Open Water Walleyes

by Captain Phil Cadez

As the water warms, the walleye move from the reefs to open water. The walleye spread out in large schools or small pockets. They follow the bait fish - usually small shad,minnows, etc. Lake Erie is generally flat-bottomed away from the island and reefs. The bottom is made up of sand or clay, and the fish will usually be suspended from 20 to 25 feet down in 32 feet of water.

The suspended walleye aren't hard to find with the sonar devices on the market today. Some anglers still prefer the paper graphs, while others swear by CRT videos and LCR crystal units. After locating the fish, finding what they will strike at isn't usually that hard.

Most anglers on Lake Erie use the countdown method of casting weight forward spinners tipped with worms. They'll find a pocket of walleye maybe 20 feet down, drift over them while casting and counting to 20, hen retrieve slowly across the drift to keep the bait a the desired depth for the longest period of time. it's like playing a swing, casting about 15-to 25 degrees forward of the drift, and retrieving close to parallel in the direction your boat is moving.

Anglers in our area use a wide variety of weight forward sinners. Erie Dearie, Parrish P, and Crooked Eye are the most popular lures. My personal favorite is the Crooked Eye which boasts single, dual, and bright tricolors. Choose the one that works for you and stay with it. Colors ranged from chartreuse, silver, black, green and white for clear water, to chartreuse, yellow, gold, red and whit for murky water. Weight will vary from 3/8 to 1 ounce. use 3/8th when fish are high (above 15 feet). Use 1/2 ounce when fish are medium (10 to 20 feet) and 1 to 2 ounces when fish are deep or the lake is rough with a fast drift. All you need is half a nightcrawler to cover the hook. if you leave anything dangling, the walleye will strip your bait with its sharp teeth.

A few anglers prefer to wind-drift with weight forward spinners. Depending on the speed of the drift they will leave out line so that the drift of the boat will move the lure. They will open the bail and let out line for so many seconds. To go deeper they'll let out more line or add weight. A worm harness works very well this way. Select a proper-weight sinker to keep you at the depth near where you've marked the fish on your locator. Keep the weight about 24 inches before the worm harness. Worm harnesses usually have two or three hooks on them, so you'll probably use a whole worm.

In recent years fishing pressure and cleaner water has caused walleye to stay closer to the bottom. Bottom bouncers are the most popular way of drift fishing near the bottom. Weight of 1, 2, or 3 ounces with a wire of about 20 inches in length enables you to actually bounce the bottom yet keep the worm harness 6 to 12 inches off the clay or structure. The worm harness is attached to the upper eye of the bottom bouncer and usually has a 2 to 4 ft. leader.

Trolling is another effective way to produce walleye. You can flat-line troll using just a deep diving plug with regular 8 to 12 pound monofilament line. This will usually be good for a depth of 8-15 feet. Using wire line will get your plug deeper than regular line. Downriggers are also used on lake Erie to regulate depth in open water. Trolling lures range from short to deep-diving long nose plugs with treble hooks. Favorite lures locally are Hot-N- tots, Wiggle Warts, Norman Lures etc. Colors vary from gold to silver to chartreuse, perch (yellow and green) and many more.

It doesn't matter what deep water technique you use. You'll probably have good success on lake Erie. It's got over 50 million catchable walleye.

Book a day or two on a charter boat in the area, or bring your own boat if it's large enough. Boats of 20 feet or more with high bows are the safest on lake Erie's choppy waters. Follow safe boating common sense and get local charts of the area. It's a big lake that demands respect. When I see a 14 foot open rowboat with a 10 HP motor out over five miles, I sometimes wonder what they would do if a storm came up.

The last few years spring fishing has been tough due to constant weather fronts, and cold dirty water. Last year July was the most productive month for walleye fishing. I hope all of you have a chance to experience Lake Erie's famous walleye fishing this year.

If you're bringing a boat to western lake Erie plan ahead and think SAFETY FIRST so tat you'll be able to fish well into your golden years. If you need information on this fishing call 1-800-BUCKEYE, the Ottawa County Visitor's Bureau at 1-800-441-1271 or call me any evening at (419) 626-4422. I've always got time to talk fishing.