The dreaded fishing abyss (after the boat has been winterized and before the lakes have frozen) has arrived. Rather than spending your time wishing you were fishing, it is an excellent time to reflect back on the summer and evaluate what worked and what didn’t.
By far the most effective lures and harnesses were items which were not in my tackle box the previous season. As a matter of fact, one item was an experimental item that I stole from cutting-edge Great Lakes salmon fishing technology and tweaked it for walleye fishing. This was by far my greatest experiment gone right in the past several years.
E-chip was at the core of this experiment. E-chip is a battery free microchip which is strung onto the harness and implanted in the row of beads. This little chip will vibrate using the water and mimic the sound of an injured bait fish. As I researched this item a year ago, I was highly skeptical especially with the price point of about $5-6 per harness.
Echip with a Tommy Harris Glow Blade
After ordering a few harnesses, I opted to change the Colorado blade. Tommy Harris Blades had prototyped a new “glow in the dark series” and introduced the blades at the start of 2011. I opted for the Glow Perch Color; an orange and green blade which when exposed to sunlight will actually glow in the water. The Tommy Harris blades are a personal favorite for any harness I use.
I fully expected to only use this setup when water clarity was compromised –due to its higher visibility of the blade and extra vibration of the E-chip. Early in the season, I found dirty water often and this rig was commonly on the end of my trolling rods. When no other item could produce walleye, this harness always had activity.
When you find a hot ticket, you make copies. After chasing down the components again, I soon had multiple rigs at my disposal. I also experimented with separating the components, to find out if the E-chip was the attractant or if it was the glow blade. My experiment always came back to the same conclusion…both components were needed to make the whole thing work best, but increased catch rates were seen with the single components separated also. This setup was extremely successful on both the Bay of Green Bay and Lake Winnebago.
Experimentation can lead to many failures and sometimes to great things. If you are interested in either of these items I have attached the websites to help you locate the products and build your next experiment. www.tommyharrisblades.com, www.protroll.com/products/echip/
