Dan Spence - Canyon Ferry fishing
Guiding walleye anglers on Canyon Ferry Lake, Montana
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Fishing tactics
Dan holds up a prime eating-size walleye from Canyon Ferry.
Dan Spence shares his Canyon Ferry tactics
He zigs, he zags, he zips along when trolling
Reprinted with permission from the Billings Gazette.
Originally published August 30, 2007
By MARK HENCKEL
Billings Gazette Outdoor Editor
Dan Spence has a reputation on Canyon Ferry Reservoir. He's the guy who other anglers say trolls fast - real fast. He's the guy who zigs and zags in his trolling - a lot. And he's one of the guys who have been steady BIG walleye-catchers on the lake near Townsend.
Spence has another reputation, too. He's the reigning state record-holder in Montana with a 16.63-pound walleye that he caught through the ice on Fort Peck Reservoir back on Jan. 21, 2000. (Broken in late 2007 by Bob Hart at Tiber Reservoir).
But Spence, of Bozeman, just chuckles about all those things.
He can't believe his state record for walleye hasn't been broken by someone in the years since then. He zigs and zags for a reason. And as for his trolling fast, it's not really all that fast - at least not so fast that a walleye can't catch up and hit his lures. Spence fishes Canyon Ferry with different methods, but is an unabashed fan of trolling crankbaits - lures like Rapalas, Shad Raps and others in varying sizes that dive to varying depths while imitating minnows. You'll see him doing that almost all of the time.
One of the reasons for his tactics of speed and weaving in and out as he trolls is because Spence uses planer boards. These are floating devices that pull a line far out to the side of the boat. With one, two or three planer boards spread out on each side, plus two lines straight out the back, he cuts a wide swath as he trolls down the lake.
"I troll 2.5 to 3 miles per hour all the time, even in spring when everyone else is fishing real slow," Spence said. "I weave in and out from the shore. When I do that, on the turn, the line on the inside planer board moves real slowly but the outside line and planer board races across the water.
"I started trolling faster when I noticed my daughter was hitting fish on the outside planer board when it was moving really fast," he said. "So I sped up and all the lines sped up a bit and they all were catching more fish."
Does it really work? Does it catch big walleyes? Well, two years ago these methods put 16 walleyes in his boat that were 10 pounds or better. His biggest walleye out of Canyon Ferry ran 13.5 pounds. That's pretty good proof.
As to where he trolls, that depends on the time of year.
Walleyes generally spawn on Canyon Ferry in April and then move to the big flats on the south end of the lake in May and part of June.
"In spring, you use a lot of stick baits - floating Rapalas - in 2 1/2 to 3 feet of water," Spence said. "As the water comes up, the fish go more to Shad Raps which go deeper."
He'll often spread out a variety of lures, all of which have slightly different wobbles to their actions, until he finds which one the walleyes seem to like.
Beginning in June as waters warm on the south end of Canyon Ferry, many of the walleyes start filtering north where they spend the rest of the year. These waters drop off into deeper, cooler depths and Spence will vary his lures, sometimes going as deep as 60 feet with leaded line to get down to fish.
Last weekend after the Camp Mak-A-Dream Walleye Benefit, tourney director Peggy Lawver and I fished a few hours with Spence. We fished a long stretch of shoreline north of White Earth, far from the south-end flats of spring.
"Walleyes are spread out throughout the lake at this time of year," Spence said as we trolled. "One of the advantages of trolling crankbaits is that you cover a lot of water. You can pick a place and go and cover enough water to find the fish.
"Walleyes in Canyon Ferry feed primarily on perch. The biologists say that's the bulk of their diet," he said. "I'm sure they also feed heavily on carp minnows. We have a lot of carp in the lake.
"I've caught more walleyes on black and gold lures than anything else. I'm sure that imitates the carp," Spence said. "I also use perch finish, bluegill finish and fire tiger finish which are more like the perch. I know color is important on this lake. It makes a difference. So I'll vary what I use until I find what they like on a particular day or time of year."
As to the other particulars of his tactics, he runs 17-pound-test monofilament line on level-wind baitcasting reels. Rather than line-counter models that give a readout of the exact number of feet a lure is out behind the boat, Spence counts the number of times the level wind goes across the reel - each time is 10 feet on a big reel and about 7 feet on a small reel.
At this time of year, he has his lines 80 to 100 or so feet behind the boat. That varies in spring when lines behind his planer boards may be very short in shallow water.
"Fishing success on Canyon Ferry does vary from year to year," he said. "It all depends on the amount of food in the lake. If the spring perch spawn wasn't successful, the big fish are easier to catch. They're hungry and they hit more often. In years with a big perch spawn, the fishing isn't so good."The big walleyes we're catching now are coming from the 1997 year class. We've watched it grow through the years," Spence said. "We also have a lot of little ones now and we caught a lot of 17- to 21-inch walleyes this spring."
A carpenter by trade, although he does far more fish taxidermy and guiding walleye anglers on the lake than sawing lumber and pounding nails these days, Spence admits that part of the allure of walleye fishing is the challenge of catching them and the fine eating they offer.
"Walleyes 15 to 22 inches are the sizes I keep to eat," he said. "The bigger ones eat OK, but they're not as good as the 2-pounders. But any walleye is still better than eating a trout - by a lot.
"I grew up in Bozeman," he added. "I was a trout fisherman and tied my own flies and still do. But I only trout fish a little these days in the summer and some in the winter through the ice.
"Trout got too easy. If you wanted to catch trout, you just went out and caught all the trout you wanted," Spence said. "This is a bigger challenge, and Canyon Ferry is just a beautiful lake to troll crankbaits for walleyes."
Mark Henckel is the outdoor editor of The Billings Gazette. His columns appear Thursdays and Sundays. He can be contacted by phone at: (406) 657-1395, or by e-mail at: henckel@billingsgazette.com
Copyright, 2007, The Billings Gazette
Published on Thursday, August 30, 2007.
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Dan Spence
Montana Guide license # 6868
9121 Bridger Canyon Rd.
Bozeman, Mont. 59715
Phone: 406-586-3705
E-mail: Dan Spence
Booking agent for
Josh Steinmetz
Steinmetz Outfitters
License Number 9388
3197 Holmberg Drive
Helena, MT 59602
406-439-4366
Copyright, 2009-10, Dan Spence
Web work by BigSkyOutdoors.Net
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