When a walleye strikes close to cover, horsing the fish up and out of the cover is the best option. Simply raise your rod tip and start cranking fairly fast and hard until you feel the fish is up and away from the trees, then start fighting the fish with a little more finesse. Horsing fish may cause the hooks to pull free from a fish's mouth, or possibly even cause the line to break, but it's worth the risk. If you give a walleye the chance to swim back down into the cover, you'll rarely land the fish.

A section of monofilament, fluorocarbon, or superline spliced to the end of the leadcore provides a low-visibility leader (compared to the relatively thick diameter of leadcore line). Use a snap for attaching crankbaits and a snap-swivel for connecting big-bladed spinners that might twist the line. John Butts, a PWT pro who has had success trolling crankbaits near the tops of trees without losing many crankbaits, prefers using a long superline leader.

“Snagging the trees is just something I accept as part of the gig. However, I rarely lose my expensive crankbaits,” Butts claims. “I use a 50-foot, 20-pound Berkley FireLine leader, which allows me to back my boat over the spot where the bait is snagged, reel the FireLine back on the reel, and tug the crankbait free. Reeling the FireLine back onto the reel prevents the line from breaking at the knot, or worse yet, the leadcore breaking. Some anglers are concerned with attaching the bait directly to the FireLine, but in most cases, it doesn't seem to matter, except in ultra-clear water.”

Spend extra time in areas where you see baitfish suspended above or outside the trees. That indicates walleyes may be above or alongside the wood, aggressively feeding in an area where they're easier to reach.

Skinny, no-stretch superlines allow crankbaits to achieve 20- to 30-percent additional depth (compared to monofilament). Superlines also increase the amount of lure vibration transmitted back up the line, which telegraphs if a lure is running properly. While hookups excel due to a lack of stretch, the downside is that it's necessary to fight fish in slowly and subtly, using a loose drag, to prevent ripping the hooks out of the fish's mouth.

Fishing submerged wood requires an altered understanding of the time you'll spend snagged and the amount of tackle you can expect to lose. In reality, you will get snagged and you may lose some tackle, possibly lots of tackle. Northern pike like submerged timber, too, and their line-cutting teeth may add to your tackle losses.

But if you can accept those variables, you're well on your way to learning how to extract walleyes from wood. Once you become proficient at using leadcore line to precisely position your crankbaits, you may not get snagged at all, or lose much tackle. Your only regret may be that you waited so long to muster up the courage to tick the tops of trees with your $5.99 crankbaits.