Primary Strategies for Fishing Natural Lakes in Summer

Summer strategies for locating walleyes in these popular lakes—similar to natural lakes in many midwestern states and Canadian provinces—revolve around weededges. Boggs prefers cabbage and coontail, where the deep edge gives way to hard bottom at about 15 to 20 feet. This may be related to his success in those areas, and the fact that he runs deep weededges with his electronics and doesn’t stop until he sees fish.

“If walleyes are belly-to-bottom in the sandgrass, they don’t show up, even though they may be on the deep cabbage weededge,” he says. Since they’re not visible unless they come off the bottom to feed, Boggs continues looking for fish and moves on. “It’s a confidence thing,” he says. Perch and shiners are the main forage, and walleyes hold nearby.

Boggs also depends on his electronics to display bottom hardness, and when he locates gravel or clam beds, that’s his starting spot adjacent to the deep weeds. “It’s magic and has worked on dozens of lakes for 20 years,” he says.

When the wind blows, Boggs always fishes the windy sides of points or structures. Islands or major points close to the midlake basin are favorites when the wind blows. The bait moves in and out as the wind sways the weeds, and walleyes take advantage. “Any little cuts, dips, or tips of weededges concentrate fish,” Boggs says.

Boggs seeks the comfort zone for walleyes on each lake. Once he catches fish, he attempts to duplicate the pattern (depth, wind, weeds, bottom) as he checks other spots. He has tried to catch fish away from the deep weededge—fish holding on the first break or suspended out from that break—but has had limited success. “Someday, I’ll troll through them, but when they’re biting on the edge, why bother?” he says.

Summer strategies include a particular rigging technique with minnows. “I Lindy Rig with tail-hooked minnows,” Boggs says. This simple setup consists of a 3/8-ounce sinker, a barrel swivel, a 40-inch snell of 6- or 8-pound mono, a #4 Gamakatsu hook, and a minnow hooked between the back fin and the tail. Driving a Lund with a Mercury, Boggs either backtrolls with the main outboard or uses his electric trolling motor to hover over fish. He drifts through them, then back over them several times until they bite, using a marker or following his plot trail and a GPS icon reference to stay on the spot.

On lakes with darker water or in calm conditions, Boggs camps on his bowmount electric motor and pitches tiny jigs into the weeds—sometimes regular jigs, sometimes weedless Northland Weed-Weasels. He tips his jigs with livebait, but he finds that a black jighead with a 4-inch red shad PowerBait worm sometimes is better than livebait. When casting inside weedbeds, Boggs looks for pockets and holes; he likes longer open lanes for keeping his jig in the strike zone.

Summer weed and wind strategies for this respected guide (218/963-4410) can be a winning strategy in hundreds of natural lakes throughout the walleye belt.