 Are you ready? Hey boys, welcome all back to the channel. It's time to do some walleye jerking today. Now, I know in this series, we already caught some walleye. And we did a magnificent catch and cook short lunch. But Captain Ted, he's been going out every day for two weeks dialed, and we're going to learn some things today about catching some walleye. Hopefully get some pretty good ones in the process. My personal best is 24 inches long. I feel like we have a pretty good chance at stepping that up here today. However, I have never done this technique that we are going to learn together today. Ted's going to walk us through it. But we're going to be getting on him crawler harnesses. OK, boys, we're going to start fresh. Never rig one of these up. We're learning together. All right, Captain Ted. We're rigging up a bottom bouncing rig. Is this correct? It's correct. My preferred rod is a 6'6 medium heavy of any brand. And then maybe a 2,500 series spinning reel. All righty. Got probably 20 pound braid, 15 pound braid. 20 pound braid, two ounce bottom bouncer. And with the wind today, that's definitely the right call. You can go lighter on certain days when the wind's not quite as strong. But we want to be on the bottom, hugging the bottom, bouncing rocks, and also pushing through the weed lines. So we tie that directly to a snap. It's your basic snap. And then we hand make our snails in the cabin at nights. And over a couple of cocktails of course. Absolutely, it's the best way to do it. Going fire tiger today. Made that last night. A little bit of a copper flash on the back. Orange and green beads. Barbed hooks to keep the worm on. Snailed on. Yep. It's about arm lengths. OK, six foot or so. Maybe seven foot on you. Yeah, that's usually what we do when we're making them. We just hold our arms out. And then you're going to tie it to this, which is when you purchase the bottom bouncer, it'll have a barrel swivel on it so the worm doesn't get tangled. And I like to put another barrel swivel on my line too to give it a little bit more straightness. I just don't want to get tangled when I'm down there. There's a lot of current and rocks. So this is 15. That's 15 mono. 15 mono. That'll give you a little stretch. So when you do hook the fish, you won't pull it out of its mouth. Is that a crawler hornet? We call them a snail, but yeah, a crawler hornet. I think it's what they call them in the store. And then you need a crawler for your snail. Now this is interesting here. You take very good care of your worms. It's essential. You want to have live, cool worms. Live, cool worms. We clean them so we don't have to bring the mud out into your boat. Fresh clean water every night. Every night. Make sure it's on the barb through the eye of the worm. And this I let just kind of hang free. We don't put that on the worm. Oh, OK. Yep. And catch most of your fish on the front hook because they're really hitting that blade spinning around. But occasionally, you're getting with trailer too. And this cooler, guys, this is an actual cooler. It has cool packs all around it. All right. This is not a game. There's the full program. Look at that. And they're happy. They've been cleansed with aquafina at night, all right? I've never done this technique before. The closest comparison that I can give is probably Carolina rigging with a drift. So if you get out on a big point for bass and you just throw the Carolina rig out and you're sort of letting it go, you get on the trolling motor and you do a controlled drift, that's kind of what we're doing here. So looking at the electronics, seeing the bait, seeing a good depth, which in this case is about 15 foot. And then Ted is going to stay on the trolling motor and basically keep us in the depth. And we will put it off to the side. The two ounce, that has a lot of weight so that it goes down there and it's keeping you on the bottom. And your line's not lifting up and drifting above the fish. We're learning. Smash that like button. Let's get hooked up. OK, we're going to snap on the bottom bouncer, which is attached to the Snelled harness. Look at me go. I'm a true Yankee now. All right, that is pretty heavy. That is pretty heavy, Ted. So this has essentially a 90 degree angle on it. We want to put ourselves in the current. I've got my worm ready to go. Ted's already hooked me up. And so I'm throwing this on my green series finesse rod. Go ahead and open your bail. Drop it down. Drop it? So all your line comes out and it's flat. Oh yeah, we're on bottom. Got the feel. We're on it. Yep. But now we're going to battle it. OK, this is bottom bouncing. This is combining boat with man and electronics. It's one fluid system here. When you get a bite with one of these, you want to let them tap it a couple times. Suck it. OK. All right, we've got some fish down here, guys. Right now they're hugging the bottom. Oh, this is it. Yeah, there's got him hooked up. Oh, Ted, he come off. No good, too. That looks like a big in there. That was just one big old mark at the peak of the. He hooked up. Oh, I'm hooked up, too. Ted, we're doubled. Oh, I got him. Biggin, son. Feels good. