Zeroing in on walleye

By Gord Ellis and Drew Myers

Get any two walleye anglers together and there's bound to be a passionate discussion about how each other's methods are the best. Truth is, many approaches will put walleye in the boat, if they're used in the right circumstances. Walleye are, if anything, widely adaptable, and anglers need to keep their options open to catch them consistently. Here are two game plans that cover all the bases.

Catching scattered walleye by Drew Myers

When dreaming of walleye, most anglers imagine massive schools of them carpeting the bottom of their favourite fishing spots, but that's often the exception, rather than the rule. Sure, small males often remain grouped for weeks after the spawn, but larger females disperse quickly and are usually alone. For most of the year, walleye spend much of their time in loose schools or scattered individually around a general area. To catch them, you must fish efficiently and quickly.

Walleye are more likely to school when they find a concentrated food source. Conversely, they scatter when forage disperses. In spring before young-of-the-year baitfish are available, post-spawn walleye roam, looking for winter's leftover baitfish and other edible critters. Because walleye are cruising flats and shorelines, taking the occasional perch here, shiner there, there's no advantage to schooling. Why compete with other hungry walleye when the pickings are so lean?

The same can be said in a time of plenty. In summer, ecosystems are pumping out walleye food everywhere. They don't need to concentrate in one place to gorge. They often scatter throughout a water system.

The structure walleye are using often affects how spread out they'll be. Fish using reefs and shorelines tend to school more tightly than on shallow flats and in expansive weedbeds. In such larger more monotonous habitats, there's little to concentrate fish in one area, so they're found individually or in small groups.

Weather can also be a factor. Walleye often scatter after a cold front moves in, making fishing even more difficult. Angling pressure is also a consideration. Put lots of boats on top of a popular reef and walleye often move off the edges of it, waiting for the commotion to die down.

On opening day about five years ago, Dad and I fished Rice Lake in the Kawarthas. We, along with what seemed like every other angler on the lake, were working a mud flat near a spawning area. Most anglers were anchored, waiting for walleye to come to them. It's a good ploy once you find undisturbed fish, but suspecting the walleye might be pushed out of the area and scattered by the traffic, we used the trolling motor to cruise the perimeter of the flotilla. Pitching jigs and trolling minnow rigs, we landed walleye after walleye by covering water, while the stationary anglers got only one or two. It was a classic case of a change of tactics to cover more water paying off.

Knowing when walleye are scattered is fairly straightforward. If you're catching one here and one there, but at no concentration point, you most likely have a scattered-walleye situation. Catching them comes down to fishing as quickly as possible, covering water to put your lure or bait in front of more fish to get more hits.

Trolling is the most common method for covering water. Early in the season when the water is cold, forward troll slowly or back-troll known walleye hotspots. When the water warms and walleye will hit faster baits, speed up to cover even more water. In large lakes, like Erie, many anglers speed troll using a spread of planer boards, diving planes, and downriggers to cover a wide band of water.

Early in the year, slowly trolling minnows on jigs, spinner rigs, or simple split-shot set-ups works well. As the water warms in late spring and early summer, worms and leeches fished on spinner rigs, as well as crankbaits like Shad Raps, Wally Divers, Redfins, and other hard minnow baits, start to shine. All these baits let you cover as much water as possible, while looking for active walleye. Trolling really shines on large flats, reefs, and along shorelines. However, don't simply troll in a straight line. Zigzag or make S turns over and around structure. It increases your odds of bumping into fish and varies the action of baits or lures when they speed up and slow down on turns, resulting in more strikes.

Drifting is another option, providing the wind is favourable. One advantage is that drifting is less likely to spook shallow walleye, plus, you don't have to listen to the motor running and smell gas fumes all day.

One of my favourite drifting tactics is to use a three-way swivel rig almost vertically below the boat. Use just enough weight to get the rig to the bottom and keep it there while drifting along. Add a two- to four-foot length of mono leader to the three-way and attach a hook, floating jig head, or spinner rig, if you're drifting fast enough. Tip with a minnow, leech, or worm. This technique has accounted for countless walleye for me.

If trolling is not your thing, fan casting can be deadly. Crankbaits are often your best choice for this. Drift or use an electric motor to keep moving over new water.

