Walleye Behavior in Natural Lakes

Fertile Prairie Waters—Shallow, featureless basins and dark, warm, fertile waters often support algae blooms in summer. Hardly seems like a walleye environment. It isn’t. Walleyes stocked into such waters may not find suitable spawning areas, but they do find abundant food and often grow fast and die young. Fish reach trophy size in a few years, but seldom live ten years or longer like their counterparts in other waters.

Prairie or farm country lakes are dishpan soup bowls, receiving nutrient-rich agricultural run-off. They brim with forage—minnows, shad, carp, bullheads, white bass, frogs, and salamanders—and walleyes have no trouble finding food. What they have trouble finding is classic structure; it doesn’t exist. The shoreline tapers to a wide open basin. Only along shore are rocks present—often placed as riprap by man—plus assorted shallow weeds, often reeds.

Walleyes attempt to spawn in such waters, moving toward current inlets at creeks or narrows, but the act generally goes unrewarded. These, too, are stocked waters. Most of the year, walleyes roam the open basin, either suspending or lying near bottom, feeding on suspended forage. Open-water trolling tactics incorporating planer boards and crankbaits often are best.

For the structure-minded angler, there’s still hope. Walleyes make occasional feeding forays into windblown shorelines and weedgrowth, following and trapping prey along shoreline rock walls that plunge to 3 or 4 feet, or in reed or cane beds, which the fish penetrate like shallow forests. Cast cranks or jigs along prominent shoreline rock lips, cast spinnerbaits through reedbeds, or pitch jig and leech combos into cane beds.

Night fishing is a viable alternative in such fisheries, as fish move toward the shoreline under cover of darkness. Fall is prime time as walleyes move shallow at night to intercept frogs or salamanders reentering the lake from adjacent swamps. Toss neutrally buoyant minnow-imitator crankbaits. Shorecast, wade, or fish from a boat.

Pseudo Rocky Patterns—The classic misconception regarding walleyes in natural lakes is that all you need do is find rocky structure falling into deep water to find fish, and that livebait rigs and jigs are all you need to catch ‘em. In some cases, yes. In others, such areas don’t even exist, and faster-moving tactics like crankbaits, spinner-bottom bouncer-crawler harnesses, or weedless jigs or spinnerbaits might be more appropriate. As always, read conditions, predict walleye location and behavior based on the available options, match your tactics to the conditions, and catch fish. Naturally.