How to Catch More Slip Bobber Walleyes

One of Jon Thelen’s recent fishing trips epitomized how walleye fishing has changed in recent years. An acclaimed walleye angler and host of Destination-Fish Television, Thelen had found a good school of fish, but they wouldn’t let him get closer than about 60 feet. If he moved 10 feet toward the fish’s location, they’d move another 10 feet. Fortunately, he was equipped for that behavior, and the situation fit his plan for the day.

Many lakes throughout walleye country have gotten dramatically clearer over the years, changing the approaches required for success. In situations where in the past you could get directly over fish or a short pitch away, you often cannot get that close without spooking the fish. Some trolling tactics get baits farther from a boat, but the baits only pass briefly through key zones. For targeting specific structures or schools of fish and keeping a bait suspended in the zone and away from the boat, nothing is more efficient than a slip bobber rig.

Demands related to the slip bobber approach have changed, as well, though. With ever-clearer waters in so many lakes, it has become important to position the boat farther from the walleyes, adding challenges for casting rigs far enough and making good deliveries.  At the same time, with refined technology, anglers can now find fish with forward facing sonar, know exactly where the fish are, and set up to target those fish.

These changes led to the development of the Thill Sharp Shooter float, which was created for making long, accurate casts to target fish from substantially farther away than was previously possible. With this new float, there’s no need to try to sneak closer to the fish. You can cast from afar to place your bait among the fish without them detecting your presence.

Key Sharp Shooter design elements include a weighted bottom end and what Thill calls a “Sight Flight,” which looks like the back end of a dart and serves the same function. The Sharp Shooter flies level, staying horizontal and cutting through the air without the wobble normally associated with slip floats when you cast them.

Thelen explained that this allows for a direct cast that has far more power and accuracy than the lob that is necessary for most slip floats and that it vastly lessens the influence of wind.

“You can fish from further away, but with precision, which is important when baitfish are abundant,” Thelen said. “The result is that the fish are far more aggressive.”

The Sight Flight has an important secondary function that adds major value for fishing from farther away. It is highly visible from every angle. When there’s a bit of chop or when backlighting makes it harder to peer across the water, maximized visibility is an important feature.

The Sharp Shooter is part of Thill’s Gold Medal Series and is a center slider made from premium balsa and engineered for extreme sensitivity. It also features brass grommets, which allow the line to slide through it very easily. It comes in three sizes, which will suspend1/8, 1/4 and 3/8 ounce, respectively.

Thelen’s uses a Thill Premium Bobber Stop and bead to control his depth. The terminal end of the rig consists of a 1/16-ounce Lindy B-MAX Live Bait Jig and a split shot. Leeches are his primary bait for this approach, but at times he’ll instead use night crawlers or shiners. He spools up with 8-pound test monofilament and uses an 8 1/2-foot, medium-light, fast-action rod.

Thelen noted that a 7 1/2-foot rod with the same action, which is something that many anglers already own, will do the job well. He opts for the extra foot of length because at the end of a long cast, even when he reels slack out of the line, some play in the line remains, and he likes a longer sweep when he sets the hook.

When Thelen’s float goes under, he reels to take up any slack until the soft tip of his rod bends just a couple of inches and then sets the hook with a long sweep. He cautions to not point the rod tip directly at the fish when reeling down. If the fish surges,  that leaves nowhere to go with the rod, the fish will feel the tension and drop the bait.

1. Keep it Above them – Don’t just suspend your bait a foot off the bottom, Thelen warned. If the fish are 2 feet off the bottom, keep your bait 3 or 4 feet off the bottom. They mostly feed up.
2. Consider Jig Color – In ultra clear waters, natural colors like Perch Glow are tough to beat. Experiment, though, and let the walleyes reveal preferences. Color makes a BIG difference some days.
3. Hang Horizontally – Virtually all fish forage swims and rests with a horizontal posture in the water column, so Thelen wants his bait to do likewise when it suspends. That’s the primary reason he uses the Lindy B-MAX Live Bait Jig. It is engineered to hang horizontally so the bait does likewise.

Although we’ve focused mostly on boating approaches and though the Sharp Shooter was developed largely to meet the needs of anglers using forward facing sonar, this float is ideal for anyone who wants to fish with a float from the shore – and not only for walleyes.

A major limitation for anglers fishing from the bank in many situations is an inability to reach deeper water or key fish-holding structures. Too often a brushpile, channel edge, rockpile, deep hole or stump row is just out of casting range. The Sharp Shooter allows for long, accurate casts to spots you simply cannot reach with traditional float rigs so you can suspend baits in spots normally only reachable with a boating approach.

The visibility factor also benefits the shoreline approach. Depending on the wave action and sun angle, most floats are challenging to really watch at the far end of even a moderate cast. The Sharp Shooter remains clearly visible even when you launch a long cast, allowing you to track exactly what is happening at the business end.

Because the Sharp Shooter comes in three sizes, there is one suitable for a broad range of shore-fishing situations in freshwater and saltwater settings.