For midsummer walleyes, there’s nothing but possibilities—for both you 
and the fish. At a time of year when they might be located anywhere 
from four to 40 feet of water, you had best explore every option. That 
means shallow, deep and even the space between. But I always have a 
starting point to get the day underway and go from there…

Down Deep
Come summertime, I know to expect fish in deep water, and the fastest 
way to find them is with the combination of maps and electronics. 
Wherever I’m fishing, I look to a Department of Resources, Coast Guard 
or, better yet, Fishing Hot Spots map to narrow the search. On them, I 
check for the most prominent structures, including humps and points, 
adjacent to deep water. Those are almost always the best places to 
begin.

When you’re on the water, motor around the structure and the nearby 
deep water, watching on electronics for baitfish and accompanying 
predators. Remember, you’ve spent good money on a fish locator, so it 
pays sense to have it locate fish before you start fishing. 

Lowrance’s new X-15

On the new units from Lowrance, including the black-and-white X-15 and the color  X-16, it’s possible to see the finest of detail—bugs, bait and even fish glued to the bottom. Use them to narrow your search. If you’re wondering exactly what you’re marking, drop down an underwater camera such as an Aqua-Vu to have a look.

MotorGuide Tour Edition

After you’ve found a level where the walleyes are holding, I know of no  more effective way to trigger them than with a bottom bouncer and  spinner. When I’m up in the front of my Lund, running my bowmount Motor  Guide trolling motor, I drop down two bouncer rigs. I hand-hold one and  put the other in a Ram rod holder. For terminal tackle, my top choices  are Northland Rock-Runner bottom bouncers and Rainbow spinners,  particularly those in the new holographic shades. A good guideline for  bouncer weight is one ounce for every 10 feet of water—one ounce in 10  feet, two ounces in 20 and so forth.

Shallow
Well, when I don’t find them deep, the next place I go is the shallows, where I look for cover in the form of weeds and brush. There I pitch jigs with a leech or half a night crawler in pockets and holes between the obstructions. One of the most important tips is to look for hard bottom within the weeds, which concentrates walleyes. I still use a Lowrance flasher, a seemingly old-fashioned locator, to find it. Then I stick with the patches of hard bottom until I find fish.

Northland Tackle Weed Weasel

To fish through the weedy, brushy difficulties, I like a Northland Weed Weasel jig, with its sleek shape and plastic weed guards to help slide through without snagging. You’ll get more hookups if you soften the  plastic by bending it back and forth. Usually, when you’re pitching pockets, you don’t have to fish a jig in there for long—toss it in, twitch it a few times, reel it in and do it again.

In Between
 

Church Tackle  Walleye Boards Click here for more info or to order on-line

That’s when I go to the midrange—the space between the shallows and the deep. There, again, I look with my Lowrance X-16 for baitfish or suspended fish. The fastest way to search is with crankbaits behind planer boards. Here, the reason is that you can pull crankbaits from 2.0 mph to 3.0 mph—far faster than the low 1-mph range with spinners and night crawlers.

Rapala Taildancer

Shad Raps

Church Tackles  TX-12 Planer Board

Meanwhile, the most versatile board is the TX-12, a midsize board that will handle most water conditions, including fairly rough stuff. I’ll stagger the crankbaits to reach high  in the water column and at moderate depths, depending on where I’m seeing fish. But even when fish are in short supply on the electronics, I’ll work the area, since walleyes often scoot out to the sides of the boat when it passes over.

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