Catching walleyes..

[SCUMFROG]

Is walleye fishing better at night? I don't fish for them that much. So I don't really know any thing about how to catch them. My brother-in-law always trolls for them. Is this the only way?

[Tonka Boy]

Scumfrog,

In my opinion, walleye fishing is better after dark. Not always, but most of the time.

As far as how to catch them, there are many, many ways. It is a proven fact that more walleyes are caught on jigs than any other method. It really depends on the situation. If they are schooled up tight to structure, I'll often opt for jigs. If they are roaming the flats and/or weed lines and tight to the bottom, I'll often troll lindys or equiv. If they are suspended, go for cranks.

Of course I've only touched the tip of the iceberg here. There are many subtle tricks that will improve your odds greatly. Experiment...they will come!

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Tonka Boy

[SCUMFROG]

Thanks. My son and I will be staying at the cabin for a week and I'd like for him to catch some nice ones. I will have to experiment to find what works the best.

[walleyejon]

Even the experts learn something new every time they go out, so the tip of the iceburg is an under*****ment. As far as fishing at night goes, the biggest factor is water clarity. Darker stained lakes typically do not have much if any night action. Clear lakes on the other hand, often have the best walleye fishing at night. A couple factors there are:
1. Walleyes have extremely light sensitive eyes, so in clear lakes, they like to come into the shallows after dark where their food lives. Not to say you can't catch them during the day in clear lakes, but it is usually easier to find them at night.
2. Most clear lakes are popular recreation lakes, and obviously the lack of boat traffic at night is a huge plus.

If the cabin your staying at is on a clear water lake, crankbaits along the shorelines is what I would start with after dark and or before sunup. A lot of times you can catch fish all night right from shore if you're not comfortable operating a boat in the dark. Have a great time, and we'll look forward to hearing how you did, and what you learned.

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Fish on gotta go--JON

[SCUMFROG]

Our lake is standed but I'm still going to try it at night. Just to see..

See you all in a week, I'm outa here.

[uffdapete]

Another factor would be if the perch are the primary forage base. Walleyes can see much better at night than perch. So if perch are the staple of your diet you're likely to wait until you have a huge advantage and just pick them off rather than expend energy chasing them around during the day. I've had very successful personal experience with that theory on more than one body of water.

[Rino]

I just finished a week of fishing with the family, I never left our cabin till after 9:00 pm and did quite well my best night I left the dock at 11:30 pm fished till 2:30 and boated 4 nice walleyes the largest was over 4 lbs. One other big advantage of fishing at night is that you will not catch Northerns at night (if you keep getting bitten off by pike)

[Chad711]

The last 2 nights I have limited out on a local lake. All fish have came in 5-8 feet of water, all after the sun dropped. Last night it was really cloudy, no moon and they were biting great last night. Had to leave by 11pm. All fish were nice eaters, 19" and 17". Did get one nice 23.5" too the other night. I can pretty much always catch them after dark, daytime is a differant story.

I use a floating Rap at night, it dives to about 4' so it works perfect.

[black max]

I allways fish for my eyes at dusk or dawn, and at night. During the day they really are tougher to catch unless you have a storm or windy conditions. Most of the time you can do really well when you get a sudden change in light,(storm,sunset,sunrise,strong wind moving in). I usually don't even waste my time trying to force feed them eyes in the day unless the water is really dark and they are day biters on that particular lake.

[Chad711]

Fished all day in Mille Lacs yesterday, didnt land a single Walleye. Just perch. Drove home to Bemidji, fished for 1 hour and had my limit. Nuff said!

[SCUMFROG]

Well I'm back. Vacation was ok, my dog had to have surgery so I had to come back down here. He's ok now. When we went back up on Wednesday. The may flies hacthed on your lake, I couldn't buy a fish to save my life. But by the weekend they came back on. And we did get some nice ones.

[can it be luck?]

Some lakes and rivers, mainly rivers are DAY BITE only. So depending on where your going, keep your options open. Heck, there's 24 hours in a day....Use them all!

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http://groups.msn.com/canitbeluck

[bigbucks]

I fish walleyes almost exclusively during the day up until dark. If it's a hot & dead calm day that's generally not a good combo. I seem to catch plenty of fish during the day with any wind, also excluding major cold fronts, although generally not as fast as a low light bite. I like to see what I'm doing & I don't like mosquitos. Other than in the spring when I primarily jig, I almost exclusively lindy rig, generally with a plain hook. Like most fishermen I do fish the low light periods ice fishing.