Casting is definitely the ticket for catching weed walleye. Pinpoint cast to the edges of weed clumps with jigs or crankbaits. Cover as much water as possible, but thoroughly probe weed points, corners, holes, and turns. Turn to pitching weedless jigs if the greenery is too thick for crankbaits.

Walleye are often not lined up in one spot waiting for you to show up. When that's the case, cover water and find them. Sure, you might only catch one here, one there, but they add up, while other anglers sitting at known "hotspots" often go home skunked. And, while you're moving quickly and looking for individual walleye, be ready to put the brakes on. You just might find that big concentration of fish we all dream about and have it all to yourself. Then it's anchors away.

Putting the hook down for walleye By Gord Ellis

On opening day of last year's walleye season my family and I were fishing a shallow, rocky area loaded with post-spawn fish in a popular lake north of Thunder Bay. Most years, we'd done well there by trolling spinners, casting jigs, and drifting with just about any bait rig, but on this opener a cold front had moved in and temperatures were plummeting. Worst of all, the relentless wind was blowing boats around like tumbleweeds in a hurricane. While I tend to like positioning on the water with the help of a front electric motor, it was simply not doing the job. The fish were moving slowly and the wind was moving us too quickly. The situation called for anchoring.

Off a wind-swept point I pulled in behind a couple of aluminum boats that already had dropped the hook. Most only had one anchor down, however, and they were swinging wildly in the waves. So, I kept well back and broke out two 20-pound anchors. Then, I nosed the bow into the wind, had my wife, Cheryl, help me position the anchors, and let the wind carry us back before having her tie off the ropes. We were now relatively stable in my 17-foot back-troller.

While I rigged up our two boys with slip-floats, Cheryl grabbed her rod and dropped a jig-and-minnow combination to the bottom. I had barely completed the first rod when she squealed and her rod bent in a nice arc. "It's a nice one, honey," said my wife, who always talks sweet when she's on fish. "Get the net!" Soon, a 2-pound walleye was scooped and placed in the livewell.

As I rigged the second rod, my oldest son, Devin, dropped in his float into the water and watched his minnow disappear. The bright yellow foam float bobbed hypnotically in the waves, then hesitated, pulled down a bit, and disappeared. "Hit him Dev!" I yelled, and soon he had the second walleye on. Austin's rig hit the water next, and I sat back and watched the show. For the next two hours or so I netted fish and felt like a lucky guide.

Nearby anglers noticed our action and soon were dropping the hook just a jig cast away. One boat, its anchor consisting of a coffee can filled with cement, could not hold in the wind and was soon headed for our bow. I put my foot on the front of his boat, as an embarrassed angler tried to get a 1950s-era motor started. You gotta love opening day. Despite the bumper-boat excitement, what was looking like a potential blowout turned into a success, thanks to good old-fashioned anchors.

Anchoring seems to be a dying art. Many anglers consider it as archaic as dial phones and 8-track tape players. Yet, it's often the most effective way to present a bait or lure over fish once you find them or suspect they should be in an area. There are, of course, many situations where anchoring makes little sense. When walleye are scattered and roaming on flats or in and around weeds, trolling or fan casting to cover water and find fish are more efficient. As well, in rivers, drifting slowly downstream, controlling your speed and position with a stern- or bow-mounted electric motor, and covering water often pays off too. Yet, there are an incredible number of situations were anchoring is the best choice.

For example, in spring and fall's cold water, walleye are less likely to chase a bait pulled behind a fast-moving boat. Even sitting at the bow of the boat, running a powerful 24-volt electric motor into the wind, while vertical jigging is a chore and a challenge. Usually, your jig drifts too shallow or deep, while you fight to keep the boat on top of fish. Yet, from a well-anchored boat you can cast and crawl even a light jig and minnow across bottom. The difference between the number of walleye you'll catch on a 1/8-ounce jig from a fixed position, compared with a 1/2-ounce jig worked from a wind-blown boat, is remarkable.

Anchoring is also great when you want to fish with floats. The stable boat allows you to thoroughly cover a large piece of water. I especially love to have my kids use floats, as they can put their rods in holders and still be fishing effectively. Every once in a while I count the floats and try to figure out which rod is in play. Using different coloured floats for each kid solves part of the problem. When all the floats disappear, the fun really starts.

