A thorough understanding of walleye behavior remains the basis upon which successful walleye fishing rests. Without understanding the basic nature of this fish, it’s difficult to consistently find it. And even if you can find walleyes, without an idea how they react within their environment, choosing an appropriate presentation method is difficult.

Through 25 years of publishing articles about walleyes, we have often addressed the nature of this beast. Some of our assumptions, though, have always been subjective, because verifying through water exactly what’s happening below is always difficult. That’s all beginning to change with the advent of the underwater camera and the recent revolution in making it easy to use.

Most of what we’ve assumed and taught has really been pretty right on. But I don’t care where or how you fish for walleyes, much less when, there’s always something new to add to the puzzle when you factor in viewing with a camera. I, for example, stood slightly embarrassed last winter, when for the first time I viewed an underwater hump that I’ve been fishing at first-ice for almost 20 years. I would have bet anyone $10,000 that I knew the exact make-up of the hump after running over it hundreds of times with sonar in open water, and sitting over the spot with sonar for eons on ice.

I thought the bottom was marl and scattered rock, but there isn’t a rock on the hump. What I interpreted via sonar reading to be rocks actually are curious dents in a marl bottom littered with clam shell fragments. Heavy patches of shell fragment “read” as rocks. Sandy marl on top of the hump becomes soft puffy bottom along the drop-off. This zone remains a key congregating point for baitfish and walleyes during the twilight periods.

Sure enough, too, the perch on the flat and along the edge are active until just about the witching hour, when suddenly they hunker along the bottom. Perch don’t see well in dim light. Sure enough, too, as walleyes, with their superior dim-light vision, wander through, they flush these perch, which scatter in a disoriented state, usually well up off the bottom, making them fairly easy forage for walleyes. At dark, ciscoes also begin to wader suspended over these flats, whereas they rarely do so during the day. Too many anglers keep their baits too close to the bottom during these key periods.

And on and on, the discoveries continue. Used to think the walleyes I caught while longlining after dark along emerging weedbeds during spring probably migrated shallow after dark. Not always. Runs along these edges with a camera during the day consistently reveal walleyes tucked in tight to the weeds. Most of the fish aren’t active, but along almost every edge at least a fish or two usually are poking around. Again, too many anglers spend all their time fishing deep during the day when we often should be fishing those shallow edges, with, say a jig and a minnow, scratching a fish here and a fish there.

Camera prices have dropped from original highs of over $1,000 to around $489 for the current version of the Nature Vision Aqua Vu, which has proven to be the easiest camera for a mobile angler to use from among the current camera crop. The Aqua Vu viewing screen is enclosed within a plastic viewing case, which holds the battery and serves as a wrap station for the cable that lowers the camera head. Perhaps, however, a camera like the Humminbird Fish Eye, with it’s viewing screen separate from the camera, the cable and camera head, and power source would be more applicable to how you fish.

Underwater cameras are all about solving mysteries, inspiring curiosity, and increasing fishing fun. Look for several articles in the coming year within In-Fisherman and the Walleye In-Sider, detailing other ways walleyes relate to their environment as revealed by camera viewing.

COMPANY CONTACTS: Humminbird (Fish Eye), 800/633-1468; Nature Vision (Aqua Vu), 218/825-0733.