the float and the darter
Float & Darter?
Minnesota’s Jonny Petrowske doesn’t concern himself much with what baits were designed to do. He only care about the best ways to use any given lure to catch fish in specific situations.
The idea of using a Lindy Darter for open-water fishing has become decreasingly foreign to fishermen as anglers in all parts of the country have begun casting these “ice fishing lures” to catch everything from walleyes to largemouth bass.
Jonny Petrowske takes it a step further. Jonny P, as this fourth-generation Northern Minnesota fishing guide is best known, adds a Thill float to the line for two totally different applications, and he’s using a float/Darter combination to catch walleyes, crappie and northern pike – often in extremely shallow water.
“I realized during the winter that the Lindy Darter is a phenomenal fish catcher, and I knew I needed to try out open-water applications,” Petrowske said. “These things catch fish!”
Watching the Darter on an underwater camera during the winter showed Petrowske just how good the shape and colors looked under the water, and he was able to observe how the bait darted, wiggled and wobbled when he jerked it certain ways and how it acted when it fell through the water column. He knew those same motions would catch open-water walleyes. He just need to figure out how to create the same action in a casting situation and how to put a Darter where he wanted one.
Petrowske’s home lake, Upper Red Lake, is a shallow lake, and during the spring the walleyes and other sport fish are apt to be found cruising in extremely skinny water. Petrowske began playing with floats, looking for means to present Darters to fish in ultra-shallow water and to create the right kinds of action, and he has developed two unique and highly productive techniques.
Slip-Dancing
The first approach involves a slip float – either an XXL Thill Pro Series Slip Float or an XL Thill Splash Brite – and it works really well to prompt strikes from fish that are neutral in their behavior or even somewhat negative and are holding in water that ranges from just a few feet deep to five or six feet deep.
Petrowske slides a slip float onto 8-pound-test braid, adds about 2 feet or 6- or 8-pound fluorocarbon leader to the end of the braid, ties on a 2- or 2 ¾-inch Darter (the two largest sizes) and sets his bobber stop about 5 feet up the line from the Darter.
To fish this rig, Petrowske will position the boat over about 6 feet of water, but he’ll typically be casting to spots that are only two or 2 or 3 feet deep. When he casts, therefore, the Darter will wobble down and settle right on the bottom. Petrowske will then jerk the rod hard, making the float splash and pulling line quickly through the float so that he Darter rips up off the bottom.
“That darter jumps up off the bottom in a big circle, flashing and rattling, and really looking like a wound baitfish,” said Petrowske, who will jerk the rod again as soon as the bait returns to the bottom and will continue jerking in order to dance his float rig ever closer to the boat. He used pronounced rod motions, creating a big splash and really erratic lure movement. The Darter sinks slowly, though, as the line slides back through the slip float. If he ever realizes the line isn’t pulling back though the slip float, thus preventing the Darter from descending properly, he’ll add a split shot to the line
Eventually the rig gets over water that’s more than 5 feet deep, where the bobber stop would catch and the Darter would suspend instead of settling on the bottom. Often that’s when the fish hits, though, and the bobber stands up and then keeps going, disappearing without having ever settled.
Petrowske likes the Thill Splash Brite float in part because this technique can be very effective at night, and after the sun goes down it’s only possible with a float he can see. He’ll sometimes opt for the same float by day, though, simply because it adds a lot of casting weight.
“The fish can spook really easily, so having the ability to stay back from them and make casts can be really valuable, and the Darter by itself is pretty light for casting,” Petrowske explained.
Set Shallow
Petrowske’s other float-Darter combination uses a big foam fixed Thill float, set only 12 to 18 inches deep. This rig comes to play throughout the spring, when big walleyes tend to feed around reeds in only a couple feet of water. He’ll cast the rig tight to the reeds and then will begin working the float like a topwater lure with quick rod twitches. The float walks back and forth and creates attention-getting commotion; meanwhile, the lure does its namesake dart – wiggling, dancing and rattling all the while.
“You get intense action from the lure and all that splashing without pulling the rig out of the strike zone,” Petrowske said.
Petrowske uses a long rod (7 feet, 2 inches or 7 feet, 6 inches) for this approach for a couple of reasons. First, he can impart action without having to use big rod movements that can spook fish in such shallow water. As importantly, a long rod gives him very good control of the rig and allows him to work it along reed edges, close to points and into little pockets. That’s critical, because feeding fish are often tight to the cover, holding in ambush position.
“This technique allows you to target walleyes in 2 or 3 feet of water. With most lures, that’s very difficult to do, but that shallow water produces some really big fish,” Petrowske said.
An added appeal of fishing a Darter extra shallow under a float is that the technique offers great multi-species appeal. Petrowske primarily targets walleyes with this approach, but it also works great for pike in Upper Red Lake, and he has used the same technique to catch crappie and even bluegill. The sport fish all feed around the shallow reeds during the spring, and the only adjustment Petrowske would make to target panfish would be to use one of the smallest Darter sizes.
Want to Go?
To get updated fishing reports from Jonny Petrowske, check out the Lindy National Audio Fishing Reports. To fish with him or learn more about fishing at Upper Red Lake, visit Outdoors with Jonny P or give him a call at (218) 647-9030.