Finding Walleye

What should you look for when trying to find walleye in a lake?

Points, dropoffs, weedbeds, sunken islands will get you started. I really like to fish the windblown side of the lake. Usually if I am on a lake I am not familiar with I will long-line troll a #9 floating rapala in 8 to 12 feet of water until I contact a fish. This helps me cover water and learn the lake a little faster. This method of trolling is hardly ever talked about and I can't figure out why. Once a fish is caught I will stop and usually jig or worm-harness the area. If I can establish a pattern of where I am catching most of the fish,then I will look for more of those areas. My personal favorite, although one that is tough to find on lakes without maps, is underwater humps or sumerged islands.

To find walleye in a lake you first must define lake, ex. big deep lake or small shallow lake I live near Lake Ont. & Lake Erie, these lakes are primarily trolling pattern lakes due to there size and forage base, now if your talking about small weedy lakes that really have no deep water you can look for structure, like points, humps, rock/mud or sand transitions etc. When you find such things the best way to see if there are any walleye there is to first see them on your graph, if there not in the weeds of course, and use live bait, in spring use minnows summer use worms & leeches, and in fall use bigger minnows. This is a very breif way I use to locate & catch walleye, hope I have helped you.