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| Have a question about weed walleyes, a lake I fish we can get them just before and after dark on the weed edge and on top of the weeds or rocks. during the winter ice fishing we set up on these same weeed edges and we can catch them right at dark and all night. My Question is what do these fish do when it isn't dark. are they staying deeper in the weeds or are they shifting to deeper water in the basin. lake is only 800 acres slight stain. example ice fishing, set tip ups along weed edge on a point. jig base of break and out deeper and get no results, close to dark tip ups go off. during the summer we drift rigs along weed edge, base of break into deeper water with no luck. I've pitched jig and minnow/leech into weeds and got no results. but right at dark and after, they bite on the edge and on top on cranks and minnow baits. in the same locations. If you say in the winter there is no weed edge because the weeds die off. just as the walleyes never read the book on where they are suppposed to be, neither do the weeds.
this is in norther wisconsin. please serious post.
THANKS |
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Location: Rhinelander | I fish several lakes with the exact scenario you discuss. Mid day I find fish scattered in the deeper water off the breakline associated with the weeds sometimes and find them in the weeds alot, too. Slip bobber the weed related fish if it's sunny, moving around alot, or 'doodle' them, that works too. I also pitch a small plastic tail and a jig at them, and rip it or finesse it through if it's cabbage. The deeper fish I drift through with slip rigs because we cannot troll here. |
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Member
Posts: 18
Location: Rhinelander WI | The walleyes could very well be 6 inches from your bait, but the species are a low light feeder. They do move into the deeper waters during the day, but if the water is clear they usually don't bite unless it's overcast. |
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| I fish some smaller stained lakes in northern WI that have thick coontail and cabbage. they are shallow lakes and I start out on the weed edge and try to pick off those fish first, then I move in and pitch the jig(underhand) in the small pockets, sometimes I can only jig it about 2-4 feet before it will drag across the top of them. I am suprised how many times I will get a hit 5-6 feet from the boat and this is shallow water in mid day. This works best on calm days when you can see the pockets. this past week I was up there and fished about 27 hours over 6 days and boated 71 walleyes with 33 being between 15-21 inches doing this. I kept 4 for a fish fry one night. Some of these fish are coming from as shallow as 3 feet deep. good luck |
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Member
Posts: 340
Location: McFarland, WI | I too fish stained lakes of Northern WI that are relatively shallow. Weeds produce lots of oxygen during the day and provide shade. Walleyes like both. They often relate to the inside weed edge especially if you can find some wood in the water. I often wade the shoreline pitcing slip boobers to pockets in the weeds and wood. There are places where one can stand under overhanging trees and see walleyes along the weed edge in 2-3 ft of water. There are also springs along some of these shorelines that create cooler areas. These fish do not seem to chase a bait. I have tried casting cranks along the inside edge but only catch toothy critters. They can't resist a minnow or leech wiggling in front of their faces. There are usually lots of minnows along this inside weed edge including shiners and young of the year perch. Shoreline is sand with some gravel on points. Weeds are cabbage and grass. This pattern doesn't seem to hold up as well with milfoil in some southern WI lakes I fish. |
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| watched a bass fisherman(lol) today put a 27 3/4 inch eye in the boat 30 yards from me today in a weed bed.Sometimes life just sucks!!!!!! |
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Member
Posts: 3899
| Some of the very best walleye fishing I have experienced was in the weeds, at high noon, 90 degrees, and flat calm. These fish were in shallow weeds, 1-3 feet. We'd get them pitching jigs and leeches into pockets. If I find a good cabbage bed, I just gotta check it out. Why these big fish are just laying up in there in the middle of the day escapes me, but often they do, and it is a blast! |
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