Success Hangs In The Balance

“When I fish deep points or humps without many rocks, I prefer to vertically livebait rig the edges. But on deep reefs with loads of rocks and snags, slipbobbers don’t snag, providing a huge advantage for fishing key concentrations of walleyes.

“The secret to fishing reefs is to understand what each reef looks like. You need to form a mental picture of the reef to pick the best spot. It might be a little point or high spot, or the spot with the most rocks.

“I usually fish reef tops, scouting them with my electronics prior to fishing and throwing a floating marker to indicate the prime spot to fish. If you fish the edges of deep reefs, throw more buoys to provide a visual orientation. Fishing edges where fish spread out is harder to do than fishing the ultimate peak of the reef, because it’s difficult to keep a slipbobber positioned along the edge of a reef, although it can be done.

“I search the tops of 15-, 20-, 25-foot-deep reefs with my Lowrance X-16 to see the structure and determine where the fish are sitting. If you see fish, anchor. But you can’t see them all the time, because they may move down among the boulders. If a spot has potential, anchor upwind and give it a few good drifts.

“To set your depth prior to anchoring, simply drift over the top of the fish, attach a heavy weight (like an ice fishing depthfinder weight) to your lure, and send it to bottom. When the bobber plunges beneath the surface, pick up the line and slide the bobber stop upward. It might take a few adjustments, but eventually, get the bait to suspend a foot or so above bottom in the key spot, in perfect position to tempt walleyes.

“I use leeches on 1/32-ounce Northland Gum-Ball Jigs most of the time. Add enough split shot to the line several feet above the jig to get the bait down quickly, yet not so much as to overweight the float. In calm weather, you should be able to detect the bobber rise slightly when a walleye swims up and inhales the leech. In rough seas, you just have to wait for the bobber to go down.”

Give ‘Em The Slip

Mille Lacs anglers experiment with catching walleyes atop and along the edges of 24- to 34-foot-deep mudflats, and even suspended out to the sides of the mudflats.

Elsewhere, they can be fished over the tops of weedbeds, along the edges of bogs in flowages, and alongside flooded timber. Or drift them through eddies in rivers.

Admittedly, you can’t cover a lot of water quickly with a float, but you can definitely strain a small high-percentage spot.