Jumping Walley??

[simmered]

I was out fishing last night on Cold Lake and my buddy and I had noticed lots of fish jumping. Looked to be walleye after seeing a couple gold flashes as they came out of the water.
I'm wondering what would they be eating? the best we could figure was either mayfly's or minnows right at the surface. Has anybody else seen walleye do this?
We tried so many different things including floating some flies on surface to see if they would take those.
Does any body have an techniques that would work on walleye's jumping around like that?

[58thecat]

Whitefish? Lots do that in French bay and the buggers won't bite nothing. Spent lots of time trying to figure that one out, should go home and get the badminton net out and drag it behind the boat

[-JR-]

Lakers do that all so when the lake is like glass.
I wish I was out there this long weekend .

[bobalong]

Originally Posted by simmered

I was out fishing last night on Cold Lake and my buddy and I had noticed lots of fish jumping. Looked to be walleye after seeing a couple gold flashes as they came out of the water.
I'm wondering what would they be eating? the best we could figure was either mayfly's or minnows right at the surface. Has anybody else seen walleye do this?
We tried so many different things including floating some flies on surface to see if they would take those.
Does any body have an techniques that would work on walleye's jumping around like that?

I have never seen walleye actually break the surface but a few years while fishing LSA, my son noticed small schools of fish 4-5 just under the surface. The water was like glass and you could see them easily, at first he thought they were whites, but soon realized they were walleye.

We were only in about 8 ft of water, we run out the side planers, with a fairly long lead from the planers. Tried flies, spinner rigs, spoons, and cranks, they would not hit any of them.

The assent to the surface is predominately a vertical motion, which may have been the problem to. Much easier meal on basically a stationary target than a moving one, and although mayflies do not all hatch at the same time when they do there would have been thousands of them.

Probably to much and the wrong movement in the presentation. I was thinking a fly rod with a hopper dropper, or a sink tip with a slow retrieve may have worked but did have the fly rod along. Basically a case of not matching the hatch.

Nice day on the water, we switched to bouncers and went a bit deeper, and had a good day.

[simmered]

Ive never seen walleye jump either, that's why its interesting to me. I grew up fishing on slave lake. Walleye were easy to catch there. Sand flats in the spring and the drops in the summer. Had no issues. Now I live here and can find the spring walleye, but the summer ones are a little tricky!! I'm pretty sure we are in good areas, just the presentations and hooks are hard to figure out so far.
The few I've talked to are decent to lead you into a general area but pretty tight lipped on hooks!!!

[sanjuanworm]

Originally Posted by simmered

Ive never seen walleye jump either, that's why its interesting to me. I grew up fishing on slave lake. Walleye were easy to catch there. Sand flats in the spring and the drops in the summer. Had no issues. Now I live here and can find the spring walleye, but the summer ones are a little tricky!! I'm pretty sure we are in good areas, just the presentations and hooks are hard to figure out so far.
The few I've talked to are decent to lead you into a general area but pretty tight lipped on hooks!!!

They're targeting water boatmen. I've seen this at crawling.

[Mitchthefisher]

Seen them do this many times.

[bobalong]

Originally Posted by simmered

Ive never seen walleye jump either, that's why its interesting to me. I grew up fishing on slave lake. Walleye were easy to catch there. Sand flats in the spring and the drops in the summer. Had no issues. Now I live here and can find the spring walleye, but the summer ones are a little tricky!! I'm pretty sure we are in good areas, just the presentations and hooks are hard to figure out so far.
The few I've talked to are decent to lead you into a general area but pretty tight lipped on hooks!!!

Never targeted walleye in Cold lake but with the depth of the lake and the suspended forage, good sonar is going to be necessary. Finding suspended fish/baitfish can be tough but when you do the fish are usually feeding heavy.

I would pull spinner rigs on one setup and a white or white/black crank on the other and stay 5-10 ft above the fish. Downriggers are hard to beat for controlled depth fishing, but lead core or dipsey would work to, just harder to repeat depth without a line counter reel.

[davegrant]

Walleye sure do feed on the surface and everywhere in between where ever the food is. My daughter smashing walleye on a mouse while I trying to catch pike. July 01 last year bright sun 28 degrees in 6 feet of water.

surface walleye.jpg

[catnthehat]

Whenever this has happened in the past at Gregoire, the jigs and bait casters get put away and the fly rods come out.
First time was near dusk with a mayfly hatch and i happened to have an 8 weight with me, it has come with me ever since!
I usually use a back swimmer pattern or a mayfly pattern ad it works well.
Cat

[Adwittoutdoors]

^^^^^^ x2 Using a fly rod is a blast !!!! All though I've only caught a 5 to 6lb walley on a 6 wt it was sooooo much fun !!! I can't wait till I tie into something bigger. 😜

[Fishslayer99]

When Walleye are feeding aggressively they will work any part of the water Colum. I have had walleye take a Zara spook topwater a few times while I was pike fishing, I have also had them try to eat a bobber right on the surface. Like most fish they are opportunistic and will tend to surprise you sometimes, stepping out of the bubble can be a good move once and a while!

[simmered]

What kind of leaders and tippets are you guys using while fly fishing for them?

[Freedom55]

Not all breaching fish are feeding. Fish will jump and slap back down in an effort to remove sea-lice or other parsites.

Free.

[Mitchthefisher]

Originally Posted by simmered

What kind of leaders and tippets are you guys using while fly fishing for them?

I just use 6-8lb fluro tippet