In rivers, anchor in holes where you suspect walleye are holding and then work jigs slowly on the bottom. For whatever reason, river walleye, especially when conditions are cold and dirty, hit more readily when a boat is anchored and the presentation is almost vertical. Some of the largest walleye - fish to 13 pounds - I've seen caught in rivers have come from anchored boats. I suspect it has something to do with the walleye's ability to feel, smell, and more easily track down a bait that stays in one spot. It's surely one of the reasons the ancient "pickerel rig" remains a popular and effective walleye catcher. As well, using long anchor ropes in rivers and adjusting where the boat is sitting, by releasing or pulling in the tethers, potentially puts you over more fish.

During summer, when walleye are holding on reefs, rock piles, or sunken islands, an anchored boat can also mean the difference between a good day and a great one. The reason is simple. Walleye on structure spook when worked over repeatedly by a boat. I've seen it a hundred times. You pull up to a reef, move over and mark a group of fish and pop one. You land it, turn the boat around and run the electric or, even worse, gas motor back over the reef. The second time over, you might get a fish, but just as likely the fish scatter to deeper water. If you follow and work them, you might pull a couple more, but they'll become increasingly nervous and shut down. If you'd dropped an anchor on the reef at the get-go, or even after catching the first fish, there's a good chance they would have returned and stayed active. In fact, walleye seem to take solace in the overhead cover a static boat provides, particularly in sunny weather, as long as you don't thump around and make loud noises. Marker buoys are important tools for anchoring in lakes. When you mark walleye or catch one, and want to return to the exact spot, throw out a buoy for a visual cue. Due to wind, boat control, and other issues, you might need to re-anchor several times to make sure you're in a good position. A marker buoy makes this much easier.

One of the most consistent problems anglers have with anchoring is an inability to keep the boat from swaying in the wind. One reason this happens is that most people use only one anchor. This is fine in calm water or in rivers when there's no wind, but otherwise you need two, and sometimes three, anchors to hold a boat steady.

Here's how to anchor solidly every time. When you know a hotspot or mark fish, use a marker buoy to keep track of where you want to be. With an electric motor, move about 90 feet upwind and 45 feet to the left of the spot. Drop the first anchor and let out the rope. Then, move the boat 90 feet upwind again, but this time go 45 feet to the right of the spot and drop the second anchor. Again, let out the rope as your boat drifts slowly into the area where the marker is located. Once the two anchors and the boat are in an approximate triangle, pull slack out of the ropes and tie them off tighly on the bow and stern cleats. In this position, the boat should not move side to side. Adjust your position by bringing in or letting out rope. This set-up requires two sections of at least 100 feet of 5/8-inch rope and two 18-pound or heavier river anchors. You can drop a third anchor now, but you'll seldom need to.

Most people tie rope directly to the anchor, but a six- to eight-foot piece of chain between the two will keep the rope from wearing and potentially breaking. One good tool is the Anchor Link from Goldeneye. This short piece of rope has a shock-absorbing rubber centre that cushions the blow when big waves beat the boat and helps to keep your anchor in place. I've used one for years, and it was worth the investment.

For a secure hold on bottom, a rule of thumb is to release three times as much rope as the depth of the water you're anchoring in. For example, in 25 feet of water, let out at least 75 feet of rope. When the wind is really howling, a water-depth-to-anchor-rope ratio of one to five is preferred.

One downside is getting the anchor snagged. Believe me, this will happen to you. Sometimes, gentle tugging from a variety of angles will release the anchor. At other times, you might have to use the big motor to slowly power the snag out. Be warned, however, that snagged anchors can be dangerous, especially in rivers, high waves, and over deep water. Always make sure you have a knife nearby that can easily cut an anchor rope. Never gun a boat with a slack line when trying to remove an anchor. You could rip off the boat's cleat or even sink the craft. No anchor is worth dying for.

Cautions noted, anchoring is simple and effective. Trolling, drifting, and plugging along with an electric all work well in the right circumstances, but if you're not also using anchoring as part of your walleye-fishing tactics, you're clearly stuck in the mud.