“Fishing in Wisconsin and Canada with Mike Andres and Mister Twister and Mepps”

Part 3: Fish the Aglia for Smallmouths and Walleyes

Editor’s Note: Mike Andres from Green Bay, Wisconsin, fishes for bass, walleye and northern pike near his hometown and in Canada. This week, Andres will tell us how he finds the fish and how he catches them.

Question: Mike, do you fish any other baits for smallmouth bass and walleyes?

Andres: Yes, I use the Mepps inline spinners, like the Mepps Aglia. I generally catch more fish with the spinners that aren’t dressed with a squirrel tail than the ones that are dressed with a squirrel tail. The undressed spinners will come through weeds better without picking up the weeds than the dressed spinners will.

Most of the Mepps’ spinners I use are dressed because most of the time I’m not fishing around grass when I’m fishing for walleyes and smallmouths. One technique I’ve learned that’s really productive for me is to add weight to the spinner and get it down a little deeper, especially when I’m trolling.

Question: How fast do you troll when you troll the Mepps Aglia?

Andres: We’re usually slow-trolling rock shelves in 10 to 15 feet of water at about 1-1/2-miles per hour.

Question: How do you get the Aglia down that deep?

Andres: Sometimes we use an inline trolling sinker and many times we use a Lindy rig. We’ll fish with a three-way swivel. We’ll tie the main line to one eye of the swivel, tie a piece of leader to the second eye of the swivel and attach a weight to the end of that leader line - anywhere from 1 to 2 feet of leader from the second eye of the swivel.

On the third eye of the swivel, we’ll tie a 2- to a 3-foot piece of leader and attach the Aglia. Then, as we troll, the weight drags the bottom, and the Aglia swims behind the weight 2 to 3 feet and about 2 feet up off the bottom. This way, you can fish your Mepps Aglia deep and present it to the walleyes and the smallmouth bass differently than when you cast and retrieve it.

Question: How many walleyes and smallmouths will you catch in a day of fishing?

Andres: On a really-good day, we’ll often catch five or six keeper walleyes. We may catch 30 smallmouths in a day, and sometimes we may only catch two or three. Our numbers we catch depend on the time of year we’re fishing, the water color and the mood of the fish on that particular day.