An In-Depth Look at Walleye Patterns

In fall, the disappearance of the thermocline reoxygenates the deepest water, creating a fairly consistent environment from top to bottom. Walleyes can be just about anywhere, and the location of food determines their likely patterns. If baitfish are shallow, then points, weedlines and reefs produce. If the bait drops down, then deep structure—30 to 50 feet and more—may be your best bet for a trophy. With diminished sunlight penetration in fall as the sun drops lower in the sky, patterns tend to be productive for longer periods, sometimes all day. Timing is not as big an issue, except perhaps for the shallowest patterns, which still tend to be be best at night, or under the brunt of the wind.

In the cold water of fall, steeper-dropping portions of structures tend to attract and hold most walleyes, contrary to sloping areas often being best in summer. Steep wall-like depth changes plummeting into the main basin often are the best bet in fall, although the base of the drop-off meeting the basin—structure—still tends to concentrate fish.

And in winter, patterns may be similar to those of fall, with the tendency for deeper patterns to outproduce shallow patterns most of the time in most environments. Obviously, local habitat plays a big part in what occurs; some waters have no deep patterns, because deep water doesn’t exist. But as a rule, middepth to deep patterns tend to produce the most walleyes—deep tips of shoreline points; perimeters of deep midlake humps; twists, turns and intersections in river or creek channels; edges of current in rivers. These are areas of change, in seasonally appropriate locations at likely depths.

Through it all, the principles of structure fishing tend to hold true most of the time. Once fish enter locations offering an attractive combination of forage, cover, depth, oxygen, temperature, and other conditions, they tend to linger until conditions worsen. As fish linger, they swim around and bump into areas of change, which tend to concentrate both forage fish and gamefish. These become high-percentage fishing locations. Drop-offs, points, corners, the edges of cover, transitions in bottom types or weedgrowth, current breaks—whatever is available. Walleyes relate to them. Your job is to decipher productive combinations of structural elements and apply appropriate presentations. That’s what fishing is all about.

If there is a misconception among anglers, it’s that change by itself attracts and concentrates fish. Not necessarily. A deep rocky hump may be beautiful structure, but holds no walleyes in spring when they’re miles up the lake, spawning in shallow water. Dead and decaying weedbeds hold no baitfish or walleyes in late fall, although green weeds do in summer. Shallow rock shorelines may hold no walleyes during the day but might draw them at night. And if the forage suspends—ciscoes, smelt, shad—schools of big walleyes might suspend miles offshore, far from anything resembling the traditional concept of structure fishing. Multiline trolling patterns likely would be your best bet.

In essence, fish are where you find them. They behave in a somewhat predictable fashion—right up until the point when they bewilder you with their disappearance or lack of cooperation. We can apply the principles of structure fishing to help find them, ferreting out their locations and times of peak activity, and then fine-tune probable presentations. That’s how a self-sufficient angler tackles the problem.

Of course, if you can create a shortcut to the solution by asking a few questions, well, that’s perfectly acceptable, too.

In the end, all fishermen likely are part ferret, part weasel. Only the percentages vary.