Live Bait. Live bait can be highly successful for walleye, which usually involves still fishing, drifting, or trolling the bait. A bottom-bouncing rig or slip sinker is effective for drawing the walleye’s attention in clear water. The best choices of live bait include leeches, minnows, and nightcrawlers.
What is the best color lure for walleye?
The most basic and most productive colors for targeting walleye are purple and green These colors come in a variety of shades and can be used in a large range of depths. For sunny days, select bright or flashy purple or green, and for cloudy days try a solid, darker green or purple.
What size lures for walleye?
Developed in 1936, the Rapala Original Floating Minnow remains a reliable walleye bait. Popular sizes are the 3-1/2” (F09) with a running depth of 3 to 5 feet and the 4-3/8” (F11) or 5-1/4” (F13), each with a 4 to 6 foot running depth.
Why are walleyes so hard to catch?
It’s not impossible, but walleye seek out deep water and shade to avoid the harsh sunlight, and they tend not to feed actively during these conditions , so you’ll have to adapt your fishing locations and tactics accordingly.
What time are walleye most active?
Big walleye especially, are usually most active from sunset to sunrise with the dawn and dusk hours being the hottest. At night, walleye move into shallower water where they are actively feeding on sheltering prey. During the way, walleye move much further offshore into deeper water.
What colors can walleye not see?
A walleye lacks the blue and yellow cells, so it’s color vision is similar to that of the rare human beings with blue and yellow color blindness. What this means is a walleye most likely can see all colors as some shade of red or green.
What is a walleyes favorite food?
They prefer small fish and will eat crustaceans, worms and insects Try fishing from sundown to midnight, particularly during the heat of summer. Use bait, spinnerbaits, spoons, crankbaits, jerkbaits, ice jigs as well as plastic worms and grubs. Trolling is often a very effective way to fish for these tasty fish.
Do walleye like crankbaits?
Why Are Crankbaits Great For Catching Walleye? Crankbaits are one of the best methods to attract and catch large walleye Crankbaits imitate smaller fish with a wobbling action that they just can’t resist. Walleye hit crankbaits with such force, it may take the rod right out of your hand.
What is the best time of day to catch walleye?
Generally, the best time to fish for Walleye is early morning and late evening When the sun is high at midday, Walleye move deeper and hold tightly to shade providing Cover. During periods of low light however, Walleye will move in shallow to feed on baitfish holding close to shore.
Are walleye bottom feeders?
Walleyes are basically bottom feeders , but don’t ignore those fish that suspend over drop-offs in deep lakes. Some of the best summer walleye fishing is provided by suspended fish.
How far should walleye be from the bottom?
On clear lakes, bait placement can be 6 inches to 20 inches off the bottom, as the fish can better see the bait above them and come up to get it. Monofilament or fluorocarbon leaders are both good (though I’ve found that you have to re-tie more often with fluorocarbon as the knots fatigue more quickly than mono).
What color is most visible to walleye?
In clear, shallow water, during daylight – colors such as green can be visible to walleye. In deeper and dirtier water, any color visibility will be reduced. Blue colors likely won’t make a difference (the lure is visible, but the blue color is not). Red colors won’t make a difference in deep or extremely dirty water.
What colours can walleye see?
By inserting minute probes into the retinas, they’ve discovered that walleye see the colour orange best in clear, relatively shallow water. When conditions are darker, the fish see colours at the red end of the spectrum better. They also see the colour green, but not as well as orange or red. The conclusion here?.
What is the best hook to catch walleye?
The best type of hook for walleye is the octopus hook type The treble hook type is also good for catching walleye. The best size octopus hook for catching walleye is size 2.
How do you fish for walleye in a lake?
Use shallow to moderate diving lures like a Berkley Flicker Shad or Rapala Shad Rap over the deep weeds, along rocky shorelines, and all around reefs These baits are also excellent for casting these areas. Use deep-diving baits when walleye are farther down in the water column.
Can you walleye fish from shore?
You can catch a lot of walleye from shore during spring if you fish in the early morning, late afternoon, and even at night Similarly to fall which you’ll read about shortly, fishing with moving baits will be successful because walleye are in shallow water to feed.
Do you use a leader for walleye?
For walleye per se, you do not need to use a steel leader at all , as they won’t be able to bite through your mainline. However, if the water you are fishing in contains pike or muskies, you can use a 10-15lb fluorocarbon leader instead of steel, in order to prevent bite-offs.
Do walleye eat worms?
As I mentioned, worms work wonders on walleyes that are focused in on eating other forage After all, rarely do fish feed on worms, anyway, because they don’t live in water. They are a natural forage for fish, however, as a heavy rain will wash worms into the drink.
How do you catch walleye when not biting?
Slow, methodical lifts of a bucktail or twistertail will do the trick, and the addition of a minnow or worm may coax the inactive walleye to become more co-operative. If you are fishing a deep northern shield lake, then your best bet is to fish deeper, while keying in on productive structure areas.
Are walleye more active at night?
Walleyes are adept nocturnal hunters best caught by night fishing While most anglers are sleeping, walleyes are pursuing and feeding on unsuspecting prey that cannot see as well in low-light conditions. This nocturnal activity offers a prime opportunity for walleye anglers.
Are walleye attracted to light at night?
A few more night fishing tips to keep in mind: At night, walleye are attracted to light , so use lighted or glow-in-the-dark jug heads. Be sure to match your lure size with the bait size. Always use a slip bobber, and be sure to reel in the slack before you set the hook.
Does fishing line color matter for walleye?
Unless you are fishing a finesse style bait like dropshot and need to visually see your line twitch when a walleye bites, avoid bright colors like yellow and white Instead, go with clear fluorocarbon and monofilament and dark green braid.
Do spinner baits work for walleye?
A spinnerbait is essentially a simple lure and at times there’s no wrong way to work it. Like other lures, it doesn’t always work, but when it’s on, it can load the boat with big walleyes.
Do you troll for walleye?
Trolling is by far one of the most effective ways to target walleyes throughout much of their range By pulling baits behind the boat, anglers can more effectively cover the vast expanses of open water that walleyes utilize in the warm water months of the year.
How much line should you let out when trolling?
Let out 50 feet of line and clip into the release. If that’s not enough distance to prevent your lake’s wary walleyes from seeing the ball.then let out 150 feet of line! Just remember, the flat-line diving depth of your crankbait still applies behind the ball!.
References
https://shopkarls.com/blog/7-lures-walleye-anglers-can-depend-on-all-year/
https://fishingbooker.com/blog/best-bait-for-walleye/
https://www.walleyebaits.net/