Indiana isn’t
known for being a great walleye fishery, but with some determination and
persistence you can put a few bags of delicious walleye filets in your
freezer. So many people I talk to say
that they’d love to catch some walleyes, but they’ve never caught any, and they
really don’t know how to do it. Most are
surprised when I tell them that their favorite IN lake has been stocked with
walleye at some point during its history. I wrote this article recalling a recent outing I took in search of
these golden toothy beasts, it explains the tactics I use to target walleye during
the midsummer.
It was 4th
of July weekend, and my partner and I had planned to make a run out to Summit
Lake in New Castle, IN. Summit is an
idle only lake, so we thought it best to avoid Independence Day pleasure boat
traffic that would likely be on Monroe or Brookville. However, at the last minute my plans changed
as my partner was snoozing the morning away, I guess his phone had fallen
behind his bed and he never heard his alarm go off. This trip in general had become kind of mess
as I had made earlier plans to fish Monroe Lake this particular morning with
someone else whom had to bail at the end of the week. So as I sat in my driveway awaiting my
partner as the sun began to rise, I decided I had to change my plans for a 2nd
time. This means my strategy and tackle
also needed to be changed, twice. No
problem, it happens fairly often when you fish as much as I do. I spend more time on the lake solo, then I
ever do fishing with a partner.
I was hoping my
partner had just forgotten his phone, and that I’d see his truck coming down
the street any minute. That never
happened, but my worrying of that scenario made me late to leave. Again, no problem, there is an idle only lake
that is fairly close to my house. It can
be a tedious lake, but it has walleye, not many of which are over 16’’, but I’ve
been fairly successful there this time of year.
I opted for that lake instead of going ahead and driving the 1½ hours to
Summit.
I launched the
boat under a pink, purple, and blue sunrise, I drove around and scouted my
favorite areas, pulled to the middle of the lake, and began retying all my
rods. In my experience there are 3 ways
to catch walleyes in July, you can cast, troll, or use a slip bobber. These tactics rolled through my mind as I was
deciding what to start with. Before you
decide what to use, you have to know what the walleye are doing. With temperatures the past weeks soaring into
the upper 80s I knew the water temps would be in the mid to high 70s. We had lots of rain the week prior so the
water was up and murky. The walleye are fish of temperature, they seek 65°F
most of the time, so you have to determine at what depth in the water column is
closest to 65°F. With the surface temps
at 75°, I figured the walleye to be in deeper areas suspended over the
thermocline. When scouting the lake I marked fish in 15-20’ of water, but they
were suspended at 10’-12’. Most of these
fish were placed off of structure, and in this case it was long points pushing
out to the main lake.
Once I
determined where the fish were, I then had to decide what baits I could use to
get in that target area, keep in mind walleye feed up, so I needed my bait to
run at 8-10’. I decided to try tactic
#1 and cast these areas first with a River2Sea Goon Crank bait in the Sunrise
color pattern. The benefit of using this
type of bait is that it will also catch bass, crappie, etc. So the action will not only be walleye. I hit the points I marked first, and nailed a
nice largemouth and a white bass. After
an hour or so of casting points and drop offs, nothing else came off the Goon,
so I switched to tactic #2, trolling.
I expected to
troll most of the day, but I always like to cast right at first light, or at
least first thing when I get to the lake.
It gives me a little time to get in the groove, as well as move around
my target areas to watch my sonar to see what the fish are doing. Plus, every now and again casting will win
the day, which I’d prefer over trolling the whole day. This day however, trolling was going to be
the ticket. Since I was fishing without
a partner I started with a single planer board with a Willowpine Tackle Spinner
Rig in Fire Shad tipped with a nightcrawler, to get my rig down to my target
depth I used a ¾ oz walking sinker.
That went 35’ back behind the planer, and was put in a rod holder. Then in my hand I had a 1oz bottom bouncer
with another WPT Spinner Rig, also tipped with a nightcrawler, but this one was
in the Emerald color pattern. I was
moving with the wind at about 1-1.5mph.
It was 2 minutes into trolling that my planer board jumped back, and I
knew I had a fish. I reeled in the
bottom bouncer in my hand, and started fighting the fish on the planer. I get it to the boat and it’s a real nice
bluegill. Awesome. Everything went back out and I continued on
my path.
