Fantastic Tactics Produce Fantasy Walleyes

Trolling often works best with an artificial lure that easily wobbles in current; use the current’s natural assistance to your advantage. Lengthen the dropper slightly to accommodate the diving depth of the lure. If you still snag, shorten the leader slightly to prevent the lure from diving and snagging bottom. Note whether fish prefer an upstream, aggressive wobble; a subtle hover; or even trolling downcurrent—it almost always makes a difference.

Another Great Lakes three-way tactic is adding a deep-diving crankbait to one of the rings with about a two-foot section of 12-pound mono, and to another ring a flutterspoon on a three-foot leader of the same pound test. A deep-diving crankbait easily pulls the flutterspoon down with it into the strike zone, doubling the attracting power—and your odds. Experiment with different crankbait sizes and designs to target specific depths.

Basin Tactics

Once spawning is complete, most walleyes school outside the river mouth, suspending and roaming the open basin and zeroing in on local baitfish opportunities. The challenge of catching suspended fish in basins is locating them. Walleyes may suspend nearly anywhere in the water column, depending on light penetration, water temperature, depth of forage, walleye activity, and current created by waves.

As a rule, walleyes start off the day near bottom. As they become active, they tend to rise in the water column, looking for food. Under the right conditions, walleyes may move to within a few inches of the surface. With a basic understanding of open-water walleye behavior, coupled with some practice and experience, most anglers are capable of learning the open-water game quite quickly.

In-line planer boards have emerged as the most popular presentation for open-water walleyes. Due to the typically clear water, suspended walleyes tend to shift one way or the other away from the path of a boat. A planer board allows you to position your baits over fish without spooking them, so they’re often willing to take the bait trailing behind the board.

Planers attach to your line via a release mechanism, although most walleye anglers opt to clamp them tightly on the line and remove them by hand as they fight in a fish. They work well with a variety of lures, ranging from spoons to crankbaits to spinner-crawler harnesses, at a range of trolling speeds from 4 or 5 mph to less than 1 mph, particularly in cold water.

As you slowly troll forward, let out your lure and line—typically 10-pound monofilament—a desired distance. If fish are relatively shallow—less than 25 feet—unweighted or diving lures should reach them. If they’re deeper, let out about 50 feet of line and pinch on a snapweight ranging from about 1/2 to 3 ounces. Then let out sufficient additional line to position your lure at a target depth, based on trolling speed. A metered trolling reel and a 71⁄2- to 9-foot long-handled trolling rod provide the best combination of repeatable accuracy and control.

Now attach the planer board to your line via a set of pinch releases, lower it into the water, and feed it out under line tension, or reel clicker tension, to send the board out a desired distance (typically 50 to 130 feet) to the side of the boat, spreading and trailing your line and lure behind it. When it reaches the desired spread distance, engage your reel and place the rod in a holder.

Proceed to set out additional setups, forming a wedge-shaped array spread to either side of the boat. Target a specific known productive depth or spread lures throughout the depths until you locate fish. Troll forward, typically downwind, incorporating lazy turns to impart speed changes to lures. Note the presence and depth of suspended fish on your electronics, and reset lines as necessary to reach them.