"It's been a long time coming."

Once my partner Sid Brown slid the net under the golden-flanked 27-inch plus walleye and hoisted it into the boat, I couldn't help but think of these opening lyrics to the Crosby, Still and Nash classic, "Long Time Gone."

Finally, a walleye on a lure style that's acquired quite the popularity in recent years, one that's commonly categorized ad a glide bait.

Glide baits, in the walleye world, can be exemplified by the classic Rapala Jigging Rap, a lure that until the recent open water craze was pretty much relegated to use through a hole in the ice. Then someone discovered that, when aggressively snap jigged off the bottom, it could trigger walleyes summer through early fall.

I can't say that fishing icon Al Lindner made such a find, but he, through the various Lindner's Media outlets, certainly both spread the word and refined the tactic. As success blossomed in the walleye belr of the Upper Midwest, a variety of similar style lures appeared, including the Moonshine Shiver Minnow, Acme Hyoer-Rattle, Northland Puppet Minnow, Johnson Johnny Darter and others. Rapala has added the Snap Jig and Flat Jig to its offerings.

Essentially, a minnow-shaped chunk of lead poured around a plastic tail fin, glide baits, as the name suggests, glide erratically when fished in an aggressive manor. When fished vertically in deeper water, the idea is to snap the bait off the bottom with a single - or series - of sgarp upward rod snaps. And then allow the lure to fall on a slack line to the bottom as most strikes occur as the fish pins the lure diwn. Fish are hooked via the next upward snap, i.e., the angler rarely feels the hit. Glide baits have the potential to entice active fish as well as inactive ones, the latter triggered into a predatory reaction strike.

As ones always eager to learn new walleye tactics, my friend Sid and I soon kumped on the glide bait bandwagon. And we caught some fish - smallmouth, bass, crappies, bluegills - but nary a walleye

Rather frustrating for a couple of guys that have caught hundreds of walleyes on vibrating blade baits, which are fished in a somewhat similar manner and situation. Lacking confidence in the tactic, it got put on the back burner in favor of known walleye producers.

My interest in glide baits resurfaced this summer when the bait became an important component in a tactic often referred to as sharpshooting. In sharpshooting, you don't drop a bait until you spot fish on the sonar unit. Much of the time us spent slowly motoring over high percentage areas with eyes on the electronics. At this time of year, walleyes tend to be in deeper water, so such spots are often found in 20 or 30 feet of water on or near structural elements like the ends of extended points, deep water flats, and channel edges. The fish described at the outset fame from 25-foot depths, was on a known walleye spot, and fish were visible on the sonar screen.

The advantage of a glide bait in this situation is in how fast it reaches the bottom. You spot fish on the sonar you suspect are walleyes, stop the boat in its tracks, and drop the lure, hopefully right in front of the fish.

Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle