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Cutting Big Water Down to Size
by Norb Wallock

Finding walleyes on big water can be a real challenge; So much so that it may scare many anglers away.

It’s easy to understand why, especially when you consider all of the options. Questions come to mind like; Just where do you start? And how do you start? Do you rig, jig, crank or bounce? Do you fish deep, shallow, or somewhere in-between ? With so much water to cover and so little time, there is no way you can do it all.

Rather than trying to cope with more than you can handle, anglers might be better served by taking a smaller slice, and concentrating their efforts on an amount that’s much more manageable.

A promising “slice” would include some shallow water, some deep, and a little in between. The shallow portion of your slice should contain good shallow structure like rock and gravel bars, reefs, and shorelines.

The mid section of your slice should include some flats, break lines, and off shore bars and humps, depending upon what’s available. The deeper portion of your slice might hold a deeper hump or two, or may be nothing more than an open water basin.

If you can, try to choose a slice that has all of the above in relatively close proximity. By working within a restricted area, you can save valuable time when you’re looking for fish, or have to make major move.

When sizing up your “slice”, there are some factors that need to be considered, including seasonal movements, ( like during the spawning period), water temperatures, clarity, and the available forage base.

The spawning cycle is a dominant factor in bringing walleyes shallow, early in the season. The need to breed draws walleyes to rocks, gravel, and incoming creeks and rivers, all of which will be located in relatively shallow water.

Shortly after the spawn, walleyes begin to satisfy another very basic need, which will ultimately determine where they can be found during the rest of the open water season, and that’s the need to feed. If you can find what they‘re feeding on, you will find the walleyes, period.

Food sources can range from perch to minnows and baitfish like shiners, shad, alewives, smelt and whitefish, to name a few, depending on the specific body of water. Walleyes will chow down on what’s available, but show a preference for the soft finned varieties. A presence of smelt, whitefish, or alewives, indicates a high probability that walleyes will spend a good deal of time suspended, as these baitfish varieties spend most of their lives suspended, out in the middle of nowhere.

Another important factor is water temperature, which can have an effect on seasonal movements and patterns. Early in the season, look for the warmest water to hold the most active fish. As the season progresses and water temps push into the low sixties and beyond, there’s generally a shallow to deep water migration, but not always.

An exception would be darker water, which can keep walleyes shallow for most of the open water season. Clearer water means more options, and walleyes can be found in many different places, all at the same time.

A couple of tools available to today’s angler that can help cut big water down to size, is a good map (LakeMaster Lake Maps) and a Global Positioning System (GPS). Good map’s, like those available from the folks at Hot Spots, can provide a wealth of information, and are usually superior to those that can be obtained through government sources. By combining a good map and a G.P.S., you can greatly reduce the time spent looking for specific areas, and let you spend more time fishing.

While the standard G.P.S. has given anglers a huge increase in accuracy (especially over the previous Loran C units), a new type of G.P.S. that utilizes the Wide Area Augmentation System, or W.A.S.S., has proven to be superior, and delivers an unmatched level of accuracy.

W.A.S.S. was developed by Raytheon for the F.A.A., and produces accuracy to within three meters, or less than nine feet. Anglers can also benefit from the new super accurate signal, as Raymarine has built several units equipped to receive the W.A.S.S. signal. Units like the Raychart 425, have W.A.S.S. capabilities, combined with another major advancement; Navionics.

Navionics allows users to display a high quality Hotspot’s Hot Map, which shows depth and contour lines, as well as underwater structure, and indicates exactly where you are in relation to it all. This function is a huge advantage, and will greatly reduce and even eliminate the confusion factor, as you will always know what structure you might be on, where you’re positioned, and just where you’re headed.

Once you’ve decided where you want to fish, how you fish is the next consideration. Certain presentations may be more effective at certain times of the year, and can lend themselves to specific situations.

Jigs and rigs are considered top early season producers, and are excellent choices when you have fish concentrated in specific areas, like on a point or hump. However, rigging and jigging may be much too slow when faced with thousands of acres of fishable water.

In that case, a quicker approach may be the answer, like trolling with crankbaits.

As you start to understand seasonal movements and locations, you can use that knowledge to explore more than a slice. In fact, you may reach the point where you can look at the whole pie and capitalize on peak conditions, tremendously increasing your overall success rate.

The thing is, you have to crawl before you can walk, and taking just a slice will help you do just that.

Norb Wallock
Click Here To view LakeMaster LakeMaps-Tools For The Pros

Red Pine Resort
Ice Fishing on Kabetogama.