Small Equipment Changes Can Make A Big Difference!

Spent a few hours out on my home water a couple days ago, Turtle Lake, Saskatchewan. A big weather system had rolled in the day before and I was facing single digit temperatures and more or less steady rain. I was hoping to do some trolling along drop offs and weed edges with big cranks for pike, but decided to hit a favourite walleye hole first and see what I could do, even though I expected the fish to be sluggish and inactive. For the last ten years or so I've been completely sold on Berkeley Sensation monofilament for basically all my walleye/trout/perch/smallmouth/light pike applications. It's a great line, low stretch for a mono, the abrasion resistance of XT and the limpness of XL. I've used mostly 6lb sensation, 4lb for perch and some trout applications. I recently decided to try braided line on one of my spinning rods, matched with 40lb Vanish flourocarbon leader material, and see how it performs for walleye while preventing bite offs from pike. I wanted to see if the increase in sensitivity was really worth the switch, and whether or not the floro would actually perform as a leader, something I have to admit I was pretty skeptical about. I had to move a couple times before I located the fish on the flasher. I was vertical jigging from an anchored boat, using a 3/16 oz head and a frozen shiner with a stinger treble in the tail (live baitfish are illegal bait in Saskatchewan). Once I found the fish I did well, though I had to pull anchor twice and follow them as they came in shallower as he cloud cover intensified. Two things I realised right away, first is that the increased sensitivity from braided line is absolutley unbelievable, even in shallower water where you don't have a ton of line out (14-22 fow all day). The second is that flouro leaders work, really really well. I caught 7 pike that day, 5 of those would have bit me off instantly if I'd been using my trusted old Sensation. Pike number 8 finally bit me off, only because the terminal 4" of leader was absolutely shredded by that point. The walleye, as expected, were sluggish, many of them simply mouthing the bait without really hitting it. Only a couple came up more than 6" from the bottom for my offering, and a lot of them were hooked on the stinger only. The sensitivity of the braid definitely helped me put more fish in the boat. In all, I boated 7 pike, 18 walleye, and a big old white sucker. Three male walleye made the trip home with me, everything else went back in the lake! Am I ever glad I made the switch from mono, I'm looking forward to using this setup for other applications too, with 6lb Vanish for leader material. I never did get to do any pike trolling, but that's okay. It was a great day on the water out in the rain.