Drifting a productive way to fish for walleye

We might as well start this year’s column with one of the first major sport fish to come in season: walleye.

Walleye, also known as pickerel, is one of the most popular and tasty fish to be found. Although their numbers have dwindled in some Kawartha Lakes because of zebra muscles, global warming, large bass populations fighting for feed and just plain overfishing – there are still a few to be had.

You can troll, cast, drift, jig and still fish with good results.

Because of their big marble eyes, they have been considered a low light, dusk and dawn feeder. Traditionally, that’s when anglers classically fish for them – early in the morning or late in the evening.

Another good bet is a heavy overcast day or even a sunny day with a decent “chop” on the water. But, if the only time you can go fishing is a bright, calm, hot summer day – you still have a good chance of bagging one, if done correctly.

On those bright, sunny, calm days try tying on a good sized, minnow tipped, banana shaped jig and driving it right down through the thick weeds where Mr. Walleye is probably hiding. Try anchoring just beside the deep edge of a large weed bed and toss a plain hooked minnow in with a short leader.

For best results the minnow should be about 3-inch long hooked just slightly below the dorsal fin so it can swim freely with just enough split shot that it doesn’t surface. If the minnow does expire, you can transfer it to a jig and work the lure.

On low light or overcast days trolling is a good bet. You can cover a lot more lake that way and your lure is in the water 99.9 per cent of the time. Remember, when you’re travelling from spot to spot and not trolling, you’re not fishing.

Trolling is best done with a 4-inch blue Rapala type lure (or similar) going dead slow. This is the trick – troll slowly. If you can’t get your boat down to about 1 km/h you can try back trolling or easer still, tie a bucket or large pail behind your boat to slow it down. Again, this type of trolling is best done during low light conditions or on a cloudy day when there is a slight chop on the lake.

Drifting is the lazy man’s, but productive way to fish for walleye.

Position you boat according to the wind so the wind does all the work, drifting across loose weed beds, points, inlets and structures of varying depths. A minnow tipped jig, worm harness or crayfish work good for this presentation. A “scented bait” tipped jig is a good runner up but you have to jig it regularly.

You may try casting with every appropriate lure in your tackle box and if that doesn’t work, you can always go back to live bait. Check the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry website to see when walleye opens in your area.

Happy Fishing!