Walleye in Padre Bay

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tim roberts

tim roberts

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imagejpeg_0.jpg 20170619_110420.jpg Terry and I have been fishing Stripers, Large and Smallmouth at Powell for years but, decided to try something different ( Walleye )! Bought some Bottom Bouncers and Worm Harnesses and went to work. We fished Padre Bay for 5 days from 5am till noon and ended up catching 25 Walleye along with some nice deep water Smallmouth, large Blue Gill and a couple of fat Cats! Now I know the count is not like they get up north around Bullfrog but what a blast and it was our first attempt at Walleye! I'm hooked and we'll be back in September to give it another go. Any recommendations for that time of year?

Tim
 
I will be around Iceberg and slick rock for the next week. I would like to target the walleye and have bottom bouncers but not sure what color blades to use can you give me any information on what worked and what didn't. I am sure we will be chasing boils but walleye flesh is my favorite and I would love to fill limits every day if I can.

Thank you for any info you can provide.

Tony
 
Tony L said:
I will be around Iceberg and slick rock for the next week. I would like to target the walleye and have bottom bouncers but not sure what color blades to use can you give me any information on what worked and what didn't. I am sure we will be chasing boils but walleye flesh is my favorite and I would love to fill limits every day if I can.

Thank you for any info you can provide.

Tony
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Fire Tiger and Green/Yellow/Lime combos.
 
tim roberts said:
View attachment 709 View attachment 710 Terry and I have been fishing Stripers, Large and Smallmouth at Powell for years but, decided to try something different ( Walleye )! Bought some Bottom Bouncers and Worm Harnesses and went to work. We fished Padre Bay for 5 days from 5am till noon and ended up catching 25 Walleye along with some nice deep water Smallmouth, large Blue Gill and a couple of fat Cats! Now I know the count is not like they get up north around Bullfrog but what a blast and it was our first attempt at Walleye! I'm hooked and we'll be back in September to give it another go. Any recommendations for that time of year?

Tim
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Could we get a little more info on what worked. What areas did you fish? Steep walls, flats, rocks, main channel or back up in bays, etc.? What depth worked the best? What speed and what type of blade? (smile, colorado, willow?). Wondering what weight of bottom bouncer you used? Did you catch them all bottom bouncing? Did you try any jigs?

Nice walleye, looks bigger than what we caught up North.

Thanks for the report.
 
Not Yet You Bet said:
Could we get a little more info on what worked. What areas did you fish? Steep walls, flats, rocks, main channel or back up in bays, etc.? What depth worked the best? What speed and what type of blade? (smile, colorado, willow?). Wondering what weight of bottom bouncer you used? Did you catch them all bottom bouncing? Did you try any jigs?

Nice walleye, looks bigger than what we caught up North.

Thanks for the report.
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We fished Padre Bay mainly around the main bay walls. We had the best luck when the wall had rumble rock piled up against it or going around a broken down point ( Ambush Spots ) Depth was between 25-35 feet. We used 1 1/2 ounce and two once bouncers and the Worm Harnesses I believe had Colorado Blades ( the round ones ). Fire Tiger as well as Green/Yellow patterns were what worked best. Did not try jigs as we were both enjoying using the bouncers and harnesses as we tried to figure out how to use them. In the past we would always catch a couple Walleye per trip while fishing for Bass. The size of the Walleye were general bigger than the standard ones we would catch by accident. The big one was 19 inches the rest I believe were between 14-17 inches! We also fished around Padre Butte and across the cut through. This was our first time fishing this way and it was a blast. We ended up with 25 but, I lost about 6 more as I got used to the slack that sometimes occurs when real up the setup! Hope this helps and would love to hear how you do?
 
Tony L said:
I will be around Iceberg and slick rock for the next week. I would like to target the walleye and have bottom bouncers but not sure what color blades to use can you give me any information on what worked and what didn't. I am sure we will be chasing boils but walleye flesh is my favorite and I would love to fill limits every day if I can.

Thank you for any info you can provide.

Tony
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Tony, the only limit on walleye is when you get tired of catching them. Sq
 
So fishing water at a desired depth of 25-35 feet but not actually bouncing the bottom? I see why it would work as your putting the bait at the walleyes desired depth or close to it. and running them through there front door so to say. If this is not right then sorry for misunderstanding.

Thank you so much for filling in the spaces it's really helpful.
 
