An Alternative Walleye Reality

You see the common pattern elements: (1) Walleyes are shallower than many might expect; (2) at times they’re in areas well off the main lake; and (3) weedgrowth is present, although fish aren’t always right in it.

The Pattern on Other Waters

The same pattern plays forth on Canadian Shield waters, those classic Canadian waters set on granite, surrounded by the great forests of Canada. If you can find weeds inside big bays after fish have spawned in late May and into June, you usually have walleyes. I would say “you usually find walleyes,” except most anglers don’t find them because they have no idea to look for them.

In many cases, at least some walleyes hold near weeds all summer long, though they often move progressively farther into the main lake (or reservoir or river). Lac Seul has a well-known weed bite going most of the year, but never so pronounced as when fish first gather near weeds several weeks after spawning—and for the next month.

On any Shield water that has lake trout and walleyes, find weedgrowth in obvious bays off the main lake and you’re going to find walleyes. At times the weeds may be newly emerging cabbage or coontail on classic spots on drop-offs or on humps in major bays. Other times the growth is only in pockets off the main part of the major bays, far removed from the main lake.

In its time in the late 1970s, this was one of the most significant patterns for big walleyes on the Shield but known to only a handful of anglers. Hartley, Iowa, native Dave Henning and his father Ben taught me this pattern. On many of these lakes this pattern has been reduced for big fish because fishing pressure has taken its toll the last 25 years. These are fragile fisheries in their ability to grow and sustain big fish.

Meanwhile on Lake of the Woods, weedgrowth in many parts of the lake has been eliminated by rusty crayfish—so, areas where walleyes commonly gathered are now gone. Still, if you can just find weeds in areas away from giant main-lake areas, you can find the fish.

Two years back on the opening of muskie season in late June, I am fishing around an emergent patch of phragmites inside a small bay deep inside a larger bay. Close by I find a big bed of cabbage the crayfish haven’t gotten to yet. A cast over the bed produces a walleye that strikes my spinnerbait. Note: All those walleyes randomly caught by pike and muskie anglers casting to weedgrowth during June and into July are not a passing coincidence, so much as a significant indication of one of the most important walleye patterns of the calendar year.

You’re getting the idea—but now stretch the pattern to other waters. Try Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana; Oahe, South Dakota; Red Willow, Nebraska. For at least a time stretching into early summer, weedgrowth (or at times brush as a substitute) in creek arms and cuts in creek arms attract walleyes. Generally, it’s just one of several patterns unfolding, but at times it’s a major pattern.

Elsewhere, in river-run reservoirs like the pools on the Mississippi, a location pattern revolves around the same weedgrowth that attracts largemouths and smallmouths, along main-channel areas, in side channels, and occasionally in connected lakes.

The pattern also is prevalent on Great Lakes bays, from portions of the Bay of Quinte and the bays in the Henderson Harbor area of Lake Ontario, to parts of Saginaw Bay and spots on Lake Michigan, in giant bays off the main lake like Bays de Noc, portions of Green Bay, and bays in and around Sturgeon Bay, abutting Lake Michigan. Admittedly, in all these areas other patterns are developing too; but the weed-in-bay pattern can be a strong one, even though it often isn’t being fished. Actually, it is being fished in the Henderson Harbor area; I’m going to make the point later that perhaps it isn’t being fished right.

In classic natural lakes and reservoirs across the heart of the walleye belt, it’s the same basic story but with a lot more twists. Often it depends how good the walleye population is and how much weedgrowth is available— a more complicated story, with many different tentacles and changing patterns, requiring much more explanation than space allows; but in a moment I offer examples from one such walleye lake I’ve fished consistently for the last 8 years.

If you’re wondering about shallow, dark-water prairie lakes and reservoirs, just find weedgrowth, even at times only emergent weedgrowth like rushes and cane, and the fish are there. Usually in these fertile lakes this pattern doesn’t develop in backwater areas connected to the main lake, but right in the main lake.

About the timing: In reservoirs as far south as Red Willow, Nebraska, most years the connection is there by early May. In southern Minnesota fishing usually peaks by late May and often lasts several weeks into June, while on some portions of the Great Lakes the pattern is going by mid-May.

The Presentation Part of the Pattern

For the last 8 years I’ve fished this pattern on Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota, one of North America’s great walleye fisheries, where it starts by early June most years. On a good morning when you’re the first one onto some of the best weedbeds, two anglers might catch 30 fish, ranging mostly from 20 to 26 inches. The biggest fish I’ve caught here—about two a year—have all measured from 28 to 28.25 inches. It’s rare to catch fish smaller than 18 inches, but occasionally it happens. Last year smaller fish were fairly common, but I also caught a lot more fish than most years.

Some years only a few weed areas inside of bays hold fish. Last year anywhere you found weedgrowth away from shorelines there were walleyes for at least three weeks. Prime spots had fish for at least a month.

Each year is a little different on Mille Lacs. Typically, the fishing slows by the end of June. One year it only lasted about two weeks and the fishing was marginal. In another, when forage counts were extremely low, it lasted well into July.