Walleye season opens Saturday

[Spiel]

Walleye season opens Saturday; Are you ready?

 

 

May 07, 2008

Wil Wegman / yorkregion.com

 

 

The second Saturday in May is always a big day for Lake Simcoe anglers.

 

Not only does walleye season start, but so too does the even more plentiful northern pike, whitefish and lake trout seasons.

 

Furthermore, it is quite likely more anglers will actually fish for any of those latter three species than the former despite the notion walleye are the most popular fish in the province.

 

If you feel like being a bit of a rebel this weekend on Lake Simcoe by being one of the few anglers out there targeting walleye instead of those other three, then continue reading.

 

The reason for the lack of effort that Simcoe walleye receive is definitely not related to a lack in size of the walleye.

 

In fact, Simcoe walleye have a reputation for being some of the biggest found anywhere in Ontario.

 

For those who have been fortunate enough to catch a few precious Simcoe eyes, they will know 10-pounders are fairly common and trophy sized specimens in the 15-pound class are not rare.

 

The challenge, however, is in finding those darned big walleye in the first place because, for the most part, Simcoe just doesn’t have a huge population. More are caught by accident when anglers are fishing for something else.

 

For those who are up to the challenge of trying to locate a walleye or two in Lake Simcoe on opening weekend you should be prepared for a couple of things:

 

• Your quest could be like looking for a needle in a haystack and;

 

• There are new limits and size restrictions in place for 2008.

 

Let's deal with the easier second point first.

 

Walleye limit with a sport licence is now four instead of six. No big deal because it’s unlikely you, me or the mighty Al Lindner himself could count on catching the old six-fish limit.

 

The size restriction is something to pay careful attention to, however, as now you can only keep up to one walleye (within your four fish limit) more than 18.1 inches.

 

In most places, this isn’t an issue because most places don’t have an extraordinarily high percentage of their walleye population exceeding 18 inches.

 

Then again, Simcoe isn’t most lakes.

 

It might make you feel better, however, when you’re releasing those precious walleye bigger than 18.1 inches, that quite often those bigger fish are the females which are valuable to the future of the fishery. Besides, the smaller walleye will just taste better anyway.

 

Now, point one.

 

That needle may be hard to find in a big haystack, but if you know it will be tough work yet you equip yourself with a powerful magnet – you’ll at least have a better chance of finding that little needle in the first place.

 

In other words, go out on Simcoe fully aware it’s going to be very difficult to find Mr. Marble Eyes in that big old lake.

 

But because you have your homework and are prepared with the right tools and the right attitude for the task at hand – well you might just locate that elusive Lake Simcoe walleye.

 

Basic help with your homework:

 

Location, location, location.

 

Anglers don’t need a real estate agent to tell them how important it is to be fishing in the right spots if they want to get bites.

 

With a relatively small population of walleye in the 745-square-mile Lake Simcoe, though, this might be easier said than done – especially when existing walleye catches often appear to be coming from so many different areas of the lake.

 

For what it’s worth, I’ll pass on three of those very general areas that you can try opening weekend.

 

• Mouth of the Talbot River: Recognized as the lakes’ primary walleye spawning river, walleye typically retreat back to the lake once this annual ritual in the river is complete. With a late ice out and cool water temps, it could be that several are still holding near the mouth;

 

• Cooks Bay: Although the Holland River, which empties into the very south end of this southernmost bay of the lake, once had a decent walleye run in the spring, it has reportedly been several decades since that has occurred. Curiously enough, for some reason, there still appears to be several nice walleye caught not just at its mouth but throughout the bay, each spring and;

 

• Mouth of the Pefferlaw River: Some Focus on Fishing readers may have noticed that in the new 2008/09 Recreational Fishing Regulations Summary, the longstanding fish sanctuary in the Pefferlaw that lasted until the opening of bass season (fourth Saturday in June) has now be changed and shortened to coincide with the walleye opener instead. With this in mind the mouth of the Pefferlaw might very well be worth a look opening weekend.

 

If you do head out to one of these areas you might up your odds even further if you long-line troll with a slow working crankbait like a perch colored Shad Rap in water ranging from 10 to 18 feet.

 

The long line is required because you don’t want to spook the weary walleye in Simcoe’s gin-clear water, the slow retrieve because the water is still cold and the fish aren’t that active, the perch colored crank because perch are a primary forage for Simcoe’s walleyes and that water depth because it’s unlikely they’ll be much deeper so early in the season.

 

However, if you’re like me and can’t stand to spend too much of your time trolling, you could do worse than throwing a one-quarter ounce ball head jig hooked with either a live shiner or one of the Berkley Gulp! Alive! biodegradable minnow baits.

 

So there you have it, a quick run-down on the Lake Simcoe walleye opener. Tight lines everyone.