James and Dustins Video

How do I get it, where, when, why and how much
Thanks
Hollywood

Go to http://www.bfishntackle.com and order it there…real easy !!

Hollywood,
if you get down to Pool 4, Steve at Evert’s usually has copies also. give him a call. Jack..

I recently got the video and was very impressed with the whole thing! A friend of mine and I watched it yesterday (my third time!) and he commented how James and Dustin were talking to us like we were in the boat with them and they were giving us suggestions to help us catch more and bigger fish. I can’t wait to get out and try it! I have a couple questions for James and Dustin (this is the other cool thing about this… can you imagine Joe Bucher or Jimmy Houston or any of the others being available like this?).
The video covers late fall fishing pretty well. How would you adjust for different times of the year (spring, summer, etc) as far as location, depth, presentation. And second, how would this work on a lake with out current. Would you just cast to structure (humps, rock piles etc) and work it slowly back to the boat hopping it off the bottom? This will be our third year trying the spring walleye run and after two years with very little success trying to copy what others are doing drifting by the dam, I am excited to have some real visual information to work with and am hopefull this will be our year!

Thanks for your help and this fantastic site!
Labman

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Hollywood,
if you get down to Pool 4, Steve at Evert’s usually has copies also. give him a call. Jack..

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Exactly I went for a cruise on SAT I swung by everts and he had 2 copies, now he only has one.

Just restocked this week. I have plenty

I posted the above questions a few days ago but this thread got buried pretty fast so I am not sure it was noticed. I am open to anyones advice to the questions or other suggestions. Again, I can’t wait for open water (and a little warmer temps!)in order to try these techniques!

Thanks for any help.
John

As long as we are asking questions …
What techniques do you use for boat positioning, especially on wing dams? In the wing dam portion of the video the boat is sitting parallel to the dam. How do they do that with the current and all? Are they using 2 anchors? I also noted James telling Dustin to back off on the bow mount electric at one point. What were they doing with the bow mount? I think boat positioning techniques on the river could be a video all to itself.
Enquiring minds want to know.
Clark

I understand where you are coming from Clark I am still learning boat control. I cannot seem to stay on a break for very long if there is much wind and even with current. All I can do is keep practicing.

Labman,

Good thing you brought this back to the top as I did not see this post. Lot’s of stuff to read thru and I must have missed it Good to hear you liked the video

We both fish the same kind of structure in the summer that we fished in the video. Only I fish with cranks, leeches and crawlers predominately. I have not done real well on walleye in the summer months on plastics. Once the water temps hit that upper 60’s, I have more confidence in bait. Don’t get me wrong, fish can still be caught on plastics but bait/cranks better your odds in those kinds of water temps. Biggest change from spring/fall fishing on wingdams and rip rap is the water flows. The flows in summer months are normally higher. Understanding and reading current, plays a huge role in your success.

When wing dam fishing you have 3 prime options that will usually turn some fish. One is to throw a heavier jig, or rig, and work it down the front face of the dam back towards the boat. In the spring/fall months you will be able to fish a wing dam with 1/8 to 1/4oz jig from top to bottom. The summer months will see a slightly different approach with higher water flow in the system. Fishing a 3-way rig from the top of the dam on down to the base of the wing dam is ideal in situations like this. I have used up to 1 1/2oz of weight on a 3-way to get down in to the sweet spot or out on the tip of a shallower wing dam. If that isn’t producing I will go lighter and fish more on top of the dam. Active eye’s are either in one of 2 spots in most circumstances. On top, or right down at the base on the front side.

2nd, is to fish lighter and let the jig sweep in to the front face of the dam and up over the top. Sweeping a jig/rig in to a wing dam takes lots of practice to get done right with out having the constant hang-ups. Your weight is very important while using this application. Get it just right and you will be rewarded on most occasions.

3rd way I will fish a productive dam before going to another one is to dead stick it. This method is pretty self explanatory. Just use a heavy weight and let it sit right on the dam, or right at the base of a wing dam.

Fishing rip rap in the summer months can be dynamite as well. Once you are able to find those shoreline current breaks or eddies, just cast jigs or cranks to them like you would in the cold water months. There are a lot of areas the are not fishable with jigs on rip rap shoreline’s in the summer months with the higher flows. Areas like this still hold good numbers of fish but jigging them is a real bear. This is were trolling rip rap comes in to play. I usually will run 2 rods of the side of the boat that the shoreline is located. On one rod I will have a shallow running crank bait like a wally diver, or #5 shad rap. This is why I like the 10’6″ St Croix Wild River Rods. I am able to run close to shore with our running right over those shallower fish. These rods are great for this presentation. The 2nd rod will have a slightly deeper diving crank bait on it to cover some of the deeper depths.

As for lakes? The only lake I spend a time on in the summer months is lake Pepin. When on the lake casting jigs, I am usually concentrating on the shoreline using jigs in the 1/16oz to 3/16oz sizes tipped with leeches or crawlers. Just cast them out and work them back to the boat like you described in your post.

I hope this helps answer some of the questions. If not keep asking until you get what you are looking for

Hollywood, thanks for the post. I just bought this video a few weeks ago and can’t believe I waited so long!

Dustin, thanks for sharing more of your fishing expertise. You and James have put together a very impressive video. Kurt

ClarkK

You are right, boat positioning would make a great video. 90% of catching fish is in the boat control

The way I had my boat anchored in the video is something that can only be done with the lower flows we see in the fall. We had our anchor out the back of the boat and were pulling the boat sideways with the trolling motor. It made filming this wing dam a lot easier for the viewers. If I have more then 2 customers in the boat, I will anchor this way often. It allows for every one to have a fair chance at the wingie instead of having only a couple of the guys in the right area .

But it is not fool proof as you can see from the video. The guy in the back of the boat was getting more bites cause the fish were out a bit deeper and not on top of the dam at that particular time . If I was to move off the troller the boat would have been out of position for filming On most occasions with my self and 2 guys in the boat I will just anchor right above the dam and everyone is still able to fish.

Hey, dustin what about the sand flat areas you fish do you drag a ringie or pitch up and use the current to move your bait! and what makes one flat better than the other

thank Kory

Hey Dusty that was a SUPER bit of info guy! and well written. You oughta be on with Linder and help him with his dialog!

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Hey, dustin what about the sand flat areas you fish do you drag a ringie or pitch up and use the current to move your bait! and what makes one flat better than the other

thank Kory

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I like sand flats that have deep water close by until we get some good flow moving down river. Throw in some clams, wood, maybe some gravel, and you have yourself a gold mine . With the low flows we have on most of the pools right now, those eye’s are free to roam all they want. If I am targeting an area that is relatively small, with a good mix of the things listed above, I will spend most of my time casting in order to avoid spooking fish off that one little spot. If fishing a larger area I make a controlled drift down river and drag my offering to cover more ground. This time of year there is not a lot of current to move your bait, it saves a lot of time using the boat to cover water. Once the water starts to come up with the Spring run off it will push good numbers of fish in to shoreline current breaks and eddies. From then on out I will spend most all my time casting to the current seams and back eddies.

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Hey Dusty that was a SUPER bit of info guy! and well written. You oughta be on with Linder and help him with his dialog!

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Thanks Tom, but I am not going to quit my day job just yet . I think most of the words are spelled right anyway