August / September DL Area Walleye

[Double A]

When why and how does the fishing pick up again in late August or September?

What is different from early summer fishing? Different depths / locations / bait?

Am going to be AWOL with family vacation stuff until later in August but want to be ready when I return.

[DEADhead]

here's the short abbreviated answer:

the biggest reason fishing is often slow from mid-june to august, is due to the forage life cycle. Usually by mid August, the young of the year baitfish/forage are mature enough and are starting to be consumed by the gamefish. Until then, the pickings are slim (comparatively).

[shae1986]

They are still very catchable this time of year but they are not on the classic spots like they were in early june. One needs to venture too open water or wait until night time. Cranks are going good right now.

[Dahitman44]

2-Shae --

You are the enternal optimist you think fish can be caught all of the time. You R correct, but I don't want to work that hard.

Plus -- I can't afford bait -- the wife

[RK]

Hiya -

I don't fish walleyes a lot during the middle of the summer, but when I do, I'm almost always fishing weed fish. Just don't have the patience for the whole live bait rig thing.

Most of the weed walleye fishing I do is with plastics or hardware. I RARELY use live bait. Walleyes are a lot more aggresive than guys give them credit for, especially when the water's warm. I think Deadhead's right on about the fish being surrounded by food, so enticing them with a slow, subtle live bait can be kind of tough. But you can definitely trigger walleyes into reaction strikes just like you can bass or muskies.

I use swimbaits like 5" Power Swim Shads, pop a 4" Power Minnow on a jighead along the weedline or in sparse cabbage, or, believe it or not, use a jigging spoon along weedlines. Actually, if I HAD to catch walleyes, I'd probably use a spoon. You've never had a walleye hit something so hard...

If you want to troll, a bottom bouncer and spinner rig/crawler along the weedline works good (use a Gulp! crawler if the panfish are too pesky...I usually just start with Gulp and skip the crawlers...mainly because I have a tendency to forget them in the built-in cooler on my boat. Bad deal when it's in the 90s. WOW does that ever stink the next weekend... )

The other trolling tactic that works better than you can believe sometimes is trolling up over the weeds in 6-9 feet of water with a bullet sinker, a short (18" or so) spinner rig, and a gulp 3" minnow. A 2" or 3" white power grub works good too. Run it about 100' or so back, and get it so it's just ticking the weed tops at 1.5-1.8 mph. Use the size of the bullet sinker to control the depth. What's cool about this is it works mid-day. Best time is 9-11 or so. Sparse cabbage is better than thick stuff like coontail. For whatever reason this works very well in lakes that have stocked fish. Stocked fish are just dumber. When this is working, it can be absolutely unreal. Earlier this year, myself and 3 other guys limited out in about 2 hours. It's a great, great way to fish with kids too, because along with walleyes you catch just about everything in the lake from bass to pike to crappies. It's one of the best ways I know to just plain keep a rod bent...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[ChuckN]

Quote:

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I don't fish walleyes a lot during the middle of the summer, but when I do, I'm almost always fishing weed fish. Just don't have the patience for the whole live bait rig thing.

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I can be the complete opposite. I'm improving in the weed walleye division, but I must tell ya I don't have the patience for the weed aspect as sunfish and rock bass can be a nuisance. I know it works, but as a live bait guy it's been a chore to get the hang of it.

Interesting tactics with spinners and Gulp presentations. I've used the Gulp worms a fair bit, and the minnows a little and zero for zero. I can't rule it out though.

Recently I've been finding a good bite on crankbaits over weeds. Walleyes have been either suspended or aggressively chasing lures from the weeds.

Thanks for the tips.