Walleye Season Reflections

[Mike Walerak]

September is about the time of year that many walleye anglers put the boat away and pick up the shotgun or rifle.
I just wanted to start a topic on what worked well and the overall quality of fishing for the summer. I have heard form many folks the the late spring had some effect on the quality of the fishing.

For me, it has been a on again/off again summer. Had a few weeks of great action, then it went to a day by day basis. Jigs (both casted and drifted) took the majority of fish for my boat. I'd have to say it was an average summer for numbers of fish and below average for numbers of big fish.

How was everyone elses summer?
MW

[This message has been edited by Mike Walerak (edited 09-10-2004).]

[Borch]

Well I'm not even close to putting the boat away. But I've had a very good summer.

Most of my walleyes came shallow on crankbaits at night or more commonly in the middle of the day in less than 10 ft of water. I can count the walleyes I caught on live bait on one hand since the middle of June. Nothing huge this summer. A couple of 26.5"s, a 27.7" and a 28.5" fish with lots of 21-25" eyes caught.

Also some nice pike and pig smallies mixed in.

Here's hoping for some pigs this fall!

Borch

[Chris Haley]

Ice on the lake signals "time to put the boat away" to me!

[Big G]

My summer reflections consist of a few things.

1) I learned where/how/and most importantly WHY I can catch 70 walleyes on LOTW in a few hours in late June!!!

2) My summer reflections also found me the "run way" of the walleyes from the "Narrows" to the "Main Basin". I pulled a 25" and 26" eye with 30 minutes of each other......

3) I built confidence that soft plastics put bigger and more walleyes in the boat in the spring.

4) My best summer reflection has been catching a 4 man limit of walleyes in 3 feet of water in June on the Mississippi in 7 hours.......

Now, I'm just waiting for the water temp to drop, the duck hunters to hit the ponds, and pheasants hunters to hit the CRP land, and the bow hunters to take to their stands so I can have Pool 3 & 4 all to myself, to catch those fat pig walleyes again!!!!!!!

[Jim Hudson]

Same here, not even close to putting the boat away this year. I told myself I am going to fish more heavily this fall. Which is a hard thing to do for me as I am a deer hunting nut.

Anyways, my walleye fishing this year has been sporadic, which comes with the territory here on Chequamegon Bay. Not my best year but not my worst either. Due to the ever fluctuating water temps here on the big lake it has been hit and miss. Weather patterns this year made the fish screwy. But I did manage a 11.2lb eye from a 15' flat this summer. Other then that, most fish were from the 2lb to 8lb range.

I am going out tonight hopefully, the wind switched to the north so we shall see how it goes as our fish are in a fall bite pattern now.

Jim Hudson