Member
Posts: 2393
Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | First question is what other fish are in the lake? Is there a large population of bass, muskie or northern that could be concentrated in the weeds and therefore the weed area is their niche?
As for winter, in most situations (not all) weeds are dead or dying and are not producing oxygen. My experience is that the walleyes use the edges more in this scenerio than when the weeds are green and/or growing.
If the walleyes are in fact using the weeds for cover during the day in summer, you may not be getting your presentation to them if they are at the base of ther weeds or there is a canopy of weeds that you must penetrate.
Good Question! |
Member
Posts: 116
Location: Germantown and Land O Lakes, WI | EF....I fish a lake that's about 8' on average and choked full of weeds and cabbage. Yes, they're there, and during early spring we have no problem jigging and slip bobbering them...matter of fact, the last 4 years my brother and I both limited by 10am on the opener. The key here is cover. In early spring the cabbage,coontain, grass and other weeds are still low and thin...its easy to get to hungry eyes sitting in them with an 1/16 oz, 1/8 oz jigs or slip bobbers with fatheads.
As summer rolls around I know the walleyes are still in the weeds, maybe not as abundantly, but the cover is so thick that you'd have a hard time getting to them. I leave the weed beds and try to coax them out of the edges by drifting (Vilas is no trolling) along the very edge with a Lindy rig or No-Snag rig. Also, I look for any kinds of structure close to weed beds and pockets....downed trees, a hump, a rock pile....I've found they walleyes will move a bit if a food source is close enough to make a run at it.
You'll be surprised how many fish just sit in the weeds during the day and wait for dusk/dark to move. I've sat on a known producing spot for 2 hours, slipping and jigging, just to get nothing...then the sun starts setting and the fish are popping all over! |
