Season of
Change
By Ron Anlauf
The month of May can bring
about big changes; changes in exactly where you might expect to
find early season walleyes and just how active they’ll be. The
controlling factor is the predominant weather and really is a
wild card that can very greatly from year to year. Warm weather
early on can give the open water season a jump start and push
walleyes into early summer patterns much more quickly than
normal. On the other hand persistent cold weather that never
seems to let up can hold off normal seasonal changes and keep
fish in a state of limbo, delaying what could have and maybe
should have been.
When
it comes to the early season, warm is much more preferable to
cold and is a biological matter. Fish are susceptible to their
environment and water temperature directly effects their
metabolism. Warming temps increase activity levels and can
result in more fish that spend more time actively feeding, and
is exactly the way you want to find them. Colder temps can stall
out the normal progression, and restrict the amount of time that
fish need to spend filling their bellies. They simply don’t need
as much sustenance to survive in colder water.
Ron Anlauf
used a summer technique to nail this early season walleye
The unusually cold and
downright miserable weather we experienced early in ‘04 put a
real damper on things and held off the good action that normally
occurs late in May until late June and even into early July.
Unfortunately for many anglers they had already thrown in the
towel, and completely missed the good action that finally
arrived. Those that stuck it out found out that the good stuff
occurred a month or more later than normal, but it did happen
and was worth being there to take advantage of the situation.
Understanding how fish are affected by their environment can go
a long way towards putting together a successful game plan and
should have a definite affect on what you do and where you do
it. Colder conditions call for solid early season presentations
including rigging and jigging in typical early season hangouts
like gravel shoals, rocky bars, sand flats and even weed beds.
The longer cold conditions persist the longer early season
patterns should be expected to produce. A late spring
accompanied by consistent cold weather can mean light lining a
jig over a shallow gravel bar, or dragging a live bait rig along
a shallow weed line, and doing so much later than you might
expect.
Warming trends can quickly shut
down good early season patterns and trigger the early summer
variety, like pulling spinners on deeper structure. Working
deeper break lines with a spinner and crawler is a terrific
early summer presentation, and may be called up from the minors
much sooner than expected. Off shore humps and deep shoreline
points can load up with fish and a spinner drug right past their
noses could be the hottest thing going, depending on the
conditions. Water temperature holds the key to a consistent
spinner bite with fifty-five degrees and above being a good rule
of thumb.
Although gauges that read
surface temps can give you an idea, they really can’t provide
the information that’s required. For example; warm calm days can
see surface temps soar into the lukewarm range but in no way
indicates the temps at ‘eye level. The Marcum VS560 can be a big
help with getting an accurate read as it’s an underwater camera
that can produce both depth and temperature readings at camera
level. Simply drop the camera overboard and let it sink to the
level of the fish and watch the display for the current
readings. Besides depth and temperature you may also see what
you’re after, or find out that you’re in the wrong neighborhood.
Spinners with multi-hook
harnesses like Northland’s Rainbow series can be extremely
effective early in the season, if we’ve had the proper warm-up.
Thread on a big fat crawler and get going and see if there are
any takers. Another option (if water temps aren’t quite there
yet) is to use a single hook harness and a minnow, like a
rainbow chub. The technique combines the early season appeal of
a minnow with the early summer attraction of a spinner. It also
has the potential to produce big fish, and is an added bonus of
using a chub.
Speed can be absolutely
critical when using spinner and live bait combinations,
especially early in the season. Too slow and you’re bait will be
dragging on the bottom, too fast and you may get ahead of a
walleye’s activity level. Today’s G.P.S. units like the 172C
from Garmin, can produce extremely accurate speed information
and help you fine tune your technique. Another rule of thumb in
regards to speed is stay within a “safe” range of maybe one to
one and a half mph.
Getting a handle on what’s
happening in a walleye’s world is the key to understanding “the
why” and can shorten up the time spent between hookups. The
thing is if you don’t take it all into consideration you might
fall behind (or even get ahead) of ’ol marble eyes, and that’s
no way to get your pole bent. See you on the water.
Ron Anlauf
