Walleye

[pchilli1]

Just a general question regarding walleye this time of year.

As the weather cools at night, do the patterns (i.e., location, feeding preferences) of walleye change? I fish the Ottawa river on Alllumette Island (this is where my cottage is located) and have yet to get out for eyes since the cooler weather has moved in. However, I am heading up this weekend and am looking for any tips you may have to offer.

Thanks fellas

[bassfighter]

We caught walleye even at noon till 2:00pm when the water was around 80 degrees, and we got skunked at night fishing when the water was cooler, and calm. Irregardless it was full moon or no moon.

Use a jig of different size depending on the depth and white or yellow 3-4 inch grub, slow down your presentation, extremely slow retrieve is the key, do not set your hook as soon as you feel some nibble, wait till they have a chance to swallow it. From my personal experience, the 4 lb bass or 4 lb walleye have larger mouth, and unless one is patient to wait till they completely absorb the bait, many will lose them while yanking their rod too soon. The pan fish normally grabbed your lure right away and you can feel their thug, they are not as smart as the larger fish.

Due to the warm water temp, the larger fish were not agreesive when you hooked into one, only when they got close to the boat, then I felt the fight. They even felt like you caught a chunk of weeds at times.

[walleyesummit]

Yes....however it can be drastic or minimal depending on how quickly the water temp changes.

On the Ottawa or any other river it can really depned on water levels as much as temperature, the combination of the 2 really encourage change. Rivers are less effected than lakes as the water dosen't stratify to the same extent. Look for a reverse migration back toward the spring spawning areas. Any combination of current, structure and bait will result in fish, but bait is the most important element.

Isolated pockets of green weeds can also be real productive if the majority of the weeds are gone. The probelm here is that they also attract "trash" fish like bass.

Also remeber that in a diverse system like the Ottawa there will be fish at different stages and relating to structure, cover, breaks and suspending all at the same time.

Shawn

[Wall-I-Guy]

Just had to log in for this one...

Isolated pockets of green weeds can also be real productive if the majority of the weeds are gone. The probelm here is that they also attract "trash" fish like bass.

Great chuckle...