Fishing Gear Tips

The Best Way to Catch a Walleye

Catching a Walleye can be a real challenge. These fish seem to actually think making them difficult to hook on a line. They are what are called ’short strikers’. They strike at the bait without getting hooked on the line. The best way to catch a walleye is to understand what happens when they strike to grab the bait and their living habits. First of all it helps to understand the anatomy of a walleye strike. When they come up to catch on the bait they open wide and inhale the water around the entire area letting it scoop through their gills. If you move the bait to snag the fish too soon they will suck in most or all of the surrounding water and the baited hook will slide right out of their open mouth. It is best to allow your hook to flow into their mouth and hesitate there until the walleye catches on it. One of the best ways of doing this is to use a light line to make less resistance and reduce the likelihood of pulling the line out of the walleye’s grasp.

Secondly is seasonal consideration. In the warmer months walleyes are likely to swim deeper to get to colder water so it seems like walleye is harder to catch in the hot summer months of July and August. In the summer months it is better to look for deep cold water vs. shallow lakes and streams.

If you are trying to catch fish in very deep water in the warm months fishing at night can be a good trick because the cooler temperatures can bring the fish up a little higher towards the surface. Beware that when you fish deep water any fish you throw back is unlikely to be able to survive. Bringing it up through the temperature change in water and pressure change is difficult for it to adjust to and they will not be able to overcome the damage.

When you are attempting to catch walleye don’t move the line a lot. Walleye are a rather lazy fish and won’t bother chasing anything that is moving about constantly. Let the hook sit in the water and the walleye will come to it. Generally the favored bait for walleye is perch that can be easily found in the shallow water around tall weeds. Using a crank bait you can get the bait down deep into the water so the walleye are more likely to see and go for it than if it were sitting in the top levels of the lake. If the fish are even deeper than the 15 to 20 feet or so that a crank bait will get your bait you can use a drop-shot to get further down into the water with the bait. Your best chance of success in catching a walleye is to get the bait all the way down to where they are at. Using a bottom bouncer can help keep the bait down at the bottom of shallow areas. Once you have a walleye on the line do not retrieve the fish with a long hard pull where you might end up pulling the hook and bait right out of their mouths. Instead use a short pull to gradually bring in the fish.

If you find yourself in a shallow lake where you think walleye are present the best bet is around weedy areas: first of all because that is where their favorite food, perch, is likely to be hanging out, and secondly because there is usually a higher oxygen content around weedy areas. Knowing the habits of the bait fish can benefit walleye fishermen greatly as when the bait move to shallow or deep water so do their prey.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.