Walleye tactics & location scouting.

[PlayDoh]

Hey, like most Albertan anglers I love Walleye. I live near Calgary and Crawling Valley has become my second home the past couple years. I've fished my whole life, but to be honest I've only been taught a few lures and presentations that I'm forced to stick to.

I have a few hundred $ worth of Rapala crank baits, tons of plastic (scented and non), plastic leeches, and the trusty pickerel-rig with shiner minnows are my main weapons of choice.

I first learned of 'bottom bouncing' just a couple years ago and I haven't done it yet but I got a run-down from a fellow customer at Russell sports in Calgary. From what I recall, since I didn't buy the gear, is that a bottom bouncer is basically jigging weight thats used to give the jig bait better action? I remember him showing me one, and I think he said he slowly drifts while jigging a bottom bouncer off bottom. I'd think its a tactic for less active, deep walleye's like jigging.

I usually troll too much, and a bit too fast till I get my electric motor, but I don't like to sit and jig for too long. I've found at CV that trolling crank baits and jigs to be what I do most, yet this year I plan on doing some pike fishing with my new 8 weight fly rod also.


Just wondering if anyone wants to share some of their tricks, and what depth and locations you fish for Walleye at this time of year? I find points that provide shelter from current, and when its hot they seem to be around 16' and up to 8' when the bait fish move. Yet I haven't scouted out any underwater structure on my own yet, mainly cause I don't have a good depth finder anymore.

What tactics do you use for river Walleyes? Anyone use Maggots? Spoons or spinners? real leeches?

[Steadyup]

I love to troll and when it's walley, bottom bouncing is hard to beat.

Found it much cheaper and more effective to make my own spinners as I buy the material in bulk and get to chose the beads and leafs etc. making the presentation that works best for that day. Most walley lakes have pike in them aswell so I often lose a few to them. Also, pulling frozen minnows on the end has also always been consistent for me.

Got me real excited now for Friday!!!

[Jester]

Bottom bouncers can put a lot of fish in the boat but I find trolling kinda boring.I'd much rather flip jigs,atleast you're busy doing something instead of just going for a boat ride.

[Dr. Fish]

Electric motors are key in catching walleyes and I think you might be mistaken on what a bottom bouncer is. Generally its a presentation for spinner rigs that you buy pre made or buy the components and build them yourself. Its a deadly presentation for all depths of water. No jigging action required.

[bobalong]

Almost without exception, bottom bouncing is the first presentation I start with. Jigging, lindy rigging, slip bobbin, drop shoting are all great presentations once the fish have been located but I find it takes too long to locate fish with these presentations. I pull bouncers about 1.3 miles an hour and I lindy rig about .2-.3 miles , you can cover about 4 times the water in the same amount of time. If I am constantly marking fish or getting hits but not hooking up I will go back with one of the slower presentations, but I still used the bouncers to locate fish. Although I dont jig a bouncer I will constantly pump the rod while trolling to add some eratic action and allow a few seconds of hesitation in the lure which the walleye usually take advantage of. I only use the quick change style of bouncers, I clip them onto a line slide and use a bobber stop to vary my snell length. I tie all my own rigs and tie them all about 24" and use the bobber stop to vary my snell length, rather than tying all different lenghts of rigs.The line slide also allows me to change bouncer weights without retying (also works great for lindy rigging). I dont use cranks alot, even though they may be one of the best big walleye lures there are. IMO you have to fish a lot with cranks to learn the depth that they run at, I have never put the amount of time in it takes to "know" what depth they run at. If you are trolling a reef that is up to a half mile long or longer and use a GPS to mark the fish you catch you will find 2-3 small areas on the whole reef that produce the most fish, this is when I got back with the finese techniques and concentrate on the high percentage spot. IMO sonar is almost a neccesity to locate structure and fish, your success will go up substantially once you know what kind of struture your on, and how the fish are relating to it. Good Luck

[bearbait]

i set up on a good drop off then cast a jig and minnow to the top of the drop and slowly drag it down...the key is to pause alot.. i find they will pick them up right off bottom...when they grab it let them run for 5 seconds or so then set the hook...i find they will pick up the hook then move back down the drop then eat it..

hope this helps...
rob

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

by the sounds of it those are all good things to be doing . How about trying the lindy rig with a dew worm or leach live or preserved. live bait works much more better . Have you tryed drop shot ing .I love this techniche lots of guys use it for bass , but Ive been useing it for 2 or 3 years for walleye , just upgrade the hook to a larger size and yeah , or the here the first one is the split shot excuse the set up as I love it for ice fishing , and the other is a Carolina rig , even the Texas rig work too very similar to the Carolina rig. Or the 3 way swival works well to I offen like to tie a jig on the top and a fly on the bottom. Here you go next time your out try it out .

