08-19-2014, 08:57 AM
I have to agree with you, fall to ice-up is the magical time of year for night eyes. I do best that time of year. Spring can be tricky, the spawn has never been good to me. I'm familiar with Mille Lacs are you in Utah now?
Trolling at night is particularly effective. You can keep your lure in the "zone" and not have to spend so much time re-casting and walking the banks looking for active fish. Shorelines are money for night time walleyes... trolling something with a lot of vibration and flash (swimbaits, cranks, jerkbaits) will catch walleyes... They see it or feel it and once they get close their lateral line gets tickled and fish on!
To your point: I have also done well on walleyes during the day with a swimbait. Like you said, usually closer to the bottom and fished with a stop and go retrieve. Even "popping" it or "jigging" off the bottom can be very effective. Almost always in deeper water than I'd fish during the night shift... but walleyes will raid shallow areas to feed and often surprise me as well how shallow they'll go even when the water temps are hot in the summer. They especially like to raid weedbeds and weed edges during the day for panfish / perch. I prefer using keitech swing fat impacts in size 3.8" up to the size 5.8". On a darter style jighead. This swimbait is kind of under the radar but if you do a google search there are a couple places to buy them at. I'm convinced as I said, that nothing works better. Cheaper swimbaits work, but not as well.
I think if I had access to a boat I'd use cranks / jerkbaits more and troll over the right depth ranges using a GPS to stay in the zone. From shore, it is tough to know how deep you are fishing in new areas with a crank / jerkbait because they dive to a certain depth and that is it. With a swimbait I can "probe" the entire water column and figure out how deep it is, and whether or not the fish are cruising suspended or near the bottom. It depends on what they are eating usually.
As for spots, I agree completely. It doesn't matter if you are in a "good looking spot" fishing the "perfect lure/bait"... the walleyes will be near where the food is if they are biting... and just because you find a few balls of shad or other baitfish... doesn't mean you found the walleyes... the might be on a baitfish ball a half mile away.
[quote stan55]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.[/quote]
[signature]
Trolling at night is particularly effective. You can keep your lure in the "zone" and not have to spend so much time re-casting and walking the banks looking for active fish. Shorelines are money for night time walleyes... trolling something with a lot of vibration and flash (swimbaits, cranks, jerkbaits) will catch walleyes... They see it or feel it and once they get close their lateral line gets tickled and fish on!
To your point: I have also done well on walleyes during the day with a swimbait. Like you said, usually closer to the bottom and fished with a stop and go retrieve. Even "popping" it or "jigging" off the bottom can be very effective. Almost always in deeper water than I'd fish during the night shift... but walleyes will raid shallow areas to feed and often surprise me as well how shallow they'll go even when the water temps are hot in the summer. They especially like to raid weedbeds and weed edges during the day for panfish / perch. I prefer using keitech swing fat impacts in size 3.8" up to the size 5.8". On a darter style jighead. This swimbait is kind of under the radar but if you do a google search there are a couple places to buy them at. I'm convinced as I said, that nothing works better. Cheaper swimbaits work, but not as well.
I think if I had access to a boat I'd use cranks / jerkbaits more and troll over the right depth ranges using a GPS to stay in the zone. From shore, it is tough to know how deep you are fishing in new areas with a crank / jerkbait because they dive to a certain depth and that is it. With a swimbait I can "probe" the entire water column and figure out how deep it is, and whether or not the fish are cruising suspended or near the bottom. It depends on what they are eating usually.
As for spots, I agree completely. It doesn't matter if you are in a "good looking spot" fishing the "perfect lure/bait"... the walleyes will be near where the food is if they are biting... and just because you find a few balls of shad or other baitfish... doesn't mean you found the walleyes... the might be on a baitfish ball a half mile away.
[quote stan55]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.[/quote]
[signature]