Cover More Water for walleyes by Bob jensen Cover More Water for walleyes As summer progresses, especially on larger bodies of water, it’s an advantage to move quickly and cover large areas in search of walleyes. In small lakes, there aren’t as many places for walleyes to be holding, and often they will be near something on the bottom. In these instances, working live bait rigs or jigs with a more traditional slow presentation will be good. But when you’re fishing big water, you need to keep moving until the fish are found.

Here’s how you do it. walleyes are often thought of as a fish that hugs the bottom, and in many bodies of water that is true. But there are plenty of places where walleyes feed on baitfish that suspend, and in the summer the walleyes will be where the food is. If they are eating baitfish that are ten feet off the bottom in thirty feet of water, you need to have your bait close to the level where the walleyes are. You want to keep the bait a foot or two above them: walleyes are more likely to move up for a bait than down.

Another occurrence I’ve seen is when there is a bug hatch going on. These bugs hatch on the bottom of the lake and drift up to the lake’s surface. The walleyes will follow them up to the surface, eating the bugs as they move. In thirty feet of water, the fish could be ten feet below the surface. You need to keep a close eye on your sonar to detect these fish and their prey. On my Humminbird 798c it is possible to easily see the clouds of bugs or baitfish with marks nearby that you know are walleyes. Now that we’ve found the fish, we need to put a bait in front of them. When they’re suspended our lure choices are fewer.

Spinner rigs will be best in many situations. When the fish are close to the surface, they can get spooked by the boat going overhead. This is why planer boards are such an important part of the successful angler’s arsenal. Planer boards take your bait out away from the boat and enable an angler to avoid spooking the fish. Even in states like Minnesota that have a one line per angler law, planer boards will put more fish in the boat.

On a recent trip to Lake Mille Lacs in central Minnesota, rods with planer boards out produced rods without boards 6 to 1. That’s too much of an advantage to ignore. Off Shore planer boards with Tattle flags are easy to use and easy to read. Baitfish Spinner Harness’s come in a variety of outstanding colors. Everyone in the boat should try a different color until the best one is found.

Add a Gulp! crawler and start trolling. Just as color can be important, so can speed. Experiment with speeds, maybe start in the 1.3 mph range, and add or subtract weight between the spinner and planer board as you speed up or slow down to keep the bait in the fish zone. You may have heard that walleyes aren’t as active in the summer, but they’ll eat your bait if you put it in front of them. If you pull spinners behind planer boards in the summer, you’re going to put fish in the boat.

You can cast a crankbait and retrieve it straight back with no gimmicks and catch fish. You might catch more, however, by using a couple basic maneuvers that always seem to trigger walleyes.

Almost always, a trick or a trigger will catch more walleyes on any given day with crankbaits. Crankbaits appeal to the lateral line. Fish are attracted by the vibration of the built-in action of the lure. The trigger could be a pause, a rod pump, or a change in direction. But not every two feet, or even five feet. It’s more like a steady retrieve for eight to ten feet, then a pump and pause. Give the fish a good long look at the lure doing its thing before you pause or change directions.

The 4 basic crankbait retrieves are 1) steady; 2) steady pause steady; 3) rip pause rig pause; and 4) a constant pumping action. Dozens of variations are possible with those basic elements. Most days, you have to mix your retrieve to determine the right combination.

As with jigs, conditions can force certain types of crankbait retrieves. In low light conditions, at night, and in murky water fish can’t find the bait by seeing it. Then a steady retrieve is required. Fish have to feel a lure in those conditions. The more erratic the retrieve, the harder it is for walleyes to locate the lure.

For most crankbait retrieves rod position is between 8 o’clock and 9:30. Using a low rod is a good habit to get into. It forces you to stand, keeps more line out of the wind, and helps keep the bait down. With a low rod, pump down or pump horizontally to rip the lure for increased action and speed. When you pause with a crankbait, reel up slack as you push the rod tip toward the lure for a better position to feel a take.

Pumping a trolling rod is not a new technique. In fact, it's likely you have been using the method for years. The trick is doing it right. I have found, through experience that you should sweep your rod in a 30-degree arc with a pause at the end. The lure speeds up through the sweep and tells the fish that there is an escaping prey. Although more strikes might occur as the rod is returned to the original position because it is at the end of the fall.

The stunting that you might want to try is to use a deep lip crankbait like a number 9 Reef Runner and troll this in an area that has a soft bottom like mud or sand. The long bill will dive deep and stunt into the soft bottom. This will cause an erratic motion to the fish plus stir up the bottom and fish will move in to investigate. Again, the pause surge pause motion of your rod will encourage more strikes than just trolling with a dead rod.

Running depth is a factor that has many variables to consider. To determine where the fish are, look at your depth finder. You will want to put that lure in front of their face, not below them or too far above them, but right in the" strike zone". Usually the bigger the lip on the bait the deeper they dive, but don't overlook line diameter and length of line let out. If you want your bait to run at 8' depth then you will need to let out about 50' of 8lb test line. If you increase the diameter of the line the bait will ride higher in the water. If you increase speed the lure will dig deeper and then ride higher. Therefore, experiment with speed, line diameter and lip structure to see if the bait is getting down to the "strike zone".

Bait action again can be the triggering factor for many a finicky walleye, northern pike and bass. In cold clear water use a slow wobble and slow retrieve or trolling speed. In warmer water, tight action and increased speed will increase your chances of a larger fish. Check your action when you attach your lure to the line. Run the lure along side the boat to see if it has a tight or slow wobble. Many baits can be tuned to run true by bending the nose ring on the bait. This will allow the bait to run in the correct path behind the boat.

Be a change up person. Don't stick with one bait all the time. Try different colors, presentation, size, rattles and added weight. So many fishermen tend to stay with old methods that have worked before and fail to boat fish because they haven’t returned to school on crankbait retrievals.