Eyes in the Slop

[ebox]

A friend of mine was fishing bass on Minnetonka last week and on two different occasions he caught decent (20-22 inch) walleyes in the slop and lilly pads on plastic worms. I've fished like this a hundred times and never had it happen, is it common to catch eyes that way, and if so are there any better ways to do it than with plastics?

thanks - erik

[Suzuki]

I caught a 26 incher on a spinner bait in the lilly pads(shallow) while fishing for bass. Not a regular occurance in my book but I know it happens once in a while.

[JohnF]

You have a two part question.

For the first: It is not the first time I have heard of this.

For the second: Your question parallels a question often asked in regards to an adult only activity. Are there any better...? You'll have to make that judgment call but I can't think of anything better than what works.

I have a cousin that was bass fishing with poppers that caught a walleye. I didn't know walleye would snarf something off of the surface but apparently they will.

I would be inclined to try suspending something (leech, minnow) under a slip bobber.

Have fun! (yeah, with any of the subjects presented in this post)

John

[DLS]

i have caught alot of walleyes in less then 2 ft. of water. you would be surprised at how many walleyes live that shallow. ask a duck hunter.

[I-Man]

Many of our larger eyes are caught along & in 2-3' padlines close to deeper water breaks, while the open lake humps & breaklines provide mostly smaller size catches & dinks. It seems when they get older & smarter that they like heavy ambush cover. Our April 29th WOWC 5 Eye tourney was won with 18+ lbs out of the Pads on Chubs, while most of the 72 guys in the tourney had under 10 lbs on the usual main lake structure except for 3 or so guys that worked the pads.

[tpet96]

>I have a cousin that was
>bass fishing with poppers that
>caught a walleye. I
>didn't know walleye would snarf
>something off of the surface
>but apparently they will.


I consistantly take walleye from the surface using floating stickbaits in and around rocky shorelines. They WILL suck them off of the surface. In late fall when the Eyes visit the Erie shorelines, I will do the same with constant success, as long as there is a light chop on the water.

[Gord]

Have you ever had one of those days when all the walleye seem to disappear? Often they are in the slop enjoying the shade and the extra oxygen that the weeds are producing. We only see the matted tops of the weeds, underneath there is lots of open water that the fish rest in. The biggest fish get the best spots. Those spots are often difficult for us to get at. There is a good reason that the big fish are usually caught at night. During the day, they are resting back in the weeds. They often only come out at night.

[Cbellin]

when the weed bite is on on Lake Winnebago it is something else. Walleyes in less than 2 feet of water and they ##### near rip the rod out your hands when they bite.

Try fishing a jig and a leech or a jig and a crawler. Just drop it in the pockets in the weeds and hang on tight. Also using line that you can see well helps. If you see the line twitch dont wait nail them.

Good Luck

Chris

[a.d.jam]

I have caught a few walleyes in the slop. I remeber one day in mid august i was fishing for panfish in the afternoon in about 4 ft of water near some thick weed cover. I caught around 2 walleyes in them weeds. I thought i was dreamin when i first saw that i had caught a walleye.

[Goldpig]

Last week on Rainy, we caught several 4-6 lbs eyes on topwaters like Zara Spooks, Poppers, and prop baits. First time I had actually seen this work.