Pro walleye angler Tommy Kemos prefers large ovoid bobbers when power corking for walleyes, though standard slip floats also work fine. (Photo courtesy of Tommy Kemos)
August 12, 2024
By Keith Jackson
After the spawn, walleyes leave their schools and begin a summer vacation during which they wander at will in pursuit of their next meal. During the summer doldrums, these truant walleyes scatter in ones and twos and small groups because food is plentiful and they don’t necessarily need to gang up to feed. Anglers following conventional summertime wisdom will often slowly work a leech-tipped rig along break lines or explore the weed lines. Anchoring on points and humps and waiting for walleyes to decide it is dinner time is another option.
However, impatient anglers, or those preferring a faster-paced strategy, can go on the hunt to find active, feeding walleyes. One highly productive way to do so is a technique called “power corking.” In some respects it’s a watery version of road hunting, but instead of driving around looking for game, anglers use their boats to quickly track down active walleyes and catch them. Here, we’ll discuss this aggressive tactic and the necessary gear to utilize it.
POWER AHEAD Power corking itself is popular for one simple reason: It works when more traditional approaches are in the tank. Go online and search for the term, and you’ll see many references to it and videos about it. Some get it right; others don’t. Or they merely describe a version of the tactic that only borrows the name.
Power corking covers water to find active fish. Anglers usually drop baits behind the boat in the sonar cone; with live sonar, many now cast to fish ahead of the boat, too. (Photo courtesy of Clam Outdoors) “Real” power corking started in Minnesota, and most likely on Mille Lacs Lake. It’s a huge body of water containing large flats ranging in depth from 15 to 30 feet, ideal for walleyes moving up to hunt. Those big flats, though rich in forage, don’t have much structure to hold walleyes because they’re basically, well, flat.
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Traditionally, anglers would drift along these flats looking for walleyes while their corks supported a leech, minnow or crawler. The problem with this is that you might have to drift a long, long way to ultimately find pods of fish.
The “power” in the new approach refers to the boat’s motor, which is used to actively search for walleyes. Lindy staffer Jon Thelen, of Crystal, Minn., says that he’ll cruise along at 5 mph or so while searching for walleyes that are off the bottom. Upon spotting a fish on sonar that looks right, he’ll drop his bobber and jig right behind the boat.
“Walleyes that are up in the water column generally are active fish, ones that will bite,” Thelen says. “If I can find them up, I can get them to hit.” Electronics are an essential part of this strategy. In the past, 2D sonar with a GPS system was all that was needed. While that still works, advances in fishing sonar have further increased the angler’s ability to find active walleyes.
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With 2D sonar, the angler slowly motors across a flat, along a break line or anywhere his or her experience suggests walleyes might be. When the boat passes over walleyes up off bottom, the angler kicks the motor into neutral and drops the bait to the fish, directly behind the boat in the sonar cone. This is an important detail: The bait must be immediately above the fish, not just in the vicinity. It’s enough to drop the bait right by the transom or just a few feet beyond—again, keeping the lure in the sonar cone with the walleyes.
If the boat glides off the fish, you must back up and reset the cork and bait over the walleyes. While that’s still a good technique, forward-facing sonar has changed the game a bit.
Now, anglers can scan ahead of the boat and even watch the fish’s reaction to the bait. That’s definitely a paradigm shift. However—and this is the entire key to power corking—it’s important to keep moving, to continue hunting for fish. Most pros that use this technique suggest that if the fish you’re on aren’t biting after a brief period, don’t keep trying to make them do so. Instead, move on to find active fish that will bite.
“I use Lowrance’s ActiveTarget system 100 percent of the time,” says pro walleye angler Dylan Nussbaum of St. Marys, Pa. “It lets you know the mood of the fish because you can watch how it responds to your bait. I’m relatively new to power corking; it is something I picked up two years ago. I watched several of Max Wilson’s videos, and then went out to try it. It is so effective; it really works. I now carry a slip-bobber rod in my boat from spring through fall.”
