Thanks for looking at my article! I've never caught a walleye before and would really like some help. The closest place that holds them is Pickwick Lake. MS, AL, and TN border. I go there every summer. Please offer some advice! Anything will help!!

I have never been to Pickwick, but some general walleye advice I can share. Walleye generally relate to the bottom. Wind blown points can be a place to start, and always remember that walleye are low light creatures and dawn and dusk are prime time. Drifting with a jig head and minnow or leech is a good tactic as well as trolling (where legal) with a spinner rig(also known as a walleye harness)and minnow, leech or crawler works well also, just remember to keep your bait near the bottom. Soft plastics can be substituted for live bait with either of these methods. Pay particular attention to any area where the bottom transitions from mud to gravel, gavel to rock etc. A light chop on the water is usually a good thing also. Hope this helps and if you have questions, feel free to PM me. Tom

Thanks for the tips! About what size jighead? Will a 3/8oz work?

I have never used a jighead bigger than 1/8 oz when fishing for walleye, and a #2 or #4 hook is about right unless the 'eyes are really big. Tom

On a lake, 1/8 oz is perfect. If you are jigging a river or areas with heavy current or wind, you may need more weight to keep your line vertical and still be able to feel the bottom. Other good tactics for walleye are drifting rock/gravel areas with Lindy rigs and a crawler, leech or minnow. You can also suspend a crawler, leech and minnow with a slip bobber 2' off the bottom and cast towards a weedline on an inside or outside bend, edges of reefs, sunken islands, etc. As Tom mentioned, pay close attention to transition points and look for bottom structure.

Talk about timely! Watched the club TV show yesterday and it was about walleye fishing! Another good tactic for heavy current is a river rig which allows the bait to float freely but holds the line vertical. A bottom bouncer will do the same thing. I only gave lake advice in my original reply. Tom

Don't forget about crankbaits. They can be trolled or cast to shallow structure like the wind blown points mentioned earlier. Shad shaped baits like the Rapala Shad Rap work well for both casting and trolling. The size will depend on how deep the fish are holding. A #5 works well for fish holding shallow, say less than 10' for deeper fish you would be better off with an #8 or #9. My favorite method is using a three way rig pulling a #9 Original floating Rap in Silver/ Black. There are of course many more ways to fish walleyes but these I like to try first because they cover water fast, when I find the biters I generally try a more passive approach like jigging or Lindy rigging which is much the same as Carolina rigging for bass but much slower and using a live bait rig.
Have fun and tight lines to ya.

First question is from shore or boat? So I will try to keep it to what works for both. Casting crawler harnesses cranks or one of my favorites is Berkley hollow bells 3 inches. Crawler harnesses #5 or 6 Colorado blade 6 or 7 beads weight depends on depth of water and retrieval speed. Cranks don’t be afraid to go big an 18 inch fish can eat 4 inch bait no problem. I like # 11 and 13 Rapala husky jerks and 700 Reef Runners for shallow water. The Rapala deep tail dancers 20 foot and 30 foot, Rapala Troll to minnow, and 800 Reef Runners for deep water 30 plus. Hollow bells can be adjusted by the weight on the hook. Collars are good don’t limit yourself to blue and chrome or black and chrome on the cranks or green, gold, silver, and copper on the blades these collars work but so do pinks, purples, reds, white ect.

 One thing I feel is important to remember is most of the time feeding walleye are suspended off the bottom and they like to come up for their meal. Staying about 5 feet above feeding fish is a good idea pending water clarity. Try retrieving shallow to deep across transitions waters with weed beds to rock or gravel is a plus. It seems that morning evening and night are the best time. I tend to be aggressive but I have found that it works well were I fish. You may have to scale down in size but give it a try first the fish will tell you if it’s not working that day.

 There are two posts that I know have a lot of info in them Inline planer boards and diving devices and Trolling for walleyes

Tony

Walleye Hunter has said it best it is a MUST to stay above these fish our they will never see your bait; if your marking fish and not catching fish then your either too low or you need to go find feeding fish, fish on the bottom are not typically feeding and I have seen it where even a group of suspended fish were just not hungry. Thats not to say you can't catch the fish on the bottom, I will always run a bait on or near the bottom when fishing a tourney, that is were most of my money fish come from.

Good Luck All  We are Getting Close!!

slip bobber and a plain hook with a minnow works well ,set about 1ft to 1 1/2 ft off bottom. don't forget the weeds. and don't over look shallow water, have caught nice fish in 3ft to 8ft of water.
also try tail hooking the minnow. wish you lots of luck

Posted By memphisfish on 25 Feb 2011 06:58 PM
Thanks for looking at my article! I've never caught a walleye before and would really like some help. The closest place that holds them is Pickwick Lake. MS, AL, and TN border. I go there every summer. Please offer some advice! Anything will help!!

Are you sure that there's Walleye in there?  My relatives have been fishing the lake for decades and they've sent me photos of what they've caught.  Saw some pictures of some nice Sauger, Striped and White Bass, Paddlefish, and Smallmouth Bass, but no Walleye.  I'm pretty sure that if they were in there, my relatives would have caught one by now.

Anyway, Sauger fishing isn't that much different that Walleye fishing.  Maybe you should research that, as well.

HA HA Fisher, that is a very important aspect of fishing for them, good point. Well now that the year has gone by how did we all do? I fished primarilly the Huron,Lorain/Sheffield area of Erie and had a pretty good season on both Perch and Walleye. Did not get out as much as I would have liked to, weather and timing had a lot to do with that. Now its steelhead time,

Good Luck All!

Rseltz,
I fish primarily the Huron to Cleveland area of Lake Erie. I didn’t get out much myself. My new profile picture says it all that is my one year old son and I this summer; he was only six months old at the time. When I did get out we did real good trolling with the small inline boards. No Dipsy divers this year. Next year I am setting the boat up with Cisco planer board reels off the out rigger mounts and Amish Outfitters Amish Outfitters plastic planer boards. They pull hard getting the lines out far.

Have a good winter
Tony
 

Hey eyehunter we ought to hook up and coral some fish this season, fishing Catawba Island area from 5/4 -5/10 for a big toruney but I will have my boat ready to rock after that. Have been out on a few perch trips this spring during the early warm up in March did ok real nice fish.

Hows that boy doing?? Does he have is first set up yet!!

As Always GLA! and have a SAFE season.