The big secret to finding and catching early season walleyes is the fact that there really aren’t that many secrets. Instead; it’s a matter of reading the conditions and reacting to them, and then maybe investing a little elbow grease. It’s always a challenge but there’s always hope, and if you can keep an open mind you could be well on your way to putting together a nice early season catch.
Finding a logical place to start is the first piece of the puzzle to place and includes the classic variety like shallow rock and gravel shorelines and bars. Rocks certainly are important as they are the key to successful walleye spawns, but not all of the good walleye lakes have a lot of rocks. In fact some of them are completely void, and one of the big reasons they are often overlooked. Walleyes without rocks doesn’t make that much sense naturally speaking, at least until you consider man’s influence and the benefits of a good stocking program. Stocking can create a fishable population where none had existed, in waters that were more apt to produce good numbers of panfish and bass as their makeup is more suited to said species. They are likely to have sandy shorelines with shallow black bottom bays that choke up with weeds and lily pads come early summer. Nothing about them would give you the idea that a bunch of catchable walleyes may be lurking beneath the surface. In an all natural world you probably wouldn’t find walleyes inhabiting waters like these unless there was a tributary connected with a rock or gravel bottom.
Research is the key to uncovering likely bodies of water and a good place to start might include a book of lakes like those produced by the Sportsman’s Connection out of Superior Wisconsin. In there you’ll find lots and lots of lakes with names, accesses, and the roads to get there. With a name you can go to a DNR website and probably find stocking history and test netting results, they may even include some general fishing information. Even some of the smaller puddles might have a name and you just might find something you’ve been overlooking. One thing to look for is when the last survey was done so you’re looking at the latest info. Another thing is a fingerling stocking that was done three to four years ago which might indicate a good population of adults. Fry is a wild card and you never know how well it’s going to do. Every once in a while a fry stocking takes hold and there’s a dominant year class of fish that follows.
All of the above information can give you some confidence and if you know a lake has fishable numbers of walleyes you’ll give it more effort and will be less likely to throw in the towel if you don’t first succeed. Confidence plays a major role in any angler’s success and is the key to good catches.
Locating early season walleyes in unnatural and natural walleye lakes alike is not all that difficult, and really starts at the weed line. Weed lines attract and hold spawning perch, minnows, crustaceans and insects (including larvae) all of which can pull in hungry walleyes. Early season weed lines are usually just starting to pop up leaving walleyes out in the open where they can be easily found and caught. A little later on the weeds can become so dense that they’re impenetrable, restricting anglers to the outside edges. Larger weed lines have a better chance of holding more fish than smaller ones simply because of their size as they can afford more feeding opportunities. They also require a flat area in the right depth range and with the proper bottom content to develop the densest growth. Likely depth ranges include four or five feet to maybe fifteen or so, depending on bottom content and water clarity. Finding early growth can be done a couple of ways including keeping your eyes glued to a good depth finder like the Humminbird 997c and looking for light growth close to the bottom. The 997c will show you everything that’s there and do it with incredible detail.
If you’re seeing some weeds popping up you can go back and work them over by dragging a bait like a jig and minnow through the all of the greenery. Another option for finding and catching fish is running a crankbait like a #7 or #9 Shad Rap right over the tops of the weeds but unless the fish are really charged up it’s hard to beat the jig and minnow combo. A jig and shiner is a top early producer and Northland Tackle has designed a perfect jig for the dragging technique called the Shiner Jig. The tricky jig has a long shank hook that can be run through the mouth, out the gill, and back up the side keeping the minnow alive and putting the hook back far enough to nail the short strikers. A basic drag includes casting the jig and minnow out a short distance from the boat and either drifting with the wind or moving steadily along with Minn Kota. The key is getting the bait to the bottom, giving it a short snap, and then letting the jig fall back to the bottom before repeating the process. Detecting a light bite of a walleye can be tough and is all about feel and is where a good graphite rod can make a difference. A great rod like St. Croix’s 6’3â medium action Legend Tournament series can really help and the difference can be surprising. In fact you can actually feel a walleye pickup on slack line and is a real eye opener.
When working over a weed flat; be sure to hit it all from deep to shallow. Wind can help trigger a shallow bite but the option is always a possibility. To give you an example; early last season we had been doing well on an eight foot weed covered flat in the middle of the day, that is until the wind laid down. We tried everything including moving deeper and deeper but without success. Finally after moving up into four to five feet of water we found the fish and quickly put a hurt on ’em. And instead of dragging a jig we were able to pitch to them which was a tremendous amount of fun. See you on the water.
Ron AnlaufBy: Ron Anlauf
