Spawning Patterns of Great Lakes Walleyes

Connected Waters--Should walleyes pass upriver through connected lakes and harbors which widen out and diminish current, the effects of current on fish behavior also diminish. Walleyes now become lake fish again, subject to the same rules as lake fish elsewhere. It's tempting to say that the lake rules, and current drools, though even subtle current can have strong attracting power for walleyes, particularly at spawning time. Current oxygenates rocky shorelines and reefs, a prerequisite for a healthy hatch. It draws them shallow to feed at night. It affects the movements of suspended baitfish. So don't ignore the effects of current. Current becomes one of many factors in a lake habitat, though not necessarily the dominant one.

In a connected lake environment, water color and forage location are major factors at walleye spawning time. If the water is dingy, walleyes may remain shallow during the day, relating to weeds, dropoffs, rock points, reefs or manmade structure, particularly near potential spawning areas along rock shorelines and shoals. Fish may feed day or night, during both, or not much at all. These are big animals however, seldom suffering food shortage and used to easy meals on a regular basis. The odds are they'll continue to feed and be prone to bite if you present a lure or bait in front of them.

Match your tactics to structural conditions. Shallow rocks typically call for casting jigs or crankbaits. Dropoff edges beg for backtrolling with jigs and minnows, or livebait rigging with big chubs. Probe weededges with jigs. Remember, very big fish can be caught surprisingly shallow if the water color permits.

If the water's clear, however, walleyes may not be active during the day, at least not in the shallows or on the edges of prominent structure. Odds are that big walleyes will revert back to mid-basin suspended behavior, particularly if suspended forage like smelt also are in the area. Substantial schools of walleyes may feed across the basin of a connected lake during the day, and then move shallow onto rocky spawning areas at night. Open-water trolling with planer boards, presenting either crankbaits or spinner-crawler harnesses at the proper depth, may be your most effective daytime options. At night, when fish move shallower, longline trolling or casting crankbaits in the shallows may be your best bets.

Most of the larger walleyes typically move out of rivers and harbors in summer, though sufficiently large or deep connected lakes may retain some portion of the population, at least for awhile. But as the food moves, so do the big fish. Schools of big suspended typically linger in the basin immmediately adjacent to river mouths, providing good offshore fishing for a few days to a few weeks until eventually following their suspended forage out into the great beyond.

Adjacent Patterns-- While most Great Lakes walleye areas host river spawning populations, fish may also spawn on mainlake reefs or rocky shoreline where conditions are suitable. Nowhere is this pattern more common than on Lake Erie, where untold millions of walleyes spawn in the Western Basin atop shallow rock reefs a few miles off the Ohio shoreline. Many other fish swim up major rivers like the Detroit, Maumee, Sandusky, or Grand, spawning in traditional fashion atop shallow gravel shoals washed by current flow. Yet lake spawners comprise an important segment of the population.

Yet even with lake spawners, the same mass migration principles apply. In Erie, millions of fish from the Central and Eastern Basins make extended seasonal movements into the shallow Western Basin, flooding the area with a heavy concentration of big walleyes from late October thru June. When actively spawning for a short period in mid April, big walleyes move atop the reefs at night. Pitchin' jigs, crankbaits, blade baits or jigging spoons into 5 or 6 feet of water at night catches hawg females in amongst the hordes of smaller males. But during the bulk of the time prior to and after the spawn, those same big fish suspend somewhere in the adjacent basin, anywhere from belly to the bottom, to inches below the surface, depending on feeding activity and forage location. Thus anything from vertical jigging and livebait rigging, to casting weight forward spinners or flippin' harnesses, to open-water trolling with crankbaits or spinner-crawler harnesses can be fair game. Walleye depth and location dictates the most productive presentation--just like in summer, except concentrated in a limited area.

Wherever spawning walleyes gather--river, harbor, bay or adjacent open basin--the key concept is concentration. The old shootin' fish in a barrel syndrome. Put enough big fish in a small area and you perhaps don't need to be either lucky or good. Just get a hook in the water. It's hard not to get bit amidst the biggest bite of big fish in history.