walleye fishing for the past couple of weeks

[lenb12]

Hi :

 

I have been trolling and jigging lakes around the Perth area, and my success has been limited.

Does anyone have any tips ?

 

Len

[Greencoachdog]

Have you been using live bait? If not give it a try.

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Fish shallow 4-8 feet and cast in weed pockets or fish weedlines. If your catching perch? The pickerel are around.

 

If the lake is rocky? Concentrate on steep rocky shoals with drop offs that go into deep water 15+ FOW Minimum. Fish the ledges and fish the deep side. Good Luck.

Edited June 9, 2008 by Johnny Bass

[jughead]

What lakes are you fishing? I have fished most of them in the area and have had a cottage just outside of Perth for the last 7 years. A lot of the lakes have had the Walleye populations seriously over fished but they are still there, you just have to work to find them.

 

As greencoachdog mentioned, live bait often works well. Trolling a worm harness or minnow harness.

 

Once you hit one mark the depth and jig the area starting from a ways below that depth and working up.

 

For whatever reason, confidence and practive likely, I have had more success using crankbaits for walleye the last couple of years, my favourite being an Red, orange and black Rebel Crawfish and any smaller crank bait in gold or silver.

 

Often I run the cranks just a little ways off bottom using a weight, leader and small floating crankbaits. This can work really well but can also be a nightmare if you don't know the bottom well.

 

You will likely have more success in morning or evening although you can hit walleye all day. they feed as actively but it is more work to find them.

 

Pay attention to which shore the wind is hitting and what the structure is like along that shore line. If is is very shallow move out to find the drop off and troll along there. Always try a few small swimming jigs and lighter shallow cranks int he shallow water though because despite conventional wisdom, my two best walleye last year were pulled out of 4 feet of water during mid day.

 

lasy year my best success was over a section of water that was a narrow transition area between the two larger portions of a lake. I other words, any smaller bait fish travelling had to use this narrow route which was about 12 feet deep then as it opened into the main body of the lake it dropped to around 60 feet. I anchored just past the drop off, cast into the shallower water and cranked back along the bottom out to deeper water. thw walleye were suspended between 15-20 feet down and strking as my lure crossed the drop off.

 

 

If you have a depth finder look for botton channels or narrows that fish will use as transition routes and work the drop off. Typically, if the walleye are there they are waiting to feed on bait fish so mimic their movement or jig the drop off, troll the drop off and cast the heck out of it.

 

More often than not, if a lake has walleye and you aren't hitting them, you are likely at the wrong depth to give yourself the best odds.