TOM MEANS CREDENTIALS: His tourney
credentials are impressive for a 41-year-old. He ranks as the most
successful walleye competitor in the area for the past five years. He
has keyed on walleye since childhood, and he credits his success to
fishing since a young age with his late father, Tony Means.
In Western Pennsylvania Anglers, Kinzua-Allegany
Walleye Association (K-AWA) and other competitions to date, he has
entered 40 tourneys, taking nine firsts, finishing in the top five in 25
and taking home money in 33.
He has qualified the past five years for
the Cabelas National Team Championship and in 2006 took the K-AWA Team
of the Year honors while fishing with Susan Wilcox.
Along with competing, he has also devoted
much time to coordinating two walleye tourney circuits: New Easter
Walleye Circuit (NEWC), with six events in three states; and Kinzua
Outdoors (K-O), which has been running for five years, with a 100
percent payout to benefit handicapped children.
With blocks of hours taken up with
organizing and competing in tourneys, he still finds time to just get
out and catch walleyes.
EARLY SEASON TIPS: He offers some
advice for earlyseason ’eye angling. “I like to start out in the
shallows. At Kinzua, I’ll run jigs with crawlers or Twisters [whites
or pinks] in 6-12 feet,” he said, explaining that the light colors
work well on post-spawning walleye that hang out on shallow flats.
“Flats with gravel will warm up faster
and give walleye a post-spawn recouping area,” he explained.
His tips apply to most popular inland
walleye lakes such as Oneida, Honeoye, Chautauqua and Kinzua.
“You can find active fish any time of
day at the start of the season, but boat pressure will move them deeper
and walleye just coming off spawning will be on the move,” he noted of
fishing during daylight hours.
He works jigs out to depths as great as 35
feet. After that, he switches to trolling gear, running Off Shore
side planers and lead core lines.
“I’ll start at trolling speeds of 1.5-
1.8 mph over targeted spots,” he said. “If they’re not active,
I’ll bump it up to find their speed. Reef Runners lures run well up to
2.5-2.7 mph, and after that I switch to Rapala’s new Tail
Dancer for faster speeds.”
In general, Reef Runners trigger strikes
while running straight or making turns; Tail Dancers, with a slim,
tapered minnow body, shimmer just right when trolled fast.
Daytime trolling at the start of the
season and during spring outings calls for movement. “The fish may go
deeper (15-18 feet) but stay suspended while feeding. I use
Lowrance sonar to pick up these varying depths,” Means said.
WARMER SUMMER WATERS: During the
warm-weather months of the summer, walleye may move up 10 or more
feet to hit a suspended rig, but Means suggests pinpointing trolling
depths to no more than 3 feet over the strata walleye are holding
during spring outings.
As dark approaches, he switches to
floating Rapalas, mainly the J-9 size. On Lake Erie, walleye cruise the
shallows from Barcelona to Buffalo, but the trick is to find shoreline
shallows where they move in to bulk up on baitfish after their spawning
cycle.
Means switches gear constantly to
find the right terminal tackle, casting and trolling angles, motor or
retrieval speeds, bottom structures, feeding depths and all other
variables that result in bigger and better walleye catches.
Remember: Patience and
determination are valuable traits, but switching to the right tackle and
the right place and time makes a big difference while in competition or
just out fishing for a few good fillets.
The regulations, previously set at
four daily from Erie waters, has been returned to the statewide limit of
five ’eye effective Oct. 1, 2006.
With that abundant crop of 2003- year
class walleye seen everywhere in Lake Erie, the 2007 walleye season
could be bountiful.
For more information about the two
walleye circuits Means coordinates, go to: www.neweasternwalleyecircuit.com
and www.kinzua-outdoors.com
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