Walleyes in Cover—The Hidden Dimension

Don’t talk about it. Don’t even think about it. Ignore it and it might just go away.

Fat chance. Whether you like it or not, walleyes use cover.

That’s right. Weeds. Wood. Walleyes. Don’t try to fight it. Get used to it. Learn to deal with it. Take advantage of it.

The Origin of Misconception

Back in the ‘50s when structure fishing theory was originally applied to walleyes, it was based on their location and behavior in rocky, sandy lakes of the northern US and Canada. In these lakes, self-sustaining populations of walleyes provided much of the predator base, often sharing habitat with pike, and sometimes with bass or muskies. In these waters, walleyes chiefly related to points, humps, reefs, and other main-lake areas lacking significant weedgrowth or submerged woodcover, but often having rock, boulders, rubble, or sand. Where other species were present, these species tended to dominate the weeds.

This perception of classic walleye behavior, perpetuated by a half century of reinforcement by the outdoor media, has led anglers to believe that walleyes don’t relate to weedcover or woodcover, regardless of the type and location of the lake, river, or reservoir. Not so.

While walleyes at times can and do relate to weeds and woodcover in these classic lakes, you really begin to see how walleyes use cover in waters where they have been stocked into unfamiliar environments. A classic example is a shallow weedy natural lake best suited for panfish, bass, and pike, where the walleye population is maintained by stocking. Such waters often lack any significant amount of deep offshore structure and rocky shoreline spawning areas, but just a soft basin surrounded by a perimeter of weeds.

Walleyes in such lakes have no choice but to adapt to a weedy environment, often exhibiting behavior more like bass than like walleyes. Clumps, inside edges, and outside weedlines become focal points of walleye activity throughout much of the year. At other times, walleyes may suspend in open water or roam across the basin.

In shallow, fertile, dark-water lakes lying in the central prairies or farm country, soft, featureless basins are typically rimmed by a slowly tapering shoreline that fades into the basin. Structure is lacking, unless you count rocky shorelines that dip into 2 to 4 feet of water—or shallow weedgrowth like reeds or pondweed that seldom exceeds 4 feet in depth due to the lack of sunlight penetration in the dark water. In such lakes, walleyes suspend much of the time, making occasional feeding forays into waist-deep weeds, or to trap baitfish against boulder shoreline lips.

In North Country flowages, typically created by damming lowland or forest areas, offshore structure often is minimal, although submerged river and creek channels may be present if siltation isn’t excessive. These impoundments, however, often feature stands of remnant wood in the form of fallen trees and flooded brush along shorelines, shallow cut stumps, fallen timber scattered across shallow flats, and tangles of errant wood washed into pockets and channel bends during periods of unusual current flow.

Walleyes often relate to such woodcover, even though it may be less than 10 or 12 feet deep, and may not necessarily adjoin a river channel or have other immediate access to deep water. Shallow (3- to 5-foot) weedgrowth or submerged woodcover in bays may be sufficient to hold walleyes throughout much of the open-water season.