WALLEYE TECHNIQUES; FISHING AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE!

It wasn’t that long ago that I started to seriously investigate new walleye techniques. When I started 99% of the fishermen that I knew were confident that there was no technique you could use from shore. They all said you couldn’t catch Alberta Walleye from shore with any consistency. When fishing from shore there simply were not any walleye techniques

In my opinion this was because jigs and worm rigs are not easily fished from shore.

Much like most of those anglers I most always used my boat when I went fishing for walleye.

One summer I made the decision to sell my old beater of a truck and upgrade to something a little more fuel efficient, prettier and just plain more comfortable. I decided on a brand new one. After I picked just the right one I learned there weren’t any of them at any local dealers and they couldn’t get one on a dealer transfer. They had to order it for me. This left me without a tow vehicle that summer. To make a long story short, I quickly became a shore angler.

I fished from shore for Northern Pike, that’s what shore fishermen did here. I never really thought about Walleye fishing from shore. The general consensus was that it is just a waste of time. Why would you go fish for Walleye from shore just to catch one fish if you were lucky was the thought about it then?

I found a real nice pike hole. It is a sort of bay that has an inlet canal flowing into the lake. There is a large shallow weed bed to the north, a sandy under water channel ranging from 12 to 26 feet deep flowing from the canal out to the main lake. There are submerged boulders and a rocky shore to the south west. There are a few small points and lots of varying water depth and scattered weeds throughout this area.

The lake itself is an irrigation reservoir. To maintain the water levels the flow of water through the inlet canal is constantly changing throughout the year. I was having great Northern Pike success for a few weeks. The incoming water was slow and the fish were grabbing everything I could toss at them.

As summer progressed and the temperature increased farmers and ranchers were using a lot more water. The water levels of the lake were going to drop off fast; the amount of water flowing into the lake had to increase. The speed of the water was so fast that my lures would hit the shore before I could reel them in. The speed of the in flowing water was making this little bay very murky and dark. The kind of water that walleye really like.

This is when my walleye techniques from shore started to show some consistency. I didn’t want to let my half hour drive go to waste, so I started to cast my crankbaits into the back water areas. I was casting pretty average 4 ½ inch Rapala crankbaits, blue in color. Before any pike even considered looking at my lure I must have landed 3 good size Walleye.

Each spot that I cast into was either right next to fairly still backwater or into the backwater itself. At each area I was have really good walleye success. Try different walleye techniques in the areas below for great success

From what I understand, the Walleye are sitting and waiting in the rocks and weed or other cover, when food swims by they are rushing out and eating it. There fore the walleye technique is to cast the lure and slowly retrieve it at the edge of the fast moving water.

The other success full spots were at #2, #3 and #4.

Each area was the same. I would cast my lure in the area and when I got into or near the backwater areas walleye would hit my crankbaits. I still was catching pike in these areas as well, but they were much fewer and far between.

After that I did more research and talked to people from other areas, Cranking for walleyes is a technique becoming more and more accepted and more popular all the time. There are many walleye specific plugs available in sporting goods stores these days.

I have since learned a number of walleye techniques from this very spot described here. I cast out jigs onto the sandy bottom and do an extremely slow retrieve. I bump the jig in a little bit at a time and if the water speed is slow enough that the jig can sit on bottom and not be pushed through the water I will let it sit and not move for thirty seconds to a minute. Many times the next movement of the jig will trigger a strike from a hungry Walleye.

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