US Dollars
Mixing it up for Walleye, Crappie, and Bluegill the Old Man Doser Way!
Posted by Walt Matan on May 7th 2026
I learned how to fish from Old Man Doser. Mike Doser was an old German janitor who lived in the building across from ours when my father, Poppee got his first janitor job in Chicago on Irving Park Road.
Old man Doser and his wife Mutti loved to fish, and loved to eat fish, even more. Double-dipped in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, then pan-fried in Crisco, was the only way to go! He taught me how to catch fish, but greasy, fried, lard-laden fish was not my way to go. I’ve since modified his techniques for catching (and cooking) different species throughout the season.
When I was a kid, at every chance, I would go to Old Man Doser’s house on Pistakee Lake in Northern Illinois. The crappie action was the best. He had a Sears 12 ft. boat, a 6 hp Sears outboard motor, and some cane poles with Pinky John jigs attached that he bought from Sears.
The Sears Special
Being a janitor in Chicago, the buildings he worked at had an account at the local Sears, where he bought tools and cleaning supplies while sneaking in a little bit of tackle here and there, and maybe a boat or outboard motor when nobody was checking and charging it to the buildings as “cleaning supplies”.
Anyway, those crappies would be right up around the docks on Pistakee, and we would creep up on them in the boat using the Sears oars and our cane poles with Pinky John Jigs under Sears corks set about a foot down. The key was quiet; we never talked, and we had rubber Sears bath mats under our feet to muffle the noise
I tried not to get excited as we flipped crappie over crappie in the boat and dumped them in the Sears wire fish basket hanging off the side. Later, as the season progressed, we would drift across Pistakee Bay with those cane poles in Sears rod holders clamped on, no corks, just letting those Pinky Johns undulate ten feet down until the crappie scarfed them up.
Crappie action
I still enjoy the crappie run. Crappie start shallow after ice out and can be caught around most docks and piers in channels or in bays right above the weeds everywhere in the Midwest. I like to use 1/8th ounce Flu-Flu feathered jigs. Of course, the pink head/white body is hot as are the orange and chartreuse patterns.
Sometimes I will use a Rocket Bobber; sometimes I will just pitch them out and reel them slowly over the weeds. Minnows will add a few more fish, Rosey Reds if you can get them, but they are not necessary. A 7 ft. St. Croix Panfish series rod, 1000 series Okuma reel, and 5-pound orange Stren line replace the Sears cane pole from back in the day!
Snagging walleye
After the crappie run, we would go for walleyes. He had these Sears Ted Williams steel fishing rods that weighed a ton with Sears Ted Williams level wind casting reels, which would not free spool and always overran and backlashed.
He would cast out a 1 oz weight with a swivel and an Eagle Claw gold-snelled hook. He’d anchor the boat at the mouth of the Fox River that exited Pistakee, and we would pitch out those weights with crawlers I dug up, or minnows seined from the creek. In all the times we tried, we never caught a walleye.
We caught plenty of catfish, a few bass, and some carp, but never a walleye. I do not think there were many walleyes there back in the 60’s, and I really don’t know why he said we were going walleye fishing, but I guess it's what we had to do since the hooks had a picture of a walleye stringer on the package.
Funny thing, about 30 years later, Poppee and I won a little local walleye tournament by catching enough walleye from that very spot. Old man Dozer must have been smiling on us. We used a weight, a swivel, and a Custom Jigs & Spins size 4 Demon ice jig instead of a hook. That is when we started putting Demon ice jigs on the line when fishing current.
The size 4 and size 6 Demons are perfect for minnows, crawlers, and redworms, and they catch everything swimming. You can also cast them out and drag them back slowly in areas with less flow. A Demon will shimmy and undulate slightly off the bottom when reeled slowly.
There isn’t a stringer of walleye on the package, so they must be good for all species of fish.
Bluegill for dinner
Bluegill action was always on the menu with Old Man Doser. Since Eagle Claw did not make a size 10 snelled hook back in the day, or at least they did not stock it at Sears, Old Man Doser had to improvise. He bought a small box of size 10 gold jig hooks and pinched a split shot on the crook of the hook and made a little jig that was the perfect size for redworms or small crawlers we dug up.
Since the braided line on the cane poles was too thick to pass through the eye of the hook, he had to tie some leaders up with some mono fishing line. It worked perfectly. We had set our corks about two feet from this homemade jig we would bait up and swing it out around the weeds at the lower end of Pistakee which was the only area that grew weeds.
While a guy still could use a split shot pinched on a number 10 gold hook and catch plenty of bluegill, using ice jigs like Custom Jigs & Spins Ratfinkees, Gill Pills, and Diamond Jigs makes the catching more efficient. These are lead jigs that are light in weight, so panfish just suck them in.
Tungsten jigs like the Glazba, Majmun, and Wolfinkee work even better when cast and reeled or hopped in slowly over the weed tops.
Whether you use redworms, small minnows, waxworms, or spikes, ice jigs are perfect for catching panfish all year-round. They are great for taking kids fishing since they are easy to use and extremely effective on all sizes and species. Give them a try, Old Man Doser would approve!
Tips and Tricks Catalog, call 1-800-831-5535 or log on to www.customjigs.com and download one online.
Also, be sure to follow/like Custom Jigs & Spins, BFishN Tackle, Walleye College, Panfish University, and Walt Matan on Facebook for some up-to-the-minute info.
