D'Arcy Egan, The Plain DealerPro walleye angler Ted Takasaki has a net full of Lake Erie walleye while on a pre-tournament scouting trip for the National Guard FLW Walleye Tour tournament event that wraps up today with a weigh-in in Port Clinton. CATAWBA ISLAND
Pro walleye angler Ted Takasaki fishes for a living, favoring the waters where trophy walleye can be caught. Lake Erie may be in a down cycle right now, but it is still one of his favorite fishing holes.
"Lake Erie is the best in the Midwest," said Takasaki, 54, of Sioux Falls, S.D., as he guided his boat over the wide, open waters of Western Lake Erie on Tuesday afternoon, preparing for the National Guard FLW Walleye Tour tournament here. "The really big walleye we're used to catching are a little harder to find right now. In three or four years, the 3- to 6-pound walleye we've been consistently hooking today will grow to be the new batch of 10-pounders.
"Lake Erie is still an awesome fishery, and it will only get better."
Takasaki knows big walleye. He set the one-day record for a tournament limit of five walleye, weighing a 53.2-pound catch in a Professional Walleye Trail spring tournament on Lake Erie in 2002. Takasaki also painfully remembers he didn't win the tournament. Tommy Skarlis of Waukon, Ia. did, with 15 walleye over three days weighing 138.28 pounds.
"No tournament lead is safe on Lake Erie," Takasaki said, with a wry grin. "Even this year."
Takasaki won the Professional Walleye Trail Championship in 1998, and captured an FLW event on the Mississippi River at Red Wing, Minn., in 2009. His name is almost always close to the top of the leader board. These days he's especially dangerous in tournament action because he has simplified his life, focusing on fishing after more than a decade as president of the Lindy Little Joe fishing tackle company in Brainerd, Minn.
"Fishing is now my primary occupation," said Takasaki, a member of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. "In the winter, I work with my sponsors, appear at outdoor shows, appear on television fishing shows and go ice fishing a lot. When the tournament season rolls around, I go fishing."
Lake Erie has changed quite a bit over the past two decades, said Takasaki.
"Trolling techniques are important now because the water is so much clearer than in 1991, when I fished my first Lake Erie tournament, and the schools of walleye are more scattered," he said. "It's critical to use planer boards to cover more water and to take the lures away from the sight and sound of the boat. Lure colors are more subtle, with lots of purples and pinks instead of the hot colors, or the blue-silver and black-silver lures that had worked for years."
Trying to solve this week's walleye puzzle was the reason Ed Piekutowski of Moorhead, Minn. was aboard with us for the day of fishing. A regular in the co-angler division of the FLW tournaments, Piekutowski was handy at putting out lures and reeling in walleye, and allowed us to troll with six fishing rods instead of just four, the limit for two fishermen.
This week's FLW tournament has attracted a large field of 244 fishermen in the pro and co-angler divisions because of the lure of Lake Erie's trophy walleye.
"Fishermen around the country have a good idea of what Lake Erie is all about," said Takasaki. "The guys all want to come here to experience the fantastic fishing and, hopefully, land the biggest walleye of their careers."
Lake Erie isn't always fun and games.
"Lake Erie is a huge lake, and the weather often comes into play," Takasaki said. "When the wind blows, this can be a very tough place to fish. There's always a chance we'll be sidelined for a day or two by bad weather."
Not this year. While the big waters were bumpy at times this week, the weather forecast for today's final FLW Walleye Tour round is sunny and pleasant, with a southerly breeze almost guaranteeing heavy limits of walleye at today's weigh-in at the Walmart store in Port Clinton. The parade of walleye to the scales begins at 4 p.m.
Precision trolling is a key to Takasaki's walleye success
D'Arcy Egan, The Plain DealerPro walleye angler Ted Takasaki is perched on the back deck of his fishing boat, controlling the outboard trolling motor with one hand and the bow-mounted electric motor via a remote control with the other hand. The combination provides precision trolling speeds and direction, keys to Takasaki's walleye fishing success. Ted Takasaki has been one of the most consistent professional walleye anglers in America. His secret is to fish with precision, using space-age tools to his advantage.
"A good GPS (global positioning system) is a must," Takasaki said. "It guides me to the locations where I've been catching walleye, or where I think the bite will be good. The unit tells me how fast I'm trolling, even at very slow speeds. When a walleye bites, I can mark that hot spot by recording the waypoint on my GPS so I can return to it, and troll over it again at the exact speed and with the same lure that worked before."
A sophisticated sonar unit is needed to pinpoint at exactly what depth the walleye are swimming below the boat.
To fine tune a slow trolling speed, Takasaki combines a bow-mounted electric motor and 10-horsepower gasoline-powered outboard, located on the transom next to his 250-horsepower outboard. The electric motor provides both speed and direction. It is designed to stay on a designated course, but its direction can also be controlled from anywhere on the boat with a hand-held remote.
Choosing Lake Erie trolling lures is an art form. Some days, walleye prefer spinners combined with nightcrawlers. On other days a minnow-style diving plug will catch more walleye or bigger fish.
Takasaki's five keys to walleye success, in order of importance, are:
Location: You've first got to find the schools of big walleye in order to catch them. Depth: Walleye can be found close to the lake bottom, suspended just under the surface, or anywhere in between. The closer to the surface they are, the more likely they'll be feeding. Speed: Walleye are notoriously finicky, often ignoring a lure swimming just a little too slow or slightly too fast.4. Lure Action: Brands or models of lures perform differently. You've got to experiment to let the walleye tell you their lure preference that day.
5. Lure Color: There's a reason Takasaki has hundreds of lures packed into a myriad of boxes on his boat. There's often a lure or two that can't be beat on any given day of fishing.
