How far will they "come up"?

[Ruffnek]

Mostly posing this question for you guys who fish places like the western reservoirs where we have that big up and down structure. All other things being equal, how far do you think a walleye will come up to bite.............mostly talking about bottom bouncers here. It seems to me that 5 feet is no problem, and I believe that a bait rig of your choice that far off the bottom is preferable to dragging a bottom bouncer laying flat dragging through the muck. In these lakes with dramatic vertical structure, I try to select the depth I want to fish, set my rigs for that depth, and, knowing speed plays a big part of the equation I do not worry about falling off the edge if it is much less than 10 feet of difference for a short distance. I am sure I catch quite a few fish marked fish below my "bottom feeling" range. Those of you who fish this kind of water will know what I mean immediately..............so what does your gut tell you?

[Chad]

Yes, they will come up. How far depends on water clarity.

I assume your asking since you put these on a planer board? Otherwise I would just let more line out or reel some line in.

[fishing life]

Because of the position of a walleye's eyes on the top of it's head it is assumed that they feed up, so yes. There are factors I suppose that affect how far. Water clarity, speed, hunger and opportunity. It is said that walleye are lazy feeders or opportunistic more to the point. I believe proximity is important and that hunger (or lack of )would determine how far they are willing to pursue.

[jigstop]

I always say that they will come up 10 feet before they go down 10 inches. Maybe not exactly true but it keeps reminding me to fish above the fish and not below them.

[fishing life]

One way to determine how active walleye are is how, what, where it is relating to, structure, depth, under forage. I try to keep a record of what the conditions were when a fish was caught. That practice will give you a better understanding of how far and under what conditions a walleye will pursue. This in addition to try and more completely answer your question. Still how far up can be answered by you and how you fish.

[mudpuppy]

Originally Posted by Ruffnek

Mostly posing this question for you guys who fish places like the western reservoirs where we have that big up and down structure. All other things being equal, how far do you think a walleye will come up to bite.............mostly talking about bottom bouncers here. It seems to me that 5 feet is no problem, and I believe that a bait rig of your choice that far off the bottom is preferable to dragging a bottom bouncer laying flat dragging through the muck. In these lakes with dramatic vertical structure, I try to select the depth I want to fish, set my rigs for that depth, and, knowing speed plays a big part of the equation I do not worry about falling off the edge if it is much less than 10 feet of difference for a short distance. I am sure I catch quite a few fish marked fish below my "bottom feeling" range. Those of you who fish this kind of water will know what I mean immediately..............so what does your gut tell you?

I think you're probably pretty close with that. It's been said thousands of times that every lake is different, but some generalities hold true with most of them. Steep structure can be difficult, the closer to vertical you can stay the better, but not always possible to stay on it. Also, some lakes have a lot of fish suspending in relation to structure, so maintaining depth on a point or whatever is good, too. Even if you stray from the drop sometimes just as you swing off you'll hit a fish.

[Ruffnek]

Thanks all......feeding up is a given, I think we agree. How far is the rub. Lots of times I catch fish, off a point kind of like mudpuppy mentions when I know my bottom bounchers are lifted because I can see them break contact with the bottom on my rod tips...........what I dont know, and probably there are too many variables such as water clarity and others mentioned to have a pat answer, is how far the will come up to hit. 5 feet I am sure of, 10 feet? Maybe, at times. One of my favorite tricks is to make a hard turn over a sharp break on a point, so that the inside line sinks straighter down. Many times, when it comes back in trim as it falls back in line with the boat I have a fish on. Those fish are laying a little deeper just off the structure, and did not come up so much as I went down to them.

We learn to fish that steep structure pretty early on out here in the west. Some of you guys may have not had the chance to fish some of this water, but as an example I may be 15 yards off the shore where the shoreward rod is over 15 feet of water while the outside one is over 30 feet of water. On any given day I figure at least one of my bottom bouncers are out of contact with the bottom close to half the time. Not far off the bottom, but not ticking, either.

[adempsey]

I was just reading the In Fisherman Book Walleye Tactics#2 and the author was suggesting that walleye's stay within a certain depth range and just remain there and move around the lake horizontally to feed. However, there are several groups of walleye at the various depth ranges and the feeding activity of the various groups will also vary.

The idea was the walleyes don't move vertically due to the discomfort from the changes in the swim bladder. I am sure over a longer period of time they will move up and down and slowly adjust to the pressure changes, but not for a quick bite to eat.

Moving 10 feet might not be too bad though. I suppose it might depend if they are going from 40 to 30 or from 18 to 8.

[wa_walleye]

Something to consider, maybe the fish are not coming up they could be suspended off of the structure...

[Gary Korsgaden]

Or moving off the structure horizontally!!! A lake I fish a lot has weed line to the 23' range, I find the fish moving horizontally over 35' of water to feed staying in the 23' area, suspended.

Originally Posted by wa_walleye

Something to consider, maybe the fish are not coming up they could be suspended off of the structure...