Chasing big walleye.

[Agronomist_at_ia]

Thanks for the input guys....I should have given lake specs. Most of the Iowa lakes we fish are shallow 15 ft or less for the most part with fairly dirty water (which is great for day fishing) if there is any wind the water can be like a chocolate milk. Due to recent experiance from what I can tell......bigger fish in the lake I've been fishing with a slot 17-22in (so big is over the slot). The over the slot walleye tend to come on live bait. A minnow behind a larger or more agressive spinner blade. The lakes do have a few 28-30 in fish in the 10lb plus range. I mean a good day is a limit for walleye, with usually one or two guys with an over the slot 22in. We catch plenty of 18-20in on cranks......but the 22+ seem to come on spinsters behind minnows.......


Any more input would be nice.

[Raybob]

KPKyllo ~ Your daytime MO is simular to my nighttime MO (good job on the MO) >> The Eyes move up to feed after dark close to where you found them in the daytime for that days condition locations, but in greater numbers of "active" large Eyes from midnight to dawn

Originally Posted by KPKyllo

I'm not a night fisherman but it sounds like I should try it some time.
I've been trying to figure out how to catch large walleyes vs smaller walleyes for a lot of years. There's not a magical formula to catching larger walleyes and of course fishing on water that holds big walleyes is a must and using big baits makes a difference, but the biggest thing I've found that makes a difference is location. Of course the spawn and post spawn will move walleyes, but during the majority of the season on lakes and rivers that I fish, it seems that the bigger walleyes prefer certain spots. I know that lakes where open water trolling is prevalent are different, but I'll take the lake I fish most, Devils Lake as an example. I don't know exactly why, but I can catch small walleyes with an occasional large walleye all over the lake while I have found certain spots that for some reason hold large fish. What each large fish spot has in common is that they are all different from the surrounding bottom. It may be a few rocks on a muddy bottom, a point that turns into rock or gravel as it get deeper, a rocky hump rising up out of the mud.........it varies but it's always something different from the surroundings. The larger fish aren't always on each spot every time out either, but if I hit a number of spots that I've found that historically hold larger fish, I usually get a few of them throughout the day. It just takes a lot of patience, searching, studying contour maps and moving to find the spots holding larger fish. It's a different mindset than being satisfied catching numbers of smaller fish.
If you watch any fishing tournaments, you'll notice that the best pros look for areas holding larger fish. You have to do the same.

That's what I've learned so far about catching larger fish but I have a lot left to learn.

[Raybob]

Thanks fishin10 ~ The read/link was still good


-kinda shows that most lakes have a few dandy Eyes and you might not need a DNR net to catch it "IF" you have the correct skill level applied to the sUMo 'chase...



https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/mo...t-in-iowa-lake

[Bobby Winds]

Originally Posted by Raybob

KPKyllo ~ Your daytime MO is simular to my nighttime MO (good job on the MO) >> The Eyes move up to feed after dark close to where you found them in the daytime for that days condition locations, but in greater numbers of "active" large Eyes from midnight to dawn

90% of our early Lake Erie walleye fishing in the Buffalo area is all done at night..... since I no longer fish Erie at night I don’t fish walleyes until June, besides it Jumbo Perch season for me in April and May.

I also agree if your goal is 10# plus walleyes, location is the most important thing. I have caught several 10# plus walleyes but other then when I fished tournaments, I don’t target them.....they just come with the luck of the draw.

[Bill Krejca]

Night time fishing can be good for bigger fish if the water is "clear". My experience has been that fishing stained to muddy water at night has been very poor. There seems to be a decreasing success rate proportionately, stained to increasingly muddy , corresponding with dusk to full dark. In other words, if the water is not easy to see through, night fishing usually will be not be very good, getting proportionately less so as it gets darker.

Bill

[Raybob]

Originally Posted by Bill Krejca

Night time fishing can be good for bigger fish if the water is "clear". My experience has been that fishing stained to muddy water at night has been very poor. There seems to be a decreasing success rate proportionately, stained to increasingly muddy , corresponding with dusk to full dark. In other words, if the water is not easy to see through, night fishing usually will be not be very good, getting proportionately less so as it gets darker.

Bill

We are in the middle of farm county on a 5800 acre shallow lake that ave 6-7' deep with numerous/miles of canal & open water dredge slot areas 8-13' deep along with 70 islands. That idea of yours does not apply here, heck a 15-20 mph breeze will change IL from a farm-rich stained green color to pure muddy without rainfall. Also daylite means numerous boaters/skiiers/jetskies & you name it to put the larger 8lb plus daytime eyes down. The large Eyes lose caution & move to the better feed/chow-down areas after dark... this has been true for my 70+ years. Heavy usage on any body of water will put the daytime Eyes down unless it's a BOD (beautiful overcast day) and a quite lake w/o storms...


Later Gator,
da old fart


Also our fish rely on sound more than eye-site (R-traps for the large Eyes)

[Bill Krejca]

I can understand why day time boat traffic can cause fishing problems, especially in shallower water. It has just been my experience that the dirtier the water, the less fish can see, and increasingly declining light exacerbates the situation. That has been my observation.

Bill

[Ozark Bob]

It is a DNR guy holding a fish the dnr shocked or netted. They weigh and measure each fish for recording purposes. Why would they exaggerate or lie about it? I has about 4 to 5 #s of eggs so the 28" makes sense. (28 is usually in the vicinity of 8#s without the eggs. Bob

[deanminor35]

You want big eyes ,you fish at night.

[goldman]

Originally Posted by Agronomist_at_ia

Thanks for the input guys....I should have given lake specs. Most of the Iowa lakes we fish are shallow 15 ft or less for the most part with fairly dirty water (which is great for day fishing) if there is any wind the water can be like a chocolate milk. Due to recent experiance from what I can tell......bigger fish in the lake I've been fishing with a slot 17-22in (so big is over the slot). The over the slot walleye tend to come on live bait. A minnow behind a larger or more agressive spinner blade. The lakes do have a few 28-30 in fish in the 10lb plus range. I mean a good day is a limit for walleye, with usually one or two guys with an over the slot 22in. We catch plenty of 18-20in on cranks......but the 22+ seem to come on spinsters behind minnows.......


Any more input would be nice.

I fished central Iowa lakes for about 10 years or so, doesn’t make me an expert, but here’s my experience.

I would fish either at night or very early in the morning. I ran low profile casting reels on moderate rods, running power pro depth hunter with about 3 colors out, pulling #9 shad raps in either natural shad or firetiger. I would pick a contour line of usually 10 or 12 feet, and follow it. Those big girls would hit when I had to make an abrupt turn to stay on the contour I was following. It was always on the shady side of the lake before the sun topped the tree line.

Another presentation that worked well there in early spring was a #9 Original floating rapala running about 3 feet behind a pencil style bottom bouncer in that 10/12 feet range. Usually firetiger or the black worked well.

I caught many walleyes on lots of other presentations and trolling different cranks as well, but my biggest came as described above.

I usually pull cranks in the 2 mph range (+/-), bottom bouncers at 1mph (+/-).

Best of luck to you.