Bob Jensen Guest columnist
It was a few years ago. Some friends and I gathered for a day of fishing. Word got out that the walleyes in a certain lake were on the bite. When we arrived at the warm lake, there were many, many more anglers there. This has created an abundance of fishing pressure and made the walleyes change their ways. They stopped what they were doing, and it became harder to catch people who didn’t adapt. If you adapted, you caught walleyes: If you didn’t, you didn’t. Here’s what we did to catch walleyes when the going got tough.
Walleyes in recent days have been susceptible to different types of presentations. Crankbaits, spinner rigs, live-bait rigs and jigs all work. At the time, there weren’t many boats on the lake, but the fishermen who were there were hooked.
When we hit the water, word of the walleye’s fast action was evident. We arrived at the boat ramp as the sun was setting and the parking lot was full. The best place is covered by boats. We went to a structure that had been very productive the past few days, and there were at least twenty boats there. We fished for a while, but soon realized we had to do something else if we wanted to get a bite.
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The once productive area is a large reef, and walleyes are scattered throughout the area. They are gone. We moved to the edge of the reef where there were no boats. We slowly moved around looking at the sonar looking for fish. We found that now, instead of being scattered throughout the reef, they were studied closely in small groups.
When we found a group we fished for them. And, instead of the fish eating whatever we used the previous day, they were very picky. They like live bait rigs rigged with leeches or crawlers. They’ll also hit spinner rigs, but they’re very picky about color: They like a blue blade. No other color is nearly as productive. We have to present our baits in a certain way if we want to get bit.
When we caught a fish, the rest of the group seemed to be activated. We usually catch a few more, then they are killed. When that happened we looked for another group.
We used a variety of live-bait rigs. We even dropped a few slip-bobber/leech rigs to the walleyes. But the action was not as fast as we expected. So we did what we usually do when the fish are playing hard to catch. We moved to another lake. One that is less stressful, has darker water, and is home to a good population of largemouth bass. We caught a few walleyes, then moved on to bass. We cast Ocho worms on a jighead along a deep weedline. The action is good. So is camaraderie. Catching fish with friends is a great reason to fish.
Over the next few months, we can expect fishing to have an impact on the fish we pursue. If you keep the things we just discussed in mind, you can continue to experience success even if you share the fish with many other anglers.
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