Trolling--Walleye's

[rylan]

I want to get back on the subject of this site--- Fishing

 

 

If this is a repeat i am sorry:

 

 

Wanted to see if the nice people of this site could possibly share there best practises when trolling for walleye.

What I am looking for is: time of day/night, color and size of bait? what depth , and finally what speed?

 

Additionall points for Spring.summer/fall information---

 

 

thanxs

[bushart]

I'm a successful walleye angler and your question is too broad

 

If you believe that it'll always work if someone says yep in July you drag reef runners 12 feet down in colour purple at 1.5 mph your going home disaapointed most days.

 

My advice to you on this fishing website is to learn the seasonal movements of walleyes.

 

Learn the forage type on the lake you fish

 

Learn the lake's structure bases

 

Learn what a walleye looks like on your screen (Finder)

 

You'll catch these

 

 

 

Bushart

[Headhunter]

I have to agree with Bushart... What you have asked for is essentially what has been written many times and would end up being a novel of "EPIC" proportions.

My best tip to you is to watch you electronics and keep your baits just above the fish you see on the graph. How you achieve this is again, another topic of epic proportions.

Pickereye fishing is rally no different than fishing any other species... you simply have to put your baits in front of the fish. They are top predators and they will eat.

HH

[Fishnwire]

If I'm on unfamiliar water I like to troll with some kind of long bodied minnow bait (I find they're better than stubby or fat bodied baits) just to quickly cover a fair amount of water and watch my sonar, learning what I can about the lake's deepth and structure. I watch my fish-finder and look for fish and if I see some I might drift over them using a jig with a twister-tail, tipped with a worm, minnow or leech. Experiment with jig colours and baits till you find the bite. Go-getters (sometimes called Lindy rigs) with the appropriate amount of weight for the depth trolled slowly sometimes work great. I like to troll with something that stays near, and sometimes contacts, the bottom of the lake. 12-20 FOW is where I tend to find then on my lake, but that's not to say walleye prefer 12-20 FOW, it's just where I tend to find them in the summer months on the water I fish.

 

I've always had a hard time catching walleye in the middle of the day when the sun is bright. I prefer overcast days, early morning and the hour or two before dark, but I've read that they can be successfully targeted just about any time, I'm just not very good at it. I tend to fish for SMB during the day and walleye after dinner.

 

That should be a little bit to get you started...but like the other guys said, you've got to spend some time learning how to catch walleye, before you can catch walleye. Good luck and have fun.

[Leecher]

If I'm on unfamiliar water I like to troll with some kind of long bodied minnow bait (I find they're better than stubby or fat bodied baits) just to quickly cover a fair amount of water and watch my sonar, learning what I can about the lake's deepth and structure. I watch my fish-finder and look for fish and if I see some I might drift over them using a jig with a twister-tail, tipped with a worm, minnow or leech. Experiment with jig colours and baits till you find the bite. Go-getters (sometimes called Lindy rigs) with the appropriate amount of weight for the depth trolled slowly sometimes work great. I like to troll with something that stays near, and sometimes contacts, the bottom of the lake. 12-20 FOW is where I tend to find then on my lake, but that's not to say walleye prefer 12-20 FOW, it's just where I tend to find them in the summer months on the water I fish.

I've always had a hard time catching walleye in the middle of the day when the sun is bright. I prefer overcast days, early morning and the hour or two before dark, but I've read that they can be successfully targeted just about any time, I'm just not very good at it. I tend to fish for SMB during the day and walleye after dinner.

That should be a little bit to get you started...but like the other guys said, you've got to spend some time learning how to catch walleye, before you can catch walleye. Good luck and have fun.

 

I second that.... real good info Fishnwire

[rylan]

thanx sa lot guys-- that is a nice looking eye---

[Fish4Eyes]

I've always had a hard time catching walleye in the middle of the day when the sun is bright. I prefer overcast days, early morning and the hour or two before dark, but I've read that they can be successfully targeted just about any time, I'm just not very good at it.

