There are a lot of walleye hugging the bottom right now. I have been having good success with bottom bouncers. I use 3 or 4 oz bouncers. You can feel when they hit the bottom and go from there. Another possibility. it seems like my line counter reels go out about a foot a second. you could count it out if you wanted to try for suspended fish

 

If you have bait casters, you can measure how much line comes off on one side to side pass of the level wind duhicky.

 

like said here these are called passes. make sure all your reels are the same. and try to put the same amount of line on each reel. go out in the back yard and make sure the line is all the way over to one side. now have someone pull the line until its all the way over to the other side of the reel then stop. measure the line you just let out. that will tell you how much line you let out for each pass on the reel. then just count the passes on the reel until you reach the amount of line you want out. its how we did it back in the days before line counters. if say 1 pass lets out 10' of line you would need 3 passes on your reel for 30'. if 1 pass gives you 13' of line out 2 passes would give you 26'. if you wanted to let out say 90' with a reef runner you would let out 7 passes at 13' per pass. that would give you like 91'. hope this helps. you can pm me if you need more help.

 

On my spinning reels one turn of the handle is 36 inches . just turn off the anti reverse & count the reel handle revs . 33 turns is 99 ft. just measure one turn on your particular reel. Also helpful filling reels if you are trying to divide up some expensive line.

 

Mark 24" from the front of the reel to a spot on the rod, usually around the first eye. Pull line out until the line guide is at the far left or right. Push the release button on the reel, and pull line out to that point on the rod and watch the line guide. Make consecutive pulls until the line guide travels to the other side of the reel, and count your pulls.

Most of my reels are close to 4 pulls to get the line guide to travel from one side of the reel to the other, which is around 8 feet. My reels are filled to the same point, very important, because the diameter of the spool will determine how much line goes out with each revolution of the spool. When you let the line out for trolling count the passes (wraps) and multiply by 8. So.... 8 wraps X 8 feet = 64 feet of line out.

 

Once you get your desired distance determined take a small rubber band and cinch it onto the line just above the reel . Crank it right onto the spool when you get a catch and use it as your marker. Change when needed.

 

If you do have planer boards don't overlook fishing the outside boards really shallow. I've caught quite a few walleye 15-20 back this week out of Huron.

 

Stand close to one side near the center of your boat. Point your rod tip at the back corner, lightly let out line so you don't free spool. Swing your rod tip towards the front of the boat. Usually that would be 20ft. Put your thumb on the spool, swing back towards the corner and repeat.. Same for the other side. Half way is 10ft. That's how we used to do it before we had line counters. Pretty dang accurate.

 

I would just drift and cast weight forward spinners and drag a bottom bouncer. Simple but effective.

 

Drift! 1) Bottom bouncer on the bottom, or a crank or two up. 2) harness with 3/4 oz weight - spool it out then work it slowly back in, cast and count down, or cast and swing. I usually fish 2 rods and start with 1 bouncer and one casting.

 

With all the helpful information you have received a lot of bait stores sell an add on counter they measure the line as it comes off I used to have them

 

I usually find the approximate length of line the lure runs at and depth desired and use a black magic marker and mark the line to duplicate that length of line out for the lure .....it works great and last some time but will need to freshen up now and then and I mark around 3ft of area to see it better coming off the reel .....any color of perminate magic marker will work, and if desired use different colors for different lengths of line for different lures .....I usually just use another rod for other lures used

 

Like Jim said... Measure out whatever distances you will be fishing at and tie small rubber band onto line and trim edges. They will slide somewhat but you will be close.

 

If you do not have trolling gear try drifting and casting. check out the thread at the top of this page and do the countdown method.