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. This might be a 30, Ted. He feels solid. Showing the walleye. He doesn't feel like a northing. No, it's a walleye. Nice. He's just slow, big head turns. Oh, he's a nice one. Not bad. We got a PB coming here. Yeah, we got a PB on the first fish. All right, all right, all right. Let's finish it now. I like the way you're playing it. Yeah. Probably rod tip a little higher with these walleyes. Avoid any possible slack in the line at any time. Here he comes. Get ready. Wah-bam. Boom. That's a nice quality fish there. OK. All right, now how's the typical? You put them right there and do your thing. Cool. That looks pretty fish. Looks like you got the back hook. Yeah. You did get the back hook. Kind of a belly snag there. They got a lot of teeth. How do you typically grab these? Yeah. I didn't know if you have a special. OK, you do. You got a towel. Got a towel. And you grab them. I'm going to put the towel over the fish like so. Kind of calm them down. So I get two good hands on them. Put that hook back in the net there. OK, I'm going to get that hook out of there. He's out. Let's measure it. I think it might not be a PB, but I'm calling maybe 23 or 24. 23, 24. 23. 23. OK, I got a 24 yesterday on a jerk bait. But that is the second base wall I have ever caught. Put him back. Put him back. That is pretty awesome. That's good stuff. Oh, he thumped the tar out of it, too. I mean, just don't keep my same crawler on here. Good to go. Shape? Yeah. Nice one, Joe. You know what? Feels like it's got some shoulders. Beautiful. Beautiful thing. Looked up maybe. Oh, it's a 31. Look at that run it made there. Just taking her easy. See him down there? This one's really fighting, quite honestly. It's making some runs. Wearing them out. It's pretty fish, too, look at him. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Oh, I'm bam. He's whacking them, man. Yeah, Lee, they hit the tar out of these worms. Yeah. Cool, I got him. I got him from here. I'm going to do the towel method. Thank you, Ted. The reason for the towel, guys, around the back, these things have some gill plates that are super gnarly. Super gnarly. OK, that one had the front hook. It's like he's supposed to. So you can kind of grab them right here. You can grab them right there and you're good to go. But these gill plates right here, oh man, they're sharp. These babies right there. Ted's hooked up. I'm going to let my fish go. Here we go, bud. That one looks good. Yeah, this one's got some shoulders on it, too. Some healthy fish sitting out here on this point, you know? Oh, no, my hook's in the net. Take your time. I'm going to get them out. I usually catch them on the back side, but you can see how the wind just right in our face. Oh, yeah, I see them right here on the graph. Oh, yeah, that's a big bite. That's a big bite. Oh, yeah, boy! Yeah! That's a toad. There it is. We're looking for. All right. Put them right here. Is this the program? That's the police program. What's crazy, y'all, is Ted's personal best came right over there. And every time he comes by that rock, he gets a bite for decades now, right? Look at that. Literally. Look at that. That's a pretty tail. That's a big one. Woo! Those teeth, too. Shoppers. That's awesome, man. Pretty, pretty. Okay. He's too big to keep. Too big to keep. Throw them back. Quality. Dropping her down. Here we go. There's quite a stack in there. Yeah, there's a couple of glue to the bottom right here. That's typically how they are. They're just glued. Yeah. Bottom fish are wide. Almost all of them. That's why you got to use that bottom bouncer. They're on the bottom. Oh, here we go. Oh! I missed one, too. Ah! That one felt good. Yeah. These ain't no little little skillet nugget makers. These are big boys. Got him. Double up. Woo-hoo! Here we go now. Either I've got him fouled or it is a toad. Donkey. We got a slob donkey on, y'all. Holy cow. That, I'm a little worried. This one might be large. I don't know. This could be a 30. No idea. It's either a pike or it's a real big one. Big, big walleye. This is a walleye. This is a damn wall hanger, dude. Holy s***. This is a big one. This is a PB coming here. Oh, my God. Is that a walleye? Yeah, it is. Are you sure? I think so. Oh, my God. It is. Oh, my God. Oh, baby. Cat and dead. Woo! How big is that? Is that a 28? Oh, that's probably 30s plus. No way! Oh, yeah. Shut your face. Oh, that's a big one. I hooked this fish. I knew it was different, but hold. Look at the size of that monster. 