Working with wire

[TubeDude]

I was kind of wondering about a cross between your whirly fligs and the walleye harness... I love that interchangeable blade deal, now if I picked the right color flig body and had a walleye blade on it I might have something else to try... 

Been dreaming of some way to do better on Cutler cats while trolling... In the past the s-turns in my toon worked pretty well, but I haven't done well from my boat at all... So I'm wondering if a side planer with my fligs trolled out to the side might help me start to catch them again... It's so shallow, I'm sure the boat is scaring the fish away from it, since the motor probably almost hits the fish... but I'm not sure I can get the new boat into the shallows where I have been catching them in the toon... Too bad my toon has to be licensed,  and take so long to get ready to go and clean up... I like the boat because it doesn't take a lot of time to get on and off the water... I guess by not needing waders and rigging up everything for each trip it gives me more fishing time... Plus I can get to other spots a lot more quickly too... but it's sure hard to beat the finesse of the toon... time and place for both of them for sure... Later Jeff

I could fix you up with some (floating) flig bodies and you could rig them with regular blades.  I have been playing with those the last couple of years.  The Colorado blades take a little more speed to get them whirling than the propeller blades.  But they give off more "thump" and you can use the full range of available colors. 



About using a planer board for shallow water trolling.  That is a proven tactic on Utah Lake...which is the epitome of shallow lakes.  Walleyes are notorious for being boat bashful, but even cats can be spooked by boat noises...especially if the boat is going directly overhead.  And I just got a single planer board to use with my float tube...for shallow presentations in Utah Lake.  So, I'm a believer.  Two years ago I was fishing out in about 5-6 feet of water just south of Lindon.  I noticed a boat moving slowing back and forth in much shallower water between me and the shoreline.  Eventually I moved in close enough for communication and he admitted he was catching walleyes in only about 3' of water...but was using planer boards well out to the side of his electric motor powered small boat.  Said he had been fishing the post spawn fish that way for years.   

I learned a long time ago that catfish are a lot more noise conscious than I might have thought.  I had hooked up to a modest size cat while fishing beneath a big bobber.  I had a nick in my line or a sharp spot on a guide or something that caused my line to break above the bobber.  I figured "no problem"...that I would just chase down the bobber in my float tube.  Yeah, right.  I couldn't get anywhere close to that bobber.  Every time I got within about 10 feet it would shoot off to the side...away from me.  Even with just using my fins to try to chase it down it would hear me and move away.  Eventually I picked up a rod with a lure on it and cast across the line to snag it and bring in the evasive cat. 

On the "flip side", I have hooked both cats and walleyes directly beneath my tube in only a few feet of water.  So some of them are evidently less spooky than others.  But over time the stealth approach will likely get more fish.