A basic rig uses a slip float, weight, barrel swivel, jig and a live or artificial bait, like the Berkley Gulp! Leech. (Photo by Keith Jackson) GEAR UP While actively searching with 2D or forward-facing sonar is a major component of power corking, the other main ingredient is the gear you use. The basic approach involves using a slip-bobber and a jig with some kind of live bait. However, at times, a simple hook—perhaps weighted with a bead—and a leech, crawler or minnow may work even better. Predominantly, though, a jig more effectively gets the bait down to walleyes.
“The fish we target are active, or at least they’re moving to find food, and you don’t have to use finesse tactics to keep from spooking them,” says Mark Courts, a pro angler from Harris, Minn. “You want to get the bait down there quickly into the zone, and adding some weight helps.”
Courts tends to prefer a 1/16-ounce jig to put the bait above the walleyes he’s targeting. Berkley pro angler Tommy Kemos, from Oconomowoc, Wis., also likes 1/16-ounce jigs with live bait, but he’ll use 1/8-ounce and even 1/4-ounce jigs when he needs to get deep quickly. Both anglers also employ a 3/8-ounce tungsten weight above a barrel swivel and below the float. This weight helps anchor the float and gets the bait down faster as well.
While most walleye anglers utilize standard slip bobbers or corks, Kemos veers toward Wobble Bobbers—ovoid floats that don’t have the “sticks” through which the line slides. The ovoid bobber is more compact, and it responds just as readily as the standard slip bobber. Courts similarly shies away from the traditional bobber because he uses 20-pound Berkley FireLine and likes bobbers that have a brass grommet in the top. In addition to preventing his FireLine from cutting into the bobber—which can happen on those that lack it—the grommet also helps line slip through faster. When you are power corking for walleyes in deep water, the faster your bait gets down to fish, the better. That’s part of the reason why most anglers add weight of some kind to their presentation while using a fairly light jig.
When rigging up with slip bobbers, ensure your bobber stop is set so that your bait will tantalizingly hang a little above the fish. As with ice fishing, Thelen says that a walleye that moves up to look at a bait is often one that will ultimately hit it.
Kemos seconds this suggestion of putting baits above target fish. He also uses FireLine for his main line. He feels this is essential because many active walleyes will take the bait as it is still falling, and FireLine lets him feel the hit a bit better. Generally, fluorocarbon (6- to 10-pound test) seems to be the choice for leaders because it is nearly invisible in water and resists abrasion. Conditions will dictate what pound test and what leader length should be used, but a 3- to 4-foot leader is a good start, with longer leaders potentially necessary in ultra-clear water or when fish are finicky or pressured.
Many pros like using a light jig—or a bare hook—because it allows live bait to move around more naturally, and that action will trigger fish. Leeches are often the bait of choice throughout the year, with small minnows getting the nod in the fall. Half a nightcrawler can also work, though it doesn’t swim like a leech.
Fans of artificial baits are not without options, though. For instance, Kemos is a big fan of Berkley’s Gulp! products.
“They have a 3-inch leech called the SR crawler that is perfect,” he says. “It has a flat tail and is designed to be fished on a spinner, but it’s dynamite for power corking.”
Most power corkers use a light jig that lets live bait move more freely. Nothing beats a squirming leech. (Photo courtesy of Clam Outdoors) In most cases, dropping a baited jig just above a hungry walleye is usually enough to draw bites. However, sometimes the jig’s appearance or color can make a substantial difference. Courts likes fire tiger or chartreuse jigs when perch are the major forage and shifts over to red-and-brown when crawdads come into play.
Nussbaum, meanwhile, is a big fan of VMC’s Moon Eye jig with its oversized 3D eyes.
Whatever the chosen bait or color of jig, placing it in front of an active walleye is what power corking is all about. And with the recent advances in electronics and gear, it’s a technique that will be around for a long time.
This article was featured in the June-July 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
