Late Summer Walleyes

5  Tips to Catch Walleye In the Late Summer and Early Fall     

1. Go to the Breaks: Always look to the steep breaks on humps and points when looking for walleyes. Walleyes will hold to these in the late summer and fall more so than any other time of year, as baitfish fall into the basin, walleyes can hunt for them with less effort if they have a wall to pin them against. Also, the distance they have to roam up and down is shorter on a steep break versus a gradual break.

2. Spool New Line: Lighter line or thinner diameter line is important in the fall when fishing deep, it cuts the water so that your lure or Northland Fire-Ball jig head can sink faster. Low stretch is as important as the diameter for good positive hook sets when fishing deeper water in the fall.

3. Get Underwater Eyes: This time of year, some lakes turnover. This is when warm water sinks, bringing oxygen down deeper, which happens when the surface-water cools. Baitfish follow the warm water down and walleyes will follow the baitfish. It is important to have a good electronics. With my Humminbird 1197c SI, I can mark fish at any depth, even 30, 40, 50 feet or even deeper.

I can use Side Imaging to find bottom-hugging walleyes at the base of the break, that sometimes a vertical sonar will not show them. Down view mode is just as valuable of a tool because it shows what is there like an ongoing photo. Without good electronics you are fishing blind.

4. Stock Up On Heavy Jigs: In the fall, load up on Northland Fire-Ball Jigs with heavier sizes like 3/8s and 1/2 ounce you can stay vertical on the walleyes always important to be on the bottom, jig with a sweeping motion, pause, and then jig again. When you raise the jig head to jig the next time be ready to set the hook.

Early in the fall, sharper movements such as rip jigging is a good way to start out as you catch the active fish out of the school try a slower rising fall if the action slows down. Experiment with colors: parakeet or sunrise colors or super glo red are some of my favorites when fishing clear to lightly stained lakes. Red glo, fire tiger, gold or silver are what I go to when fishing on darker stained lakes.

5.Choose the Right Minnow: One thing to remember when fall comes around is that most of the yearly hatches of perch, cisco, suckers, etc. are larger than before. Most of the minnows in the lake, in fact, are larger this time of year. This is what the walleyes are keying in, bigger minnows.

Generally, I like to use, 3- to 4-inch minnows for jigging, 5- to 6-inch minnows for rigging. Red tails, Rainbows, Large Fat Heads or Pearl Dace, Creek Chubs, Sucker Minnows, Silver or golden Shiners, are all good.

Hook the minnow thru the mouth, out the top of the nose when using a Northland Fire-Ball Jig, this allows the minnow to breath and swim along with your jig. If you jig aggressively, go further back in the mouth and out through the middle of the skull. When you are jigging aggressive, the minnow doesn’t need to be alive.

Adding a stinger hook will help if you get short strikes. When you are using a live bait rig, such as a Northland Roach Rig, go in the mouth also but closer in the mouth and out thru the nose. Unlike a jig you are just dragging it so you want your minnow to be super healthy.

I always use my 1404 Frabill Min-O-Life portable bait station with bubblier. An active minnow gets a bite faster. When you get a bite on large minnow and Northland Fire-Ball Jig, pause for a second and then do a slow sweep into a hook set. This allows the walleye to get a better grip on the minnow and if you just do a quick jerk you will lose your bait and miss the fish. When using the Northland Roach Rig, keep the bail open on your reel, hold it with your finger and when you get a bite let go and feed the line for 10 to 15 seconds. If you miss a fish feed it longer next time. If you are deep hooking the fish lessens the time you feed the line out.

Good Luck this fall! We will see you on the water

Brian “Bro” Brosdahl