Quinte Fishing

Hey everyone. Spent the morning ripping through a couple buckets of worms feeding mostly 3" perch. With everyone talking about drifting harnesses this spring I'm sure I'm not the only one getting sick of the little beggers so let me ask - what do you do to keep them off your harnesses? Switching to artificials is the only way I know of but sometimes you just want to give the eyes the real thing so any tips and tricks you'd like to share?

PS: Managed to land some actual walleye as well but was easily 20 worms donated to the perch for each walleye

I get rid of the 2 small hooks. Switch them out for single death troll hooks. Feed your worm on. Don’t keep hooking it on. It helps it doesn’t stop them but helps

Definitely switching to artificial is the way to go. I haven't used live bait for years now for the same reason. You could also add a live worm combined with artificial so at least if the worm gets nibbled off, you still have the rubber on and can keep fishing. Your chances of catching a walleye on rubber is way better than catching one if you're reeling in every 5 minutes to remove a perch or put on a new worm. Keep your line in the water!!

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There's something wrong with that rod.
It has a bend in it!!!

Going to give the artificials a try again, like the idea of a bit of worm as well. I have a few slow death rigs and just never got in to them, will dig them out as well. Thanks guys.

We switched to a slow troll which helped when the wind died down, we also leave less of a tail off the back hook. The long tail is a walleye favorite but it's also costly. The two hook harness keeps the worm far longer than the single hook ones.We also stayed in 14ft or deeper along a weed line. Worms are expensive but artificial isn't cheap either.

run a small piece of worm up the shaft of the hook, then add an artificial. the small piece lasts a lot longer as it's harder to get off, but you still get the work smell. If the perch do get the worm, you still have the artificial tail until you reel in next.

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lets go fishin!

I went to artificial several years ago. I tie single hook harnesses and use a twister tail with the point of the hook just under the skin.

Makes the rig quite weed resistant. Still catches the odd perch. Walleye still hit and hookup well. Not constantly rebaiting. Just adjust the hook point back under the skin.

The twister tail can take many hits and sometime last more that one outing.

I use the Berkley Gulp Alive artificial worms or leech. It's about 20 bucks for a container. It seems expensive at the time, but I'll easily get a full season out of them. You can usually keep re-using the worm after catching a couple fish. Just dunk it back in the liquid and drop it back down.

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There's something wrong with that rod.
It has a bend in it!!!

i thread on a small piece of worm then i put my twister tail on the hook takes the perch awile to get it off that way

Lol
Had the same issue just doubled when taking my 85 year old dad, spent more time remaining his hooks.
Solution turn out to be some UNCLE JOSH pork worms that Pro Takle had in bargin bin, since they are no longer made, I brined up some pork skin strips added beet juice and they work fine, perch will chew on them shak the rod gets rid if the pests, also ad 1/2" of worm up the hook, fir the real meat loving wallys, soaking in gulp was inconclusive most days

Simply what I found the best is to just increase your speed. This time of year especially and in the summer warmer water these walleyes can swim to catch any bait they wish. I typically troll worm harnesses at 2- 2.5 mph. Seems to fast for a spinner and worm but it works well and keeps most of the perch and silver bass off.

Try it you might like it.

Speed would add another aspect, I usually troll at 1.1 into bays current 1.5 down, when fishing weedlines, with harness of a board for mid channel suspended fish will aim at 1.75 up 2.0 down reach, all GPS speeds from finder, which are so not lure speed, not to make it to complicated just noted best results when within those parameters, FYI i have found there is a current north to south in long reach faster just north of Huffs,same at west edge Sherman's point weeedline

Thanks everyone, lots of good ideas to try. Will update next time I get out and try a few of them.

The honey do list got in the way most of this weekend but did manage a quick run and took to casting around with a jigging rap style bait (acme hyper rattle). Just wasn't time to do the slow troll (just a couple hours Saturday evening). Turns out the sheephead were in a frisky mood but no 'eyes. Might try the harness with fake worms next week but for now here's something that isn't a perch