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Emerald Green and Walleye Gold
    By Bob Riege

Each year three couples come together to do some research and to get maps marked for North Caribou Camps.  The owners of North Caribou Camps are Rob and Sandy Brodhagen and they are headquartered out of Pickle Lake, Ontario.  Rob told us at the last sportshow in Minneapolis that he had a lake that he wanted us to try.  The lake was called Troutfly.  Early reports were that this lake was very clear.  In fact, Dave Hagen who lives in Austin, MN., told me that the lake was really a tough bite.  “From the air you will see that the lake is emerald green and it looks like you are flying in the Caribbean rather than a lake an hour north of Armstrong, Ontario.”
    With this information Jim McDonnell “The Fishing Professor” and his wife Almeda, from Royal, IA. , Tom and Sue Brown from Minneapolis “Mr. Walleye Pros.” and Ginny, my wife and I decided that it would be a great experience and a challenge to see if we could not only catch fish, but trophy fish as well.  Troutfly has large walleyes, northern pike, lake trout and huge whitefish.  The whitefish and ciscoes are the main feed for these game fish.  
With little encouragement we planned on fishing this lake the last part of July and into the first week of August.  Plannin the trip is part of the fun and we did most of that by e-mail in the early part of the summer.  When we all met at Armstrong, Ontario to fly out.  The day of the fly out the weather was foggy and raining.  We had about a half a day delay before we could get airborne, but within an hour we were at our cabin stowing our gear and getting ready for the rest of the day of fishing.  
Equipped with our combined knowledge we systematically set out on an exploratory mission and this is what we found.
Walleyes are a structure oriented fish, most of the time.  You might find large schools on some Great Lakes that don't relate to specific structure, but by and large they seek out structure.  These walleyes will be tight to the bottom, lying in the holes between rock and cuts in the bottom.  They may be feeding, or waiting in ambush to find an easy meal that comes their way.  When fishing structure, you have to be able to stay tight to the structure or your lure presentation will not be in the strike zone of the fish.  Move just a boat length away and you will be out of luck
Fish tend to locate along transitional zones.  The bottom may change from sand to rock or from mud to weeds; a drop-off may occur or slope into deep water; or water in one sector may be a slightly different color.  The most important transition zones are the weeds.  The weeds or vegetation may be the key to successful angling.
Many anglers think of rocks, sand, drop-offs, and deep water when walleye fishing.  But walleye chasers are missing some good fishing if they aren’t poking around in the weeds when they’re after walleyes, especially during the fall months.  Walleyes will make extensive use of weed clumps if they’re available, and often the fish that are in the weeds are looking for a meal, making them susceptible to any type of offering.
Fish are wary.  This helps them survive and can also make them difficult to catch.  They utilize their excellent senses of vision and hearing, detect motion with unerring accuracy using their lateral line, and also use their sense of smell.  Therefore, a cautious approach is required of an angler.
With artificial lures, like Berkley Bubble Up Emerald Shiner and Berkley Gulp, the presentation must be realistic.  It should appear that the offering is part of the normal food chain.  Hunger is certainly a major motivating factor, but fish also respond as predators and strike something that moves.  At times, they even exhibit antagonistic behavior when biting an intruder to drive it away.
One of the first places I begin to look for these walleyes is along an edge of a specific structure. These edges form breaks, which almost act like barriers to hold fish a little longer to feed before they move on.    These are physical boundaries between shallow food producing areas and deepwater areas of the lake.  Here schools of active walleyes meet concentrations of food and often this is a prime fishing area.  
Rocks also attract fish, try rock piles, humps or where rocks and weeds meet or are intermixed. Work it over thoroughly with a jig or live bait presentation.  Try to determine where fish are holding.  Keep asking yourself the question what is their pattern?
    The object is to find specific structure that seems to be holding fish.  With a good depth finder like my Vexilar Boundary Water, I can identify inside turns, rock humps, and edges of weed beds that hold fish.
    Backtrolling is something that I really enjoy.  Backtrolling will allow you to present your bait right in front of the walleye's nose.  In cold front conditions this is essential.  What you're trying to do is stay on a particular depth, or contour, where it looks like the walleyes are holding.  I use the 9.9 H.P. Mercury and back into the wind along current breaks.  This slows down the bait and gives the walleyes plenty of opportunity to decide if it is something they would like to eat.
    If I hook a fish on an inside turn, I quickly throw out a Lindy marker buoy and as soon as I am done landing that fish I will move right back to that spot.  The thing to remember is if you catch one active walleye in a spot there are probably a dozen or so walleyes in that same spot.    
    We knew from past experience that by this time of year massive bait schools break up and walleyes head for specific structural elements that funnel scattered, roaming forage past specific spots.  Look for long fingers or spines that protrude toward the main lake.  Roaming baitfish usually congregate along these fingers and filter down them.  Walleyes wait at the tips.
When working shallow areas to shore, especially when the water is clear, keep your cast parallel to the shore.  The most active fish will be within 10 feet of shore, perhaps closer.  If you cast the bait 30 feet out from the shore and retrieve it, the lure is in the most productive zone for only the last 10 feet of the cast.  If you cast the bait parallel to the shore and retrieve it, it's in the fish zone all the time.  
Berkley Gulp Produced this nice walleye The author hoists a fine Northern Pike
Walleyes will be along the rocky banks and shorelines in the summer because they slide in behind the rocks to avoid current conditions and as a staging place for ambushing their next meal.  In dirty or stained water it's possible to dabble a jig tipped with a Berkley Emerald Shiner minnow on a long rod.  Just lift and drop the jig around rocks and anything else that breaks the current.  Lately the advent of Berkley Gulp rigged on a jig floated and pulsated along the shore line drives big walleyes crazy and they crush that Gulp as it swims by.
    If walleyes are not located shallow move out to midlake humps.   Search drop-off edges of large midlake points and humps rising above the summer thermocline, using electronics to detect the presence of baitfish and game fish.  Some may be up along the first drop-off or deep weed edge; others may be lying along the base of the break where it bottoms out into the main basin.  Snap jigging Power Baits and Berkley Gulp along these breaks will produce active fish.  If they're tight to the bottom or slightly into weed cover and hard to see, weave your rigs along the drop-off or weed line, paying particular attention to irregularities that may concentrate fish, points, turns, and changes in weed growth.  This subtle structure change should hold groups of fish in distinct areas.
    I prefer shallow rock humps with big, boulder-sized rocks.  I also prefer them to be fairly close proximity to shore.  They don’t necessarily have to be tied to the shoreline, but they should be fairly close.
Feeding within a lake, stream, or other body of water often becomes a chain reaction.  Fish hear the sounds of other fish feeding and often begin to look for food themselves.  The sounds of a tail thumping and splashing can have a positive effect on many fish at the same time.  You first of all have to find them, then you have to get them interested in your bait and finally make them interested enough to inhale your offering.  
We were very successful at Troutfly and we caught many large fish some of them are pictured with this article.  If you would like an opportunity to catch walleyes like these drop Rob Brodhagen a line at www.northcaribou.com. or contact him by snail mail at:  P.O. Box 990 Dryden, On P8n 3E3 Canada   Phone 1-807-223-6533 or Fax at 1-807-223-8980




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