Walleye trolling speed

[Uncle Buck]

I'm having a little debate here with a cousin of mine...

 

What speed do you go when trolling for Walleye?

 

Thanks

[LeXXington]

Depends on what and where... Lake St Clair and other shallow lakes (under 12 feet depth) under 1 knot just above the bottom. With slow moving blades.

 

Lake Erie, BOQ .. 1.3 to 1.9 knots

 

I would love to find out what others do

[Guest gbfisher]

from .8 up to 2.6 at diffeent times of year.

[Fish4Eyes]

how many troll the grand 2-3mph and still produce?

[solopaddler]

Spring and fall 1-2.5mph. In the summer when their metabolism is at its peak and they're chasing down baits, 3-5mph.

[Roy]

I'm almost always between 1.5 and 2.2 MPH. I find that if you stay at those speeds and troll in an 'S' pattern, you'll slow your bait down on an inside turn and speed it up on the outside turn.......notice which way you're turning when you get a hit and it'll give you a pretty good idea as to what they want.

[Sherriff]

UB, whatever Ned says, change it. LOL

 

Sherriff

[doubleheader]

Usually with cranks or harnesses I am slower in the spring and speed up as the water warms. With harnesses that can mean as slow as .5mph using smile blades and floats to keep the harness from snagging and whatever the minimum speed I might be able to get away with depending on the crank bait I'm pulling. That said, I'll often run a zig zag pattern and see if the fish tell me which speed they prefer. I've seen occaisions when you had to go over 2.5 mph. Once I was fishing with another guy, each in separate boats. He forgot to charge his trolling motor batttery and was pulling harnesses at over 2.5 mph and whacking a fish every 15 minutes. I couldn't buy a bite until I copied him. If I were to pick one speed it would be .9 mph for harnesses and 1.8 for cranks.

[Roy]

I'm having a little debate here with a cousin of mine...

 

What speed do you go when trolling for Walleye?

 

Thanks

 

So who won the debate bud?

[Uncle Buck]

no one wins, but i'd rather he catch more fish, and i think he's going too fast

 

he says 2.5-2.9

 

i say between 1.2-1.7

 

granted depending on the day, and on the fish you can catch them going faster or going slower,

 

but a general concensus for walleye is a slower presentation... Salmon on the other hand 2.2 - 2.9+

[MillerPhoto]

Lol, thats a tough one personally.. I was out with a buddy in a 10ft Tinny with a 7.5hp... He was going full throttle, and i nailed one! on a small black rapala, lol

[camillj]

I like the zig zag ... generally more fish are caught on the turn than going straight ... slow to fast and fast to slow ... change seems to be trigger ... and not just for Pickeral

[Court R]

how many troll the grand 2-3mph and still produce?

mostly 2.5-3.2mph

[Dara]

Interesting

what do y'all use for speed indicators?

 

I will start a new thread on this

Edited July 14, 2009 by Dara

[Roy]

Interesting

what do y'all use for speed indicators?

 

I will start a new thread on this

 

I use a GPS.

[darsky]

Roy-you having any success with the short line?

[Roy]

Roy-you having any success with the short line?

 

Not lately Darren, I haven't been fishing. I'll be fishing a lot more starting Saturday the 18th.

[smally21]

i understood that walleye were not particularly fast swimmers, topping out around 2.8 mph. for that reason i troll around 1.5 mph. my info must be wrong if you are catching fish at 3-5 mph. that sounds fast, that is flat out on my 80 lb trolling motor, id be leaving a wake..

[darsky]

taking vacation?

[solopaddler]

i understood that walleye were not particularly fast swimmers, topping out around 2.8 mph. for that reason i troll around 1.5 mph. my info must be wrong if you are catching fish at 3-5 mph. that sounds fast, that is flat out on my 80 lb trolling motor, id be leaving a wake..

 

Yep it's fast all right. There's a huge clay flat on my lake that's a deadly summer spot. I generally run my bouncers between 3.5-5mph in July and August and cover lots of water. I get waaay more fish that way. The hits are savage, I think it shocks them into biting.

 

Plus side for me my new motor will work just fine for that application.

[Kerry]

Funny, I've hit really big eye's on Balsam trolling 8 & 10 inch believers for musky.My average speed is probably 2.4 miles per hour.Mostly off deep shoals where you might get a hang up or just skim the top of the shoal.It's always a surprise when it's a big eye coming up cause they fight a lot harder there for some reason.

Kerry

[brifishrgy]

I like the zig zag ... generally more fish are caught on the turn than going straight ... slow to fast and fast to slow ... change seems to be trigger ... and not just for Pickeral

 

 

you got that right Camillj ... how many times has anyone seen minnows swim in a straight line??? .. speed isnt as important as many believe .. changes in speed and direction are way more important IMO .. I try to keep it around 1.5 - 3mph till I get fish to hit then I try to stick with that speed ... a couple years back we were fishing late fall in Quinte .. the reports we read said the slower the better .. we trolled under 2mph for hours with no luck .. bumped it up to 3.5 and nailed 4 fish in a half hour .. coincidence maybe but vary your speed and let the fish tell ya what they want

[Calender Don]

This spring my 15 hp got me down to 2 mph when I put out a drift sock I got down to 1.4 mph and caught lots of walleye in calender bay. I found the slower the better.

[Fish4Eyes]

UB, whatever Ned says, change it. LOL

 

Sherriff

 

 

Hater

[Headhunter]

I don't think there is a black or white asnwer to this question. As noted above, many musky anglers catch big Pickereyes trolling at fairly high speed. Also, some folks simply won't go above 2 mph trolling for eyes and they still catch fish.

Faster speeds will catch agressive fish. If your fishing a large area, speed will help you cover more water and in turn, put you bait in front of more fish. The agressive ones will hit.

I think Roy nailed it as far as speed is concerned. Turning and alternating your speed will help you dial in the speed that is working that day. Just pay attention!

There is a myth that cold water Pickereyes won't chase a fat moving bait... that has not been my experience. As a top of the food chain preditor, they will eat whatever is deemed to be an easy meal.

I think the real trick is to find active fish.

HH