Walleye Location & Behavior in Reservoirs

Reservoirs are manmade impoundments of free-flowing rivers, flooding and altering the habitat and character of the original system. Deep sections typically feature little current, appearing more like lakes. Inlet portions typically experience greater flow and function a bit more like rivers, or at least river-lake hybrids. Walleyes running upriver to spawn react like river fish. Those same fish using main-lake areas later in the year function more like lake dwellers, for a while anyway, until they migrate again, triggered by seasonal urges, rising or falling water, forage movement, or some other mysterious combination of factors.

In most cases, walleyes in reservoirs are movers, far more than most fish in natural lakes, unless the lakes are huge. Fish seasonally migrate long distances, first to suitable spawning areas, and later following and feeding on suspended baitfish like ciscoes, smelt, or shad. Conditions change daily, even hourly, as the wind shifts or builds. Today’s hot fishing spot may resemble the dead sea for the next week before suddenly exploding again in frenzied activity. Fish can be caught in deep water one day, shallow the next, and suspended the day after. Or on all three patterns within a few hours. Or not at all.

Don’t be dissuaded. The changeable nature of reservoir walleye fishing is at once both its greatest challenge and its largest reward. Some of the finest walleye fisheries in America are big reservoirs, and some of those offer mighty big fish. Lakes constructed where no lake stood before bring fishing opportunities to anglers across North America. And with walleyes today stocked in a wide variety of reservoir habitats, learning to recognize and adapt to the ever-changing environments of reservoirs brings great rewards and potential trophies, particularly outside the traditional walleye range.

Plateau—The plateau impoundments of the North and Central Plains are the undisputed kings of reservoir walleye fisheries, producing both numbers and size of fish. These are waters where you can pull up on a point and catch a bunch of walleyes, rather than singles. They’re deep, clear, expansive waters, miles wide and many miles long, that at times are swept by fierce prairie winds.

On large plateau reservoirs, walleyes typically run long distances up major rivers to spawn on rock and gravel swept by current. On small impoundments lacking rocky feeder rivers, the fish spawn along the rock face of riprap at the dam or causeways. Almost immediately, they begin moving back toward midlake, following developing forage opportunities. Shad, smelt, ciscoes, and suspended forage often key the big-fish bite, though perch and minnows at times provide backup munchables.

Long points extending into deep water intercept fish movement; and in calm conditions, livebait rigging or jigging, as deep as 20 to 40 feet, excels. When the wind blows, wave-generated shale mudlines form, and walleyes rush up shallow, into as little as 2 to 5 feet of water, to pounce on hapless, disoriented prey. Pitch cranks or jigs to the shoreline. In average conditions, use spinners-bottom bouncers-crawlers to quickly cover water, checking point after point, predominantly on the windy side of the lake, to locate active biters.

Fluctuating water levels from year to year form wave-pounded breaklines along shore; old breaklines from low-water years, now flooded, often key fish activity at uniform depths around the lake. Fluctuating water often prevents the development of much rooted weedgrowth, although high water floods terrestrial grass and standing timber, providing a shallow cover option for gamefish and baitfish.