[Winch101]

Hey Playdoh , we were at cVR on tuesday and only caught a few walleyes

and really didnt mark any fish to speak of , so for a place where I have had a 50 fish morning in july . anybody whos doin well early has that spring
presentation down pat . I mostly only fish walleyes and dont own a crank bait , and bottom bouncing is ok but tough on small structure . I made Lindy Rigs before Lindy was in bussiness .They actually borrowed the idea from a setup used for fast rivers called a Wolf River Rig.

I fished with Gary Roach a few times back in the 70's and 80's
He told me about a trip they made out to the NE states to fish the columbia river . The local farmers were pitchforking walleyes out of the spawning creeks to use as fertilizer . They were considered a rough fish competing with the salmon . So beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder ...

I believe in a C&R Lake , You kill to many fish lindy rigging .
to many swallowed hooks . Put a bait and treble hook ban on
some of these , good C&R lakes . That will seperate the wheat from the chaff . Then you would be mostly trolling , all those 2 strokes would have
to go ...not GREEN enough .
If you wonder how slow the wheels turn . They have been trying to ban live bait in Manitoba since 1968 and its still not done ....

[Waxy]

Originally Posted by Winch101

I fished with Gary Roach a few times back in the 70's and 80's He told me about a trip they made out to the NE states to fish the columbia river . The local farmers were pitchforking walleyes out of the spawning creeks to use as fertilizer . They were considered a rough fish competing with the salmon . So beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder ...

That's amazing. Hard to believe it even happened, but I'm sure it did. I wonder if the walleye fishery has recovered there at all?

I believe in a C&R Lake , You kill to many fish lindy rigging .
to many swallowed hooks . Put a bait and treble hook ban on
some of these , good C&R lakes . That will seperate the wheat from the chaff . Then you would be mostly trolling , all those 2 strokes would have
to go ...not GREEN enough .

I agree with you on the problems of lindy rigging. It's the biggest reason why I rarely use the tactic when on CV or when a lake is strictly C&R.

However, I don't agree with you on the bait ban. For techniques like jigging and bottom bouncing with spinners, the presence of live bait really doesn't effect fish mortality one way or another. The only difference would be the increased numbers of fish being caught due to the bait, not mortality caused by the bait itself as with a lindy rig.

All that a bait ban would do is decrease the success of ALL anglers on these lakes, some may argue that's a good thing, I wouldn't. Fishing success and enjoyment is what creates the motivation to preserve these lakes and provides the source of funding to continue to do so. If you take away the average person's ability to catch fish, or make doing so very expensive because they need a box full of crankbaits and a rig capable of extended trolling, you decrease the number of fishermen, and therefore decrease the resources available of fisheries management.

For many anglers, myself included, trolling is far from the preferred method of fishing. I think it would be unfortunate to force people into certain types of fishing or lures due to a bait ban. Four stroke or two stroke (which by the way, the new 2 strokes are every bit as "green" as the four strokes), it just means more hydrocarbons being burned and there's more traffic on the lakes. Not a good idea in my books. Forcing a switch to crankbaits and other multi-hook lures also doesn't seem like a good alternative to me.

If you wonder how slow the wheels turn . They have been trying to ban live bait in Manitoba since 1968 and its still not done ....

Who is they? I've never heard of this before.

I for one would strongly oppose any form of a bait ban on Alberta's lakes.

Waxy

[PlayDoh]

bobbypetrolia; I usually can't back-troll at all since my transom is not high enough to keep water out, and my boats not worth a bilge pump. lol. I can however, troll very slowly, I'd guess around 2mph or less. Just faster then walking speed. I got a 60's merc, and its 'puts' just perfect. However at over a buck a litre, an electric motor will pay for itself in a year.

Winch101 , Thanks for the report and advice, I think their waiting for me before the come out and play 8-).

I think I'd have to agree with waxy regarding the need for new regs. I think with Barb-less hooks, trebles and baited hooks are fine for Pike/Walleye lakes. This however doesn't mean 2 treble crank baits are 'acceptable' lures in rivers IMO, yet I still see them tossed out there and inevitably de-gill a trout/whitefish.

Since I've gone barb-less, I haven't lost a fish and I've fished lots. I'm like a surgeon, and I can remove the deepest swallowed cranks in no time flat.

If you ask me, using bait is an bonus for the walleye/pike since they actually get a meal out of a catch and release, usually. Thats not counting the ones they get for free.

If your using bait, vertical jigging, BB'ing, or even casting your hooks aren't that far from the boat, so unless you completely bobble your release, or your not prepared and or stupid enough to rip a lure (usually barbed, since page 2 was as far as they got in the Reg's book) right out of the fishes mouth, I cant C&R mortality in AB being a serious issue anytime soon.

Waxy; I can tell you've put a lot of thought in to your opinion, and you made some points that I haven't thought of before. Since 95% of all my thoughts are fish related, thats saying a lot. lol