It's time to step back and take a good look around if you want to get your
share of catching mid-summer walleyes. If you've tried everything
you know, in every possible place, you mave to dig a little
deeper.
What you might not know or even expect is that many of the
walleyes you've been chasing are now suspended, and is a common
occurence in most bodies of water. It happens in natural lakes
across the Midwest, the Great Lakes, Canadian Shield lakes,
and it happens in many reservoirs. The thing is it's always
a possibility, especially during the summer period.
Many anglers have a hard time accepting the fact that walleyes
often suspend far off the bottom relating to nothing but their
next meal. Sure they may have heard about suspension on lakes
like Erie, but they just don't consider it when it comes to
their home waters. Once you get past the skepticism and start
to believe you can get down to the job of rounding up a few
and putting them in the boat. From natural lakes to
the Great Lakes and even reservoirs, walleyes will often suspend
when the conditions are right. On some bodies of water walleyes
may be riding high one day and belly to the bottom the next.
On others like Erie, it’s unusual to find them any other
way than suspended, especially during the summer months.
Suspension is triggered by a high riding food source
like shiners, shad, alewives, ciscoes, and even perch.
As seasonal temperatures continue to increase and mid
lake temperatures begin to pop up things start to happen
that get the whole process going. Those warmer temps
can spur plankton productivity as well as trigger insect
hatches all of which will attract the aforementioned
baitfish, which in turn will pull in ol’ marble
eyes.
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Wherever a solid bait source is found you can bet the walleyes
won’t be far behind, even it means leaving classic structure
like rock humps and quick drop offs in the dust. Methods
for rounding up suspended walleyes can vary but the most efficient
presentation is trolling with either crankbaits or spinner
rigs. Some anglers have experienced success by using floating
jig heads tipped with live bait and using extra long leaders,
like twenty feet or more. It’s a method that approaches
walleyes from the bottom up, and can be effective when dealing
with small groups of walleyes but it's not effecient when
you have too many acres of water to cover before you sleep.
In that case it would make more sense to opt for a faster
more efficient approach, and is where trolling crankbaits
and spinners really come in. Crankbaits in particular allow
for a quick trolling pace and includes speeds up to three
mph or more, which allows anglers to cover a maximum amount
of water in the course of a day. Selecting a crankbait
starts by picking one that you have faith in and feel confident
that if you run it past a walleye with an appetite that it
will be accepted. Confidence baits that lend themselves to
tackling suspended walleyes include Cotton Cordell Walleye
Divers and Grappler Shads, as well as Smithwick Deep Rouge
Jrs. The Grappler Shads are particularly effective at warp
speeds and will run true at five mph or more. It also includes
selecting a bait that will run at a particular depth, especially
if you’re marking most of the fish in a narrow band.
There are several books and charts that are readily available
like Precision Trolling, that give specifics of particular
baits which can help greatly with determining running depth.
Spinners can also provide for a quick trolling pace, especially
if you use the proper blade. Willow leaf blades are on top
of the speed blade pile, while deep cupped Colorado’s
would be on the bottom. Colorado spinner rigs can’t
take the pressure of a high speed run and will spin out resulting
in a twisted up mess, and of course no fish. Another
key to a successful spinner presentation is getting it to
run at a particular depth. Spinners by themselves are shallow
running and will need some sort of weight to achieve any kind
of depth. There are several ways to get the job done but Team
Crestliner member and professional walleye angler Rick Olson
has found that the easiest method includes the use of an in-line
weight and an eight or nine foot leader. "The in-line
weight keeps the whole process simple, and simple is good.
To vary depth you can either vary the size of the weight your
using, or adjust the amount of line you let out."
The ability to determine exact running depth comes with practice,
but getting close can be as easy as finding out how much line
it takes to get your rig to the bottom and adjusting from
there. The thing is you hardly ever have to have your bait
running at an exact depth to be productive as you will probably
never find all of the walleyes holding at the exact same depth
at the exact same time. Another consideration is the
fact that suspended walleyes can be extremely spooky and a
pair of trolling boards may be in order. In-line boards like
Cannon's Rover Board are relatively inexpensive and easy to
use and will help get your baits out and away from the boat
where you’re more likely to encounter active fish. Another
advantage to using trolling boards is the ability to increase
the amount of coverage area by spreading out your baits, and
allowing you to take a wider swath. It’s easy
to get confused with the whole suspended phenomenon but don’t
let it bother you. The thing to do is relax and realize it’s
not and exact science, and you don’t have to be perfect
to be successful. However to be successful you do have to
give it some time, and it could easily turn out to be time
well spent. See you on the water
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