Author Topic: Never Caught a Walleye  (Read 2888 times)

Offline BlueSnow

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Never Caught a Walleye
« on: Jan 30, 2018, 11:45 AM »
So I have never caught a walleye either through the ice or in open water.  Most of the people I know that catch walleye during the open season do a lot of trolling out on big lakes with crank baits and spoons or drifting with a worm harness.

Through the ice I've read that jigging raps, jigging spoons and tip-ups are the ways to go...which is more or less what I use for catching everything :)

Open water I don't expect to have much success as I'm stuck on the shore, but through the ice I'm increasingly thinking that I should try to target the walleye. 

When you caught your first walleye was it the target fish or by chance (more than normal)? 
Blue snow is better than yellow snow

Offline Doeslayer

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #1 on: Jan 30, 2018, 11:52 AM »
I'm a particularly bad walleye fisherman but I target them a lot....  They are a tough nut to crack especially on small to medium inland lakes as they are pressured and smart
Catch and release, into the grease!
"gotta be somebody needs some killin" ~ Major Payne

Chute82

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #2 on: Jan 31, 2018, 07:41 AM »
try fishing open water at night...casting shallow crank baits and reeling them in as slow as possible.  Original Rapala floating minnow work well.  In Erie when I was a kid throwing the biggest Floating Rapala trout pattern was the ticket because millions of steelhead smolt were leaving the creeks in the spring.  Like I mentioned reeling it just under or on the surface works the best. 

I grew up 100 ft from Lake Erie and have been walleye fishing since the 70’s...

Offline bootstrap

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #3 on: Jan 31, 2018, 08:12 AM »
catch many walleyes from shore in the late spring time. fish large tributaries of lakes, many jigs will work. fish slowly and close to shore.

Offline darkeyez

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #4 on: Jan 31, 2018, 08:17 AM »
  I've seen walleye almost against the shore at night. One quick way to see if there are any around at night is to shine a light in the shallows and look for glowing eyes. We troll shallow at night, most of the walleyes that I have caught trolling at night could have been caught from shore.

Offline BlueSnow

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #5 on: Jan 31, 2018, 08:50 AM »
  I've seen walleye almost against the shore at night. One quick way to see if there are any around at night is to shine a light in the shallows and look for glowing eyes. We troll shallow at night, most of the walleyes that I have caught trolling at night could have been caught from shore.

I'm surprised by this.  The only time I saw anyone catch a walleye from shore it was in the middle of the summer in a lake they had just stocked with a panther martin...the fish was def a juvenile. 
Blue snow is better than yellow snow

Offline filetandrelease

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #6 on: Jan 31, 2018, 09:05 AM »
To bad your so far from Oneida it’s a very nice inland lake  ,but they aren’t double digit eyes ,  food for thought hiring a guide may help , most charter captains will help teach different  techniques , far as ice fishing maybe you could hook up with someone that has success catching
 

Offline darkeyez

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #7 on: Jan 31, 2018, 10:09 AM »
I'm surprised by this.  The only time I saw anyone catch a walleye from shore it was in the middle of the summer in a lake they had just stocked with a panther martin...the fish was def a juvenile.

I fish almost exclusively at night for walleyes trolling in shallow water with 4 1/2" jointed Rebels, and fish both from shore and a boat in a river at night using  stick baits, been doing that for over 40 yrs! Plenty of walleye have been caught at night by shore fishermen on various bodies of water including the lake I troll.
Go on Walleye central and read the Susquehanna River thread, there is another guy on there that shore fishes almost exclusively at night.
There is another member on here that also knows that shallow night fishing can be very productive, I taught him! LOL
Bootstrap and Chute82 are telling you the same thing, walleyes can definitely be caught at night from shore!
 

Offline BlueSnow

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #8 on: Jan 31, 2018, 10:10 AM »
Looks like I am going to need to search around for a better spot to get my line wet for them.  Same behavior in the winter cruising the shallows at night?
Blue snow is better than yellow snow

Offline Ice Scratcher

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #9 on: Jan 31, 2018, 10:19 AM »
Best time I've found is sunset through dark for a few hours...

They can be a little line shy, so don't over do it, 6lb is a good started point...

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Offline bsrkoacar

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #10 on: Feb 05, 2018, 11:40 PM »
In Minnesota ive done well trolling shad raps on weedlines and sandy flats in like 12-17 feet of water.

Out here in wyoming I typically look for structure. Rock piles and windblown points. Drift minnows or troll worm harnesses over the structure and mark fish when caught. Electronics definitely help find schools although I have caught them from shore casting out on rock piles. I fish the same structure ice fishing.

Offline Hooked up

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Re: Never Caught a Walleye
« Reply #11 on: Feb 06, 2018, 08:39 AM »
Lots of good advice here. Once you start catching them it can become addicting, it is very rewarding once you figure out a pattern. And every now and then that pattern may last for a couple of weeks. Good luck with catching your 1st walleye.

 



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