29 and a half. Are you serious? I'm serious. Dude. Holy cow. I'm shaking right now. I know. You should be. Dead. Oh, I'm sorry, buddy. I make my third 29 this. 29 and a half, guys. That's like catching a 10 pound bass. Okay? A 10 pound bass. Holy cow. Look at the girth on it. Look at the belly. Dude, just... And I kind of knew if we hung out at a point that there would be a big fish out there, but I tell you, there's a bigger one out there. That's a giant, y'all. That's a giant walleye. Holy cow. See you, girl. Woo-hoo-hoo. Fish of a lifetime. So I've always kind of looked at walleye as like, well, that's the meat, you know? That's the golden crispies. There's nothing better than that. But to fish for them as trophy big fish like this, catching them on the lures was really good, but it's difficult to get those hog jammers. You know what I mean? They sit there on the bottom and they are just... They're finicky, you know? But the thing they can't resist is a Dagon Canadian night crawler. And that one right there that was on the apex of that point, I saw it when we went over it when the graph, I was like, God, dang, that's a big old mark. And I think that's probably the fish that we hooked up on. Going through the juice. You got to believe Big Mo is sitting on this point. A lot of times right on that drop off when you come off a high rock and they sit in that little drop off on the pocket, just pull them out. There it is. There it is. Oh. Textbook. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's how we do it. That's how we do it there. I did. Yeah. Everybody saw your rod load. It was nice. Find that right, didn't we? Oh, yeah. I'm scared to put my line down there. What is going to happen next? Dirty 30. How many over 30 inches have you caught in your life? Here? Just in total. In total. I want to answer it two ways so you'll appreciate this. I've caught two here. You've caught two over 30 here? In 27 years. In 27 years. Now, how many have I caught over 30 in the Great Lakes, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario? 200? Yeah. You've caught 200 over 30 in the Great Lakes. Wow. Great water, big fish. Got him dead. He's known for toads. That's what we do. Let me ask you a technical question fishing this day. So when you get to a little deeper spot, do you let line out? I do. You let a little... Okay, because I've been adjusting reeling in on the shallow and then let... Pay attention to the depth because I'm getting a zigzag in and out. Plus the rock structure is different. You always want to be at the bottom. So I'm always constantly letting line out, reeling line in. And if you're not making contact, you ain't getting bit. Yeah. And that's what the balance is about. You bounce down there and you can't feel that bottom? Bounce with it. You got to stay in tune with your bouncer more than I was thinking. So I'm learning here. I'm marking fish here. All right. We're dropping. Yep. Nice job. Quality fish? Nope. I think I got a handle on this one. Let's check. I mean he's quality, but he's not a slot. Let's see if I can double down here. Here's one. Double up, doubled up, doubled up. There we go. Get you a double. There we go, guys. Hold on. I think I caught her sister here. The first time I caught one of these, I went to lip it. And I said, nope, nope, nope, nope. Not going to do that. Let's measure her up. There's about 20. Oh, jeez. We're so used to catching big fish. A 20 looks small. Just got a little cut from the gills. Oh, no. I'll just let you guys know. Dangerous game. This is Ted's last day up here. So to finish at... This is where we had our shore lunch right over here. Special spot where his ashes will be laid. Monster walleyes for 20 years. Pretty awesome. It's almost like these crawlers know they're trying to be hooked in the face. We got something serious here. Some surges. This might be a big one. The one. Oh my gosh, Ted. I like the