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It
might seem just a little early (maybe a lot), but it's the time
 of
the year when you can make some plans and start plotting against the
walleyes. It takes a good well though out plan to be successful, and
you might as well get started right now.
"Where to go?" is first
on the list, and there are some terrific options including something
north, south, east and west. As a full time professional walleye angler
I've had the opportunity to travel across the country and spend quality
time in a tournament mode on the nation's top walleye fisheries.
Tournament time is intense and can give you a real feel for just how
good a fishery can be. Not only do you have your own success to look at
it, but everybody else's as well.
At the end of tournament there's a lot of information that comes
to light, including how many and just how big the walleyes really are.
Great early season action means
rivers and tailrace areas and the West has some of the best including
the upper reaches of Lake Sharpe and Fort Frances in South Dakota.
The action on these two hot spots can heat up in February and
stay that way right through March and April.
The earliest action is really dependent on the weather with the
best being a nice long warming trend.
Walleyes load up in the stretches beneath the dams and where they
are relatively easy to find and not that hard to catch.
Basically it's the areas of reduced current that hold most of the
fish and you can look for little breaks like points along the bluffs
that can change the flow and slow it down.
You can even find walleyes in the main channel if the current is
slow enough. In either case about all you need to do to start putting
fish in the boat is drag a jig and minnow. Vertical jigging while
using a controlled drift is the technique most often used and accounts
for most of the early tailrace walleyes that are caught. Jigs in the
1/8 to 3/8oz range are the ticket, with key being the use of the
lightest jig possible while still being able to stay in contact with the
bottom.
Erie still ranks high on the list
and every serious walleye angler should experience what this Great Lake
has to offer at least once in their lifetime.
April and early May is prime time for finding huge schools of
walleyes stacked up in the western basin.
Much of the action takes place around the reefs just north and
west of Port Clinton and is a good place to start looking.
The reefs themselves load up with males while the bigger females
tend to hold just off, out over deeper water.
A Down Deep Husky Jerk trolled over and through the suspended
schools is a top producer especially early on when the water temps are
still fairly cold. The reefs themselves can be trolled but you can also
work them vertically with a jig and minnow. Although we haven't been
catching as many monsters as we did just a few years ago there's plenty
of nice average size fish, and there's always a chance for nailing a
real hawg.
Mille Lacs in Minnesota made the
hit list and is a good bet for finding solid numbers of mid May and
early June walleyes.
It's one of my favorite natural lakes because it's so diverse and is
loaded with fish. You can catch walleyes here just about anyway you
want including rigging, jigging, pulling spinners, and trolling cranks.
Early on most of the action takes place in shallow water and you
can rig sand breaks and weed beds, use slip bobbers and leeches over
rocky reefs and bars, or troll the same with a #7 Shad Rap if the wind
is blowing hard enough.
As the season progresses and things start to warm up a little, walleyes
will move deeper and deeper and will show up in masse on the mid lake
mud flats where they fall hard for a live bait rig and a leech or
crawler.
Bull Shoals is a southern
reservoir that is loaded with walleyes but really doesn't turn on until
later in the season, like June and July. In fact according to the
locals the action in August and September is exceptional. The problem
with the early season is an abundant population of shad which move
shallow and make things extremely tough.
By June the walleyes start showing up in classic areas like
deeper points and there are thousands of them and most hold fish.
Bottom bouncers with a spinner harness, or a plain snell and a
hook, is about all you need to pick them off.
You can look for fish
with your electronics, drop a bouncer and a rig, and probably catch
them.
There's more that deserve
honorable mention including Devil's Lake in North Dakota which is the
best natural lake in the country right now, Oahe in South Dakota which
has really turned around after several years of super tough conditions,
Green Bay in Wisconsin, and Saginaw Bay in Michigan. With so many
great opportunities there's plenty of good reason for the making plans,
the reservations, and the road trip. |
