08-19-2014, 06:51 AM
Just to followup on night fishing for walleyes. I grew up in the midwest fishing for walleyes and my favorite time is fall to iceup fishing an hour or so before sunset until very late at night. I fished Mille Lacs a prime Minnesota walleye lake from sundown to sunup many times in October thru November trolling Husky Jerks/Reef Runners/Shad Raps in depths of 7 to 12 ft. and we would boat 30 eyes on an average night. Those tactics will work on any lake. The paddletail swimbaits started catching on about 8 years ago. Casting them shallow at night has been productive for me and they will produce in the day time as well. The walleye in my avatar was caught at 4 in the afternoon in 20 ft of water working a swimbait along the bottom. Swimbaits are not as effective when trolling as hardbaits for some reason at least in my experience.
You will need to put some time in learning the prime walleye feeding areas and build an inventory of hot spots. Since THE spot can change every night keep moving from spot to spot until you start getting fish. Once you locate the particular spot for the night you'll catch fish for an hour or so.Then start moving again to locate the next batch of feeding fish. We once caught a total of 23 walleyes in 15 minutes between three people in one little area before the bite ended. Right place, right time and right bait - simple when you get the hang of it but it takes time.
And just when you think you've got it figured out walleyes will throw you a curveball. I was fishing on a bright cloudless day at high noon targeting bass and pike on a shallow slightly weedy sandbar - basic sight fishing - when I noticed pods of 6 to 8 lb walleyes cruising the area. I caught probably a dozen in the next 30 minutes and then they were gone. Not typical walleye conditions at all but they were there.
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You will need to put some time in learning the prime walleye feeding areas and build an inventory of hot spots. Since THE spot can change every night keep moving from spot to spot until you start getting fish. Once you locate the particular spot for the night you'll catch fish for an hour or so.Then start moving again to locate the next batch of feeding fish. We once caught a total of 23 walleyes in 15 minutes between three people in one little area before the bite ended. Right place, right time and right bait - simple when you get the hang of it but it takes time.
And just when you think you've got it figured out walleyes will throw you a curveball. I was fishing on a bright cloudless day at high noon targeting bass and pike on a shallow slightly weedy sandbar - basic sight fishing - when I noticed pods of 6 to 8 lb walleyes cruising the area. I caught probably a dozen in the next 30 minutes and then they were gone. Not typical walleye conditions at all but they were there.
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