way those gears are burning. I'll move mine to the other side here. I don't think so. Oh, God. God. Dog. It wasn't making like those big, big northern surges. Northern would have took it. Yeah, yeah. 100%. God. That was a monster. That's got to be a northern. Yeah. Big old fly. It's not running right now, but God, it wouldn't hit it. It's a big one. Game hog. It's not fighting right now. I don't know. It's staying down. It seems like it's coming up. I mean, knocked the tar out of it. Hardest hit I've had so far. Oh, it come off. I can't. It was. Oh no, it still got. It's got to be a northern. Did 50 team off? He came back and got it? Maybe another one did. That's, this is a different fish. It's a different fish. I'll be damned. Look at, look at behind him. The huge northerns. Oh my gosh. A big northern trying to eat him. That's what happened. I had, I had this guy and the pike grabbed him. That's what happened. That was a monster northern. Over 40. Over 40. Over 40. Maybe he'll come back. That poor little guy. Oh my gosh. You were chased by a monster. Have you ever seen that happen? Yeah. I guess I have. What happens on, anytime you got a little walleye like that, they'll eat it. That thing was a snake. I don't know how that works. Do you have any teeth marks on? Oh yeah. He's got it on the side there. Here. And on the top. He's ripped up. Oh my gosh. I got it. Oh yeah. And he's ripped on his belly. So that's how big the fish's mouth was. Dude. So yeah, yeah. Look. That's crazy. That was a giant northern pike that had my walleye. Got the walleye hit it and then all of a sudden it just got really heavy. Really heavy. Like I couldn't even move. Like I was on a log. Big old northern. Trying to eat my dinner. Dad coming. See what happens. Maybe we'll get this one in the hook. Dad's hooked up on something very large. I don't know if they think so. Yeah. I think it's a walleye. I think I saw the way of the tail. Oh my gosh. That's going there bud. He's humming. Oh no. Oh no a northern. Is it a northern? I think it is. It is. It's a big boy. Is it? That's a big boy. That's probably over 35. Oh wow. That last run really made a difference. Okay. I'm going to reel in. I must have looked just right. You must. Right in the corner. Maybe in the nose. That's a big one. That's a big one dude. Oh god. Lee. Oh god. That's a toad. How did you hook this thing and not break it off? I don't know. I mean the weight. I feel how heavy that thing is. Look at this thing. Oh my gosh. That's probably over 40 man. Yeah. Big fish day. Look at that hook. Right there in the corner of the mouth. That's the only way you could look at the head on it. Look at the head. Oh my gosh. Imagine how to be your personal best. Imagine that one I think so. Oh I think so. Hold that thing up. Oh he's so slimy. Oh my gosh. Look at that thing. Oh holy god. That is heavy. Look at his tail. Let's get some photos. That thing is huge. Right at 39 and a half. What the thing's not over 40? 39 and a half. Holy cow. He's just some girthy I think. Yeah he's the thickest. Oh my god he's a thick. That's a gator man. Clipping a tickle. Clipping a tickle that gator is good. There he goes. Oh my gosh another jump. Another jump. How cool is that? That's awesome. That's a miracle that that thing was hooked just in the right spot. Oh wow. That could have been the same northern that had my walleye I don't know. It looked like it. Yeah I mean they could have been brothers or sisters because talking about some gators. What an incredible day on the water. Just so awesome. This guy will let me hook him in the head. There seemed to be a little hesitant about it. Okay we'll make sure you rig that up. Good juicy bloody worm. Back in the game. Pull PB's and then fish a lifetime. I would say so. How long has the bottom balancing technique been in the game? Hang on we're hooked up. It feels like another dandy. You know just 20's catching them in the low mid 20's. Might get my worm back too if I'm real fancy about it. Alright guys I'm going to let this go. I'm not even going to touch him. Just going to let him go pristine from human touch. Here I'm beautiful rainy. There he goes. Another tasty walleye for the books today. See bait right now. Oh I'm hooked up. Nice. Decent head shakes. That's a good one. Yay. Oh yay. Wabbe. Nice. That was a skinny one long one. You know 25 inch or something like that. Wow. Quick release. Had him right in that soft corner. How you doing? Word of word. Got a little something here. Feels hefty. Just saw the boat. Just another standard big unit. Oh yeah. Boy you fought didn't you? I did man. These last couple the head shakes. The initial head shakes. So I want to show you something that Ted just showed me here. With these walleye. Very similar to crappie. They have a little hinge in their mouth right here. You can see through it. It's translucent. That little spot right there. If you hook them. If you let off tension at all. You're going to lose that fish. It's just like a crappie. Got to have that light wire hook. And that soft rod. Otherwise you're going to lose that fish. Nice one. Good walleye. Hopefully we get around the front of this. Got him. Ted's hooked up. Feel good? Oh jeez. Are you serious? I got a foul hook. You see it yet? Just a nice walleye in it. All right. There it is. That's another piggy. Good job. You know they don't. They're not huge fighters in the water. Are they fighting the boat? Oh my gosh. Can you get your hands on that right there again? That soft tissue. I don't know what that is. Face move. Big fish. I don't know if you want to. All right. Head to the next spot. Well bam. We're not catching anything under 20 inches it seems. Spot of the day. It's just time to go big or go home. We've already gone big and we're going to go home. But can we possibly get bigger? I don't know. It's right there on that point I think. Right there on that point. Calling your shot. Let's do it. I believe you. I'm going to go fresh worm. Last spot you've got to go fresh worm. Don't play around. Head shakes. That could be a walleye. This is going to be a walleye. Just a decent one. Definitely over 20. He did not fight that hard. Initially. Initially he did. Come here. Like a big perch. Double up. We'll let mine go. Well I got the net in hand. See what Captain Ted's got working. Another nice walleye. Good. Perfect. That was the last cast. For you. Another year. Glad it was with you bud. Absolutely awesome day. I'm glad it was with you. As well Ted. We had incredible walleye fish. Absolutely incredible. You've seen a lot of days out here. A lot of days. Average size. Top 10. Top 5. Absolutely top 5. Top 5. Biggest size. We caught 2 under 20. That's how incredible it was. Gigundus pike. 29.5. I've always thought it's funny when Canadians say Crowler harness. I never really understood what it was. Well today we got intimate with it. And now I fully understand. Ted thank you for the education. Thank you Justin. Let's do it again next year. Absolutely. I'll be coming back for this. Experience again. And you guys. Hopefully you learned something today as well. This is the end to the perfect day. Well folks. I had my mathematics failed us today. I think I got enough gas. We are out of gas and we are about a mile from the lodge. Literally we can see it. Oh no my dad. My dad and Brad are going to have to come save us. Literally went the extra mile. We probably covered close to 100 miles today. Well it was worth it. If we had a swim back it would have been worth it. My dad and Brad were just they just happened to be out trolling for pike or something. In the middle it was weird. We ran into them. They're way behind us right now. Because they're a slow little tin can that we've been fishing out of. But yeah they're going to have to toss in with a 60 horse. Yeah. Can I get a ride eh? Thank goodness we ran into you guys. Yeah. Thank goodness we stopped. Yeah those are my rods. Definitely move those rods. That would have been a fun boat to be in all day. I got it. Oh you got it. Big one. It's 21 feet. Well boys that is going to wrap up today. We actually made it in. Just barely what we made it in. I learned a ton today guys. Something I never thought I would do is go dedicate myself to walleye fishing. I caught a few good ones out here on just fishing bass baits. And I just said to myself man I need to go out with Captain Ted. And I really need to learn how to do this because he's been catching some monsters out here this week and it's really been on. So I did. And my gosh I caught a freaking giant. Wall hanger that was unexpected. But I just learned a ton about walleye fishing and bottom bouncing. So hope you learned something along the way. And smash that like button for outdoor greatness guys. We got one more day out here. And I don't know what we're going to do. But we're going to go have some fun out here on Rainy Lake. Finish strong with my dad. With the rest of the guys. And finish off a great trip. So thank you for tuning in today. And we'll see you again one more day out here on Rainy Lake.