Early Fall
Walleye Patterns
By Ron Anlauf
It’s good to
have options, the more the merrier. Options mean opportunities,
and right now there are real opportunities, especially if you’re a
serious walleye angler. The season is the reason, and thanks to
onset of fall there are more places to find more walleyes than at
any other time of the year.
Following
the fall turnover solid patterns start to set up that anglers can
really take advantage of, that is unless they’ve already given up.
In that case they’re just plain out of luck, but looking on the
bright side it does leave more for me and you, and is another
reason why fall walleye angling is so appealing.
The author reveals the secrets to finding big early season
walleyes like this
Gone are the
flotillas of boats, and all the pressure and commotion that does
with them. Now is the time for peace and quiet, just you and the
fish. That’s what a quality experience is made of, and why fall
angling is so appealing.
Another
appealing aspect is the fact that you’re quarry is more apt to be
in good mood, and less likely to be turned off with no hope of
getting your pole bent. Come fall the control knob on their
activity level is turned wide open, as hungry eyes gorge
themselves on whatever happens to get in the way. Most often
that’s small perch and minnows like shiners, and could also
include immature sunfish and crappies or tullibees or whitefish
depending on what’s available.
With that in
mind it pays to look for areas that are apt to hold plenty of bait
fish, and could include shallow rock piles or even weed flats.
One of the
earliest patterns to set up in the fall is a serious weed bite and
happens where and when you might least expect it. The fall period
is synonymous with fast breaks and hard bottoms but is really only
a rule of thumb, and in many cases it just doesn’t hold water,
especially early in the fall.
Early in the
fall period walleyes can often be found foraging heavily on
shallow weed flats, nowhere near anything thought of as classic
structure. As un-classic as it may sound weeds can hold plenty of
what a growing walleyes need, and that’s food. That food often
comes in the form of immature perch, baitfish and minnows, that
has been left in a rather precarious position. By late summer and
early fall a lot of that weed growth will lay down and die,
greatly reducing the number of hiding places and overexposing
baitfish and minnows where they are quickly introduced to old
marble eyes.
To find the
edge you can cruise back and forth and look with a good graph like
the Garmin 320C and try and find the deepest growing weeds. The
320C has a brilliant color screen that provides incredible daytime
viewing and has the definition to reveal weed types as well as any
baitfish or predators that happen to be in the neighborhood.
Another terrific investigative device is an underwater camera like
the new Marcum VS 560. The VS 560 will rotate 360 degrees inside
of it’s housing which will allow you to pan back and forth while
you slowly troll along, unlike fixed cameras that only shoot
straight ahead.
Team
Crestliner member Scott Fairbairn uses his Garmin electronics to
actually find fish buried in the weeds. He does so by turning down
the gain until the weed reading is virtually eliminated and only
the fish show up. It’s possible because the fish are more dense
than the weeds and will still mark with a gain set on a low
setting.
How you
approach a weed flat will depend on the weed type and density,
which may allow you to get right up into the middle of it, or be
restricted to working an edge. The heaviest stuff will likely keep
you pinned down on the deep edge, where you can either try
dragging a minnow behind a live bait rig or a jig tipped with a
minnow.
Either
method can get the job done and it’s a toss up as to what to start
with.
If the weeds
are sparse enough you might try drifting or trolling a light jig
tipped with a minnow. The technique is known a snap jigging and is
a combination of a slow troll and quick snap of the rod tip. The
idea is to get the jig and minnow to the bottom, slowly move ahead
with the boat and then snap the bait forward and let it settle
back down before initiating the next snap. The snap and resultant
flash of the bait will often trigger reluctant walleyes into
striking and can make all the difference in the world.
It’s hard to
beat an 1/8 to 1/4oz. jig like the Northland Tackle Eye-Ball
tipped with a medium sized shiner for snap jigging as the bait can
provide plenty of flash. The Eye-Ball has a little wire keeper and
a holding barb on the collar all of which helps to hold your bait
on the hook. If you can’t find shiners use what you can get your
hands on but it might be worth driving an extra mile or two to get
the “perfect” bait.
Other
acceptable minnows include larger fatheads and rainbow chubs or
dace. The key is balancing the bait to the size of the jig as the
really big minnows create too many problems, like a bait that
can’t get to the bottom, or a bait the fish can’t easily inhale.
The weed and snap jigging pattern has been made popular on lakes
like Winnibigoshish and Leech in Minnesota but is a real
possibility anywhere you find a combination of weeds and walleyes.
One thing to
keep in mind is the fact that a walleye is still a walleye and can
still be pretty darn fussy even when active. They can still be
spooked so it might pay to be a little stealthy. Also, their
activity levels may be closely in tune with dusk and dawn so be
prepared to start early or stay late, or you could miss the whole
thing. See you on the water.
Ron Anlauf
