The first thing “they” tell you—“they” being veteran anglers skilled at extracting useful information from unsuspecting fishermen—is not blatantly to ask another angler, “What did you catch ‘em on, and where?” That’s like demanding insider trading secrets; nice to have and highly profitable, but few folks are gonna spill their guts with that caliber of information, especially to some stranger. You’ll more likely get disinformation, or no response at all.

Instead, be more subtle and humble, beat around the bush a bit, offer a few compliments, and then skillfully sneak in a probe or two. Weasel your way into their confidence. “Nice fish. Bet they fought good. How deep did you catch ‘em?” Always a good first question—sort of generic and not too intrusive a threat.

Next: “Is that so?” Great. You now have a productive depth range. Relate (share) some of your own recent experiences, even if they’re not particularly productive, and then slide in, “What kinds of areas?” Don’t flat-out ask the exact location of their best spots, but try to get a handle on the types of areas that produced. You can find similar areas on your own.

If you can weasel that much out of your new best buddies, you earn a passing grade in psychology and have garnered some useful information. But don’t stop there. Try to improve your grade, and see how much water you can draw before the well dries up. It doesn’t hurt to make another cast; they just might bite.

“Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I suppose you caught ‘em mostly on . . . jigs . . . rigs . . . cranks . . . bouncers”—whatever you think might be logical for those depths and types of areas. If they agree with your apparent wisdom and prowess, you’re all set. If not, and they offer you some additional or unusual insights, you’re in. Set the hook.

“Oh, really! You caught ‘em on spoons . . . bladebaits . . . slip bobbers! Now that’s interesting. I wouldn’t a thought o’ that. Goofy fish. Did they bite best during the day, or just in the morning . . . evening . . . when the wind came up? Hmm, I suppose color made a difference?” And you’re picking their pockets even farther. By the time you’re done, you have a pretty good idea of what’s been working, where, when, how deep, and in what colors. Oughta be against the law. In some states, it probably is.

In a perfect world, everybody would get along, there’d be plenty of big fish to go around, and they’d always be biting. And folks would just share their information, and maybe even mark your lake map. In fact, if you want to be an optimist and try that route, don’t hold back; be the first to offer the most and hope for the best. Sometimes, however, you’re gonna get burned on that deal. And sometimes, when you really need to pull a rabbit out of your hat, you gotta weasel the competition—or perhaps even some poor unsuspecting angler who’s catching more and bigger fish than you are. In essence, all’s fair in love and walleyes. Remember, if you feel guilty afterwards, you can always release their fish.

Establishing Structure and Depth Patterns The Hard Way—Earning Them

If you have a shred of decency and a talent for fishing, you’ll also likely spend a good deal of time establishing and refining fishing patterns on your own. That’s the difference between ferreting out your own productive spots and methods, and weaseling them out of someone else.

Begin with a general premise: Search for seasonally appropriate areas, given what the body of water has to offer. In spring, walleyes head to rocks swept by current—spawning areas. Productive patterns usually revolve around shallow water, the first available drop-off outside such areas, or adjacent cover.

As postspawn walleyes begin dispersing from spawning sites, they filter back into the warming environment in search of food. Cover like weeds or wood may play a part, and if it’s available near spawning sites, check it out. If not, walleyes filter out into the main body of water, likely to primary structures within a few miles of spawning sites. If forage fish are present in the shallows, cover or the first drop-off to deep water likely will concentrate walleyes.

So will irregularities in the bottom. Once fish enter a seasonally appropriate area where food is available, they tend to gravitate into certain kinds of spots. Changes along the edge of the drop-off to deep water are a good example—points, corners, turns along a drop-off, an emerging weedline or timberline. So are clumps of heavier cover, or open pathways through dense cover. Something different.

This is the essence of structure-fishing theory. Change concentrates fish. Most folks equate it to changes in depth, easily visible on your depthfinder. True, those are among your most obvious options. But subtle changes also may be important, particularly when walleyes are shallow. Miniature rises and dips in the bottom, short clumps of emerging weeds, or a scattering of old timber may be more important than a fast drop to deep water, at least at certain times of the year.

As summer arrives, most aquatic environments bloom with forage opportunities, offering walleyes many locational options. They may use the first (primary) drop-off from major structural elements, the outer edges of shallow cover, the base of the drop-off where it meets the basin (if it’s not too deep); or they may roam across the basin, or suspend above the summer thermocline. In fact, all likely are simultaneous options. As a general rule, all the walleyes in a lake, river, or reservoir do not do the same thing at the same time, assuming that a wealth of food and locational options are available.

This concept bothers a lot of anglers. They prefer simplicity and singular patterns: “Go there. Do this.” But it’s seldom that easy. Walleyes have choices. So do you.

Summer usually offers a variety of fishing patterns at different depths, with different groups of walleyes becoming active at different times and under different conditions. In general, the shallowest patterns are most productive when light penetration is lowest. Sunset, night, and sunrise are obvious peak periods for checking out shallow rock piles, current inlets, and weedflats. Yet when the wind blows, waves break up light penetration, signalling similar prime feeding conditions. It’s another option for fishing relatively shallow.

Midmorning and early evening have modest sunlight penetration levels, and walleyes roaming primary drop-offs from major structures often are active under these conditions. Classic points, humps topping off above the thermocline (generally less than 30 feet), and the outside (deeper) edges of weeds or timber are classic choices.

Midday sunlight penetration is at peak levels, often shutting down shallow patterns and some middepth patterns in midsummer. It’s a good time to try the deep breakline meeting the basin or to troll open water for suspended fish. Sunlight penetration at depths just above the summer thermocline should be more to the fish’s liking. Recognizing different depth patterns and fishing them at appropriate times and conditions often key summer success.

With middepths being a primary focus in summer, structures needn’t be massively deep. In fact, tapering structures or areas of the lake bottom provide expanded areas of foraging opportunity at conducive depth levels, such as a large weedbed, or a sand-rock flat. Even so, changes along the edges of these areas, notably the primary drop-off to deep water, tend to key fish activity.

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.