I got to my
favorite point and as soon as I got over it I saw the planer jump again, it was
a 15’’ walleye, great, skunk is off for the target fish. I marked a waypoint on my graph, spun the
boat around and went over that spot again.
This time I felt a bite on the bottom bouncer, I set the hook and reeled
in a decent 10’’ crappie. Over the next
couple hours it kind of went this way. I
caught another 14’’ walleye on the planer, several crappies, and a white bass
all in about a 100 yard area. It seemed
as though the walleye really liked the Fire Shad rig, so I switched a similar
rig on the bottom bouncer. For some
reason that changed everything, the bite shut off on both the bouncer and
planer board. By the time I switched
colors it was nearly 12pm, it was really hot, and I was ready for lunch. I stopped to eat lunch, have a cold drink,
and relax a minute before changing tactics.
Reenergized
with a Rockstar and a pastrami sandwich in me, I decided I’d find some shade
and try tactic #3, which was tossing a minnow on a slip bobber. I picked a drop off that was about 20 yards
off the bank in the shade. I tossed out
3 bobbers. One at 8’, one at 10’, and
one at 12’. The 12’ dunked as soon as it
hit the water, I reeled in a decent white bass.
I switched the 8 to 12 and caught several more white bass and
crappies. After about an 1½ hours of no
walleye, I decided to switch spots, I picked up and headed to a point on the
other side of the lake. Since it’s an
idle only lake it took me almost half hour to get there, it didn’t pay off. More of the same, except take out crappies
and add in catfish. More than anything
I was just soaking up the day, listening to a podcast, and catching fish. I
really had no complaints. I knew the
walleye bite would be slow until the evening anyway.
I moved around
a couple more times hitting my favorite spots, but no walleye from a
bobber. I really like bobber fishing for
walleye, but I prefer to be on a weed edge, which this lake has none of. More than anything I was killing time before
evening trolling.
As the sun made
its way closer to the horizon, I decided to put the bobber rods up and I busted
out the trolling gear again. However,
this time I decided to pull crank baits to trigger the reaction bite. On the planer board I tied on a River2Sea
Jerk Shad in Glo Plug color. On the Bottom Bouncer I put on a River2Sea Jerk Shad
in the Tennessee Shad color pattern. I figured I would run these cranks until
about an hour before dark, then I’d switch back to spinner rigs as the fish
began actively feeding. I came up on
the point I had caught the walleye on earlier in the morning, just as soon as my baits made their way over,
the planer board jumped back with vengeance! I stopped the boat as my heart
jumped out of my chest, this was either a snag or a big fish. I began reeling in, and the line tugged back,
this was a fish, and if it’s a walleye it’s the biggest one I’ve caught in this
lake. I get the planer board to the
boat, and as I’m unhooking it from my line, the line goes slack, I had lost the
fish. This is why I needed a partner on this day, running planers is fun and
worthwhile, but a trophy fish will not wait for you to unclip your board, you
need a second man to do that while you’re keeping the line taught.
Annoyed with
losing a good fish, I put the lines back out and continued trolling. No other bites came from the cranks after
trolling for nearly an hour or two. As
dark was approaching I grabbed the spinner rig rods and put them back out. My
crawlers were lively and everything seemed good. I hit the same point again that I had been
fishing all day, hoping the big one would bite again. First pass yielded nothing. The 2nd pass however I caught 2
more walleyes, both on the planer board. The bottom bouncer wasn’t the ticket
today. My third pass yielded a white bass, a crappie, and one more walleye.
I had caught my limit
for the day, so I decided I would pack it in.
I didn’t keep any of the fish as I don’t need any filets for the
freezer, a recent trip to Lake Erie has set me up for the year on walleye. So with nothing left to do I headed for the
ramp. The biggest walleye I caught was
just 16’’, so the size wasn’t great, but it was nice to have a successful day
on the water. If the big one that got
away was a walleye, then there is a monster out there. It was likely a catfish or bass, but I like
to think that there is an 8lb walleye willing to bite right off my favorite
point.
