An excerpt from: RACINE SUNDAY BULLETIN
May 28, 1961
By Pat Dunn
We had heard of Jack Crawford, 2425 Thor Ave., and his ability to 'speak the language.' He fishes the lake more than most residents near this sprawling body of water. A fishing date and a coolish 5 a.m. one Saturday found us letting Crawford's boat into the public access on the east side of Delavan Lake. He had a number of sites which we would explore.
Lifelike Hairs
Crawford makes maribou jigs, small moulded lead blobs with a trailing tail of soft, fluffy maribou hair. He has found, he said, that this hair has a better and more lifelike action when wet than do other hairs. Since the walleye is reputed to be a fish of poor eyesight but great sense of smell, Crawford uses small minnows on the jigs, hooked solidly through the head so that they don't tear loose on the bumpy, jigging ride along the lake bottom. There is one thing about fishing jigs. It is not a way to idle away a lazy afternoon. One keeps the jig moving constantly.
There are other ways of fishing walleye, of course. One of the most popular, perhaps, is hooking a fair sized minnow, with or without spinners to attract attention, and slowly drifting the bait over the rocky heart of the 1,038-acre Lake. Of course you can use a 'hanger' ... a line with a jig and minnow hung from the boat, just inches off the bottom. The percentage of action here is small, however for it is the movement which apparently excites old bug-eyes into the attack.
Hunt Schools
Our companion was unperturbed by our failure to get more than a couple of tentative nibbles at the first two rock bars we visited. "They move around in schools a lot and you have to hunt to find them," he said. The only complication to this theory was a nearby boat of Racine anglers, one of whom had four walleye and a pair of lusty smallmouth bass. What was this lucky angler's success secret? Maribou jigs with small minnows. It was about the first time he had used them, the grinning fisherman told us . . . the first time since Crawford had told him about them and shov/ed him how to use them. "Crawford cranked up his motor. "Sometimes the pupil shows the teacher how," he grinned.
Crawford Hits
Midday was upon us when we revisited an underwater rock bar well out in the lake under some 20 feet or more of water. A yellow head, yellow feathered jig with a squirming minnow was cast out. When it hit bottom the retrieve began, a slow series of twitching pulls followed by a slow rewind to keep the line tight. Crawford's rod tip suddenly bowed and he was into one. Brought to the net it was a neat three-pounder approximately. Then the fun began. In about one busy hour we had eight walleye, plump, gleaming bug-eyed beauties, on the stringer.
Success Attracts Others
We also had company. Boats a half mile away on the far end of the bar upped anchor and hove to, the bolder ones a half a cast from our boat. Some of them connected. Others didn't and they studied our baits closely. A line with no slack is a cardinal rule in jigging it would seem. The walleye hit with authority but let go equally fast at the feel of something beside minnow in their mouths. The secret of success was to hit back when you felt the strike. Had the both of us landed all the strikes we had we would have limited in half an hour.
Sometimes a lengthy retrieve would be fruitless until the lure was directly below the boat and being lifted from the bottom before the strike came. Is it always successful? Crawford has taken more than 50 walleye from Delavan Lake since the season opening the first of this month. If anyone has a more successful formula we have not heard of it.
Jigging walleyes out of Delavan Lake may not be every angler's dish of tea. But it works, yes indeed it works.