 

I like you always had faith in catching them early mornings and in the evening (especially evening). During the day, what worked for me on a past trip to Nipissing was a shaded area in 23-30' of water. The sun was beating hot too. Put 7 in the boat in 2.5 hours. Best pickerel fishing i've had this year, and who would of thought it would have been during 12 - 2:30pm. They stay away from the sun in the weed beds too during the day, but I don't have the patience to remove weeds all day

[Greencoachdog]

You may want to checkout this thread MM:

 

http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=35985

 

They look very interesting and the testamonials are convincing... so much so that I had to order some!

 

[rylan]

Awesome-- now where can I get those....

[anders]

Wind Blown shorelines!!

 

If your new at a lake and its windy....never pass up a wind blown shoreline. Throw cranks into shore, back or front troll spinners or worm harnessess behind bottom bouncers.

[Garnet]

One mistake is to fire a great big cast and clunk your motor in the gear and start trolling.

 

What you should do is clunk and then start 10-15 feet behind the boat stop the line with your finger no weeds no bottom contact let 10-15 ft out still no weeds or bottom contact keep letting out line slowly. When you get weed/bottom contact if it's just ticking it's good if it's pulling hard raise your rod up and reel in some line drop your rod down.

 

It's a never ending process to find that sweet spot put the results will be worth it.

 

Garnet

[Fishnwire]

One mistake is to fire a great big cast and clunk your motor in the gear and start trolling.

 

What you should do is clunk and then start 10-15 feet behind the boat stop the line with your finger no weeds no bottom contact let 10-15 ft out still no weeds or bottom contact keep letting out line slowly. When you get weed/bottom contact if it's just ticking it's good if it's pulling hard raise your rod up and reel in some line drop your rod down.

 

It's a never ending process to find that sweet spot put the results will be worth it.

 

Garnet

 

 

That is good advice.

[rylan]

Thanks alott guys-- I honestly have never used a bottom bouncer and worn harress, but NOW i think I will try it.

 

 

But --Can I still drink my beer while doing this?

[Fish4Eyes]

But --Can I still drink my beer while doing this?

 

Your sir are in need of one of them hard hats that holds the beer can and you drink through a tube, its hands free

[canadadude]

Walleye can be notorious for following baits, I like to work the rod alot when I troll, a simple pull or sweep of the rod let the bait flutter down can trigger alot of strikes walleye fishing.

Edited September 17, 2009 by canadadude

[tonyb]

I was at a seminar once held by Lance Valentine and Craig Macphee.

 

Lance had a great system that I somehow managed to remember for finding fish when time is of the essence (e.g. tournament fishing)

 

Here it is, starting with most important

 

1. Location - You can't catch fish if there are no fish around

2. Depth - Fish the right depth of water

3. Speed - Are you trolling/retrieving too slow/fast?

4. Size - Is your presentation matching the available forage base size

5. Action - Slow, subtle, or strike provoking fast & erratic

6. Colour - Notice how lure colour is last!? You will only be able to refine your presentation to catch more fish using colour once all of the above attributes have been satisfied...

 

There are actually 7 points but I can't recall them all...this should get you started! And I believe this applies to ANY fish.

 

It works too btw! I used this very system on the weekend to catch a small fish to win some money...the LOCATION wasn't correct for the first 3 hrs of the tournament. I changed that and fished the DEPTH I was marking fish at and had success...none of the other factors mattered in the list besides SPEED which I just kept my speed at the correct range for the lure I was using.

 

Tony

Edited September 17, 2009 by tonyb

[redneck666]

yep anders is right! i always do well this time of year trolling worm harnesses.... i was on a new lake on the weekend and spent a chunk of the day pike fishing with spoons and cranks but only managed to capture 1. then we went trolling for walleye and as soon as we trolled past a river mouth and over top of a nice weedbed we had an 'eye on every pass we made (figure 8 trolling:D). and we even got a big 7lb pike over top of that weedbed lol and it was extremely well fed and still had a tail sticking outta its mouth.