Tony L said:
So fishing water at a desired depth of 25-35 feet but not actually bouncing the bottom? I see why it would work as your putting the bait at the walleyes desired depth or close to it. and running them through there front door so to say. If this is not right then sorry for misunderstanding.

Thank you so much for filling in the spaces it's really helpful.
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So I don't mislead, we tried to fish areas where the water depth was between 20-40 feet. If it dropped to 60 feet for a long stretch, we would pull up and motor to the next area where the depth was in that 20-40 range. The depth that seemed to be prefect was between 25-35! We did not fish through those areas of 60 feet ect. Also, we were always in contact with the bottom, pulling up or dropping down. Hope this clears up my post?
 
tim roberts said:
We fished Padre Bay mainly around the main bay walls. We had the best luck when the wall had rumble rock piled up against it or going around a broken down point ( Ambush Spots ) Depth was between 25-35 feet. We used 1 1/2 ounce and two once bouncers and the Worm Harnesses I believe had Colorado Blades ( the round ones ). Fire Tiger as well as Green/Yellow patterns were what worked best. Did not try jigs as we were both enjoying using the bouncers and harnesses as we tried to figure out how to use them. In the past we would always catch a couple Walleye per trip while fishing for Bass. The size of the Walleye were general bigger than the standard ones we would catch by accident. The big one was 19 inches the rest I believe were between 14-17 inches! We also fished around Padre Butte and across the cut through. This was our first time fishing this way and it was a blast. We ended up with 25 but, I lost about 6 more as I got used to the slack that sometimes occurs when real up the setup! Hope this helps and would love to hear how you do?
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Great info and thanks. Do you know how fast you were trolling? Did you troll with a gas motor, or use an electric motor to troll? How did you do while trolling in the cut through channel?
 
You guys gotta go experiment. Where the fish were and what they were hitting yesterday might not work today. That's the fun of walleye fishing! I would assume the trolling speed would be as fast as you can troll and maintain bottom contact. Usually not more than 1.3/1.4 mph at that depth. Maybe slow down during the heat of the day and fish deeper at around .8mph, but only if the fishing dies down.Go get a cooler full!
 
Not Yet You Bet said:
Great info and thanks. Do you know how fast you were trolling? Did you troll with a gas motor, or use an electric motor to troll? How did you do while trolling in the cut through channel?
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Sorry, you asked this before and I forgot to answer. I have a 54 pound thrust trolling motor and ran it on 4 at first and as the battery weakened I went to 5. We didn't spent a lot of time moving across the cut because of traffic but we did catch one right in the middle and lost one. Hope this helps and let me know how you do? I'm hooked on Walleye Fishing now!
 
catchnabuzz said:
You guys gotta go experiment. Where the fish were and what they were hitting yesterday might not work today. That's the fun of walleye fishing! I would assume the trolling speed would be as fast as you can troll and maintain bottom contact. Usually not more than 1.3/1.4 mph at that depth. Maybe slow down during the heat of the day and fish deeper at around .8mph, but only if the fishing dies down.Go get a cooler full!
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I agree totally with your comment. But one thing I have learned over the years is if you get on a pattern it tends to work for awhile and I will be down there next week. From doing research the past month the walleye are found on flats,bays,humps in the depth that he specified, the speed is always slow as to keep contact with the bottom but fast enough to get a nice thump out of the blade turning so I knew that. Colors and blade types are important just because there are so many options and sizes out there and he narrowed that down and I will try those colors first and change up if they don't produce.

Thank you both for sharing the information I will post back after our trip.
 
Cliff said:
Any chance of finding walleye in Warm creek bay? Just thinking.
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Good morning Cliff, I spend most of my time on the Lake up in Rock Creek or above. This last trip in Padre was an experiment as we tried to figure out how to use Bottom Bouncers and Worm Harnesses for the first time? Don't know about Warm Creek but, just try to find the same structure and see how it turns out. Another area down south that I want to try next trip is Navajo Canyon. Last year I picked up a really nice Walleye while I was jigging a spoon on the bottom for Stripers. The structure was good and I'm thinking some may hang with those Stripers on the bottom looking for a free meal? Just a thought, good luck in Warm Creek and let us know how you do.
Tim
 
Well I found myself chasing boils and not having enough time to find any Walleye maybe next time. We fished and camped in Halls Creek Bay with some exploring up lake and down lake.

The back of Halls creek looked to be an excellent place to run bouncers as it was a huge flat but just couldn't get the group interested in trying for them as the boils were everywhere in there all day long.

Thanks for the info though. I will try my luck next time down hopefully soon.
 
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