie that was about 77-feet deep. They picked up most of their fish about 32-feet down. “The lake was clear,” Richard says. “Often we could actually see the walleye coming in to hit. The Hot Wings and the Smile Blades made it look like a school of minnows were out there in front of our baits.”
In rigging for Lake Erie, Fike attached a Dipsy Diver to the end of his line. He used 2-feet of leader in front of his Hot Wings and 3-feet more leader from the Hot Wings to his Smile Blades and their trailing baits.
I was also curious on the colors this Pennsylvania expert selected in his Hot Wings and Smile Blades. “I used silver Hot Wings,” he says. “I used two Smile Blades. One was black, the other purple. I used six beads between my hook and the first Smile Blade. I used four beads between the first and second blades.”
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| Top walleye anglers like Richard Fike change their approach until they start getting hits. In a recent tournament on Lake Erie Richard trolled a combination of a Mack's Lure Hot Wings and a pair of Smile Blades ahead of his bait set up. He and his partner wound up winning the event. |
Do you think bead size isn’t all that important? Richard doesn’t see it that way. He opts for smaller beads in waters where he know the walleyes run small. He goes up in bead size in spots like Lake Erie where a pot bellied lunker is always a possibility.
Maintaining a positive attitude is the second point Richard considers essential to successful walleye angling. “If you’re fishing tournaments,” he says, “you’ve got to think you can be the best. The competition now is so intense. Your attitude has to be positive and your equipment has to be tops and that applies to everything from rods and reels to blades and baits.”
The final factor Richard lists is putting in time on the water. He considers this especially important if you’re pre-fishing for a tournament. “I’ve watched anglers go out at 7 a.m. and come in at 3 p.m.,” he says. “I’m going to be there until 6 p.m. or later. I’ll remain out there just as long as it takes to come up with an approach that will catch fish. I’m not about to sit around on shore wondering what my competition might be doing.”
Richard says he avoids getting into the mind games that so often float around before and during tournament competition. He makes every effort to figure things out for himself and ignores what he’s hearing from others.
Richard uses an 8-foot rod for his bottom bouncing. He loads his reels with 30-pound test Power Pro braided line. “This line is 30-pound test,” he says, “but is only 8-pound size in diameter.” He’ll go up to 20-pound test in his leaders where the fish run large. He’ll go down to 12-pound test where the walleyes are smaller.
That’s about the size of it. I’ve my past three columns I’ve shared some of the things Richard and Mark Fike shared with me. I’m fixin’ to build their secrets into my own piscatorial pursuits. You won’t go wrong if you do the same.
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