'no Man's Land' For Summer Walleyes (?)

[BIGFISH.JZ]

They call it 'No Man's Land' because nobody fishes it, unless they are lost, stupid or their locator is in simulation mode. That works for me because that's my comfort zone. Most people wouldn't believe the numbers of trophy fish I have caught in water that's over 50' deep. Recently I was out on a local lake trolling for walleyes in deep water with shallow and medium diving crankbaits, and I noticed 3 other boats that were avoiding the normal structure. Maybe their locators were broken or in demo mode, but for there to be 4 of us driving slowly around the open water, it seemed like more than a coincidence. I boated 4 eyes in 4 hours, with a smaller average size than I was hoping for.

I am not looking for lakes, spots or secrets.... I am just curious if anybody else has noticed these 'fools' fishing water too deep for 'normal' fishing. Or maybe you have tried it a time or two, let me know what made you steer your boat away from the shoreline? Did it work out for you? 

Is this style of fishing becoming more popular, or am I just paranoid?

[leech~~]

In late summer end of July and August when the water warms and the oxygen drops in the shallows. I have caught Eye's trolling deep diving raps, plugs behind dispy divers for suspended fish over 50-70 feet of water where the bait balls are.

So, yes please don't follow us lost crazy people around out there!  

[delcecchi]

20 hours ago, BIGFISH.JZ said:

They call it 'No Man's Land' because nobody fishes it, unless they are lost, stupid or their locator is in simulation mode. That works for me because that's my comfort zone. Most people wouldn't believe the numbers of trophy fish I have caught in water that's over 50' deep. Recently I was out on a local lake trolling for walleyes in deep water with shallow and medium diving crankbaits, and I noticed 3 other boats that were avoiding the normal structure. Maybe their locators were broken or in demo mode, but for there to be 4 of us driving slowly around the open water, it seemed like more than a coincidence. I boated 4 eyes in 4 hours, with a smaller average size than I was hoping for.

I am not looking for lakes, spots or secrets.... I am just curious if anybody else has noticed these 'fools' fishing water too deep for 'normal' fishing. Or maybe you have tried it a time or two, let me know what made you steer your boat away from the shoreline? Did it work out for you? 

Is this style of fishing becoming more popular, or am I just paranoid?

On Vermilion it is the Musky guys doing that.   Casting and trolling out in the middle of nowhere, 40 feet of water.

[bobbymalone]

On 6/19/2019 at 5:21 PM, BIGFISH.JZ said:

 their locator is in simulation mode. 

My uncle spent the better part of an afternoon in simulation mode and he will never be able to live it down.

[ozzie]

I fish a big reservoir that goes as deep as 140 I believe and we do a bit of trolling over the deep parts of the lake.  In fact at night you can troll and your graph will be littered with fish in the 20-50ft range starting over 70ft of water but if you go to 60ft depth range your graph will be empty. Once the deep darkness of night falls those same fish will show 30-70ft deep on the graph suspending over 140ft of water.   We seem to mostly catch walleyes out of this group of fish and rarely catch anything else.

Edited June 24, 2019 by ozzie

[BobT]

The problem with fishing walleye below 35' is that whatever you catch you best be planning to keep. Bringing them out of that depth will kill them for sure no matter how slowly it is done. 

[BIGFISH.JZ]

Most of the fish I've caught out of the abyss were caught just above the thermocline or high in the water column (1'-15' down). A friend of mine once caught a 31" hog walleye on a top raider over 100'+ of water. That's just one of the many hogs to come into my boat that were 0'-5' under the surface in mega deep water. So, keep your lures above the kill zone on slot lakes and you'll still get bit.

[ozzie]

Yeah when we pull over deep water we always keep the baits 1'-20' at the most down.  Fish are feeding over that deep water so they will rise up to hit a bait.  Plus it is a pain without downriggers to put out enough line or weight to get a lure down over 20' IMO.  I will be pulling a few plugs and spoons over deep water this upcoming weekend and see what is swimming out there!

[ozzie]

Well things are cooling down but the fishing over deep water continues to boat fish!  Didn't slay them but got 2 more eater's this weekend over the deep water trolling for about an hour and half towards sunset.  Benn using Rapala Shadow Raps as of late and have been impressed.

[ozzie]

Fishing over the deep has ended for me now...I will concentrate on breaks and weedlines that remain as the fish start putting on the fall feedbag!  Good luck

[leech~~]

I'm still getting some good action out in 32'-38' over a mid lake basin with deep diving raps. Even at mid day with pontoons and Jet skis flying around! 

Edited September 6, 2019 by leech~~

[tacklejunkie]

Doesn't anyone troll spinners in these spots? I trolled crawler harnesses one year over a deep part of a local reservoir and did well

[ozzie]

I have never been too big of a spinner guy but it is a technique that should be utilized as I am sure it would be successful!  Especially on the whitefish chain in the crosslake area

[papadarv]

Fish Ottertail mid day (gin clear water) summer & winter 50 to 120 FOW. Cisco balls/clouds 100 ft. + diameter suspended 20 to 35' walleye just below. Trick is finding the balls in miles of deep water.

Bait balls also effective in shallow waters. Targeting Fall Walleye pulling minnows & crawlers found bait ball 17 FOW marking lots below. Switched to leech on second pass got some really nice Blue Gill on Sand, Itasca Co. Great family fish fry.

 

[nyladnorman]

Quite a nice haul though. 

[tacklejunkie]

On 9/7/2019 at 8:03 PM, tacklejunkie said:

Doesn't anyone troll spinners in these spots? I trolled crawler harnesses one year over a deep part of a local reservoir and did well

 

I also had a chance to troll spinners with chubs this past fall just right in the Wisconsin entry doing the same method and it worked. 

 

 A lot of people are into the belief that walleyes are bottom dwellers and that’s true for the most part. But they can also be very aggressive predators when the conditions are right 

[tacklejunkie]

I thought I would revisit this thread because I’ve been catching a lot of walleyes out in Lake Superior this year

 

Most of my walleyes that I’ve been catching while trolling for trout and salmon even in deep water are actually no more than 20-30 feet down. All on spoons although I did troll a couple big bladed crawler harnesses after I was done catching lake trout and the walleyes loved them. By big blade I mean size No. six Colorado

 

And these aren’t your average inland lake bottom dweller walleyes. These are good size well fed fish that put up quite a fight

[ozzie]

I keep forgetting to run a spoon...I have been running rapalas again this year with little success over the deep water.  I have ran shallow and deep divers but not as "hot" of action as we had in years past.  The fish are still there but not attacking the same as they historically have.  Great to hear you are catching some nice eyes on Superior!  Sounds like a great trip to land a few lakers and then a few eyes to top it off.

Edited August 12, 2020 by ozzie

[Duffman]

Been running these two over deep water (100-150ft) the last two falls during midday booze cruises while camping, no luck yet, but I'll once again give it a go in a few weeks. 

Husky Magnum 25'

X-Rap Magnum 30'

 

 

[ozzie]

wow those are either really big or the 3rd one in the picture is really small!  I will say you would be surprised that you don't necessarily  need to go that deep.  Caught a lot of my walleyes on original floaters over the deep water.  Good Luck and I hope when you do connect over the deep water, it is a monster of a fish!!

[Duffman]

Yea, I threw in the micro X-Rap for shiats and grins. 

I'm just looking to hook into something big over deep water........Walleye, Pike, Laker, and I've heard that some big Smallies even follow the bait pods over deep water in this lake.