Suspended 15 feet Up- Basin trolling advice?

I am headed out this weekend, and stopped by the lake on Tuesday to do some scouting. After driving around for about 4 hours, I finally found some fish that were somewhat congregated, however, the majority of them were about 13-15 feet off the bottom in 35 FOW, with some sprinkled in on the bottom.

My question is when basin trolling, when you see this are you bringing your lures up in the column, or still targeting the fish on the bottom?

Common misunderstanding is walleyes are always on the bottom.

Good eye.

Get them lures above the fish!

When I fished lakes, the moment the thermocline showed up early summer, I left the bottom and suspended fished the basin thermocline.

Believe in the depth finder.

Go fast and introduce pauses, jerks, speedups, slowdowns.

Good luck.

I’m off to SD for Pdogs!

Fish blood nailed it. Think of it this way, when you are ice fishing and you see a fish come in off the bottom don’t you go up to it? I have found that most of the time the suspended fish are more active than the bottom dwellers.

Yep, fish above the fish slightly. A wise man once said fish the fish where they are, not where you want them to be. Agreed, more often than not those suspended fish are way more active than the fish at the bottom. Good luck!!

We have caught basin fish on flat calm days 1-2 feet down. Trolling crawler harnesses 30 foot back behind the board, no weights. Those fish were up feeding on YOY perch that were feeding on a bug hatch. Any higher up and we would be fishing jumpers!

-J.

Precision Trolling

Unfortunately I still stink at it, but I know the fish are down there so it’s only a matter of time.

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In regards to MIlle Lacs, I have had very little luck catching fish that high. Mille Lacs does not have a thermocline so that’s not a factor. I also believe that most of those suspended fish are tullibee. A 2 pound tullibee 20’ down will make a nice mark on your depth sonar.

Fife wrote:

A 2 pound tullibee 20’ down will make a nice mark on your depth sonar.

Hmmmmmmm-, I wonder what eats tullibee?
Bueller, Bueller?

Thanks for all the input, much appreciated. I am starting to think most of those suspended fish were tullibee.

We ran 3 rods in 33-35FOW for about 12 hours of trolling, and went 16-22. Biggest fish was 27, average was 23. Ran 2 on the bottom 1 high, but ended up with all 3 on the bottom after that was all we could get hit on.

Fish are definitely moving closer to the reefs. I would have to think reef fishing will get good shortly.