Jumpin' Jehosaphat! Jumpin Walleyes!

[Big Julie]

Anyone seen Walleyes jump?

I first saw it a number of years ago while fishing up on White Earth Lake.

We were on a spot catching good fish and I saw walleyes literally jumping out of the water.

I've seen it a couple of times since then, most recently last weekend. I also saw what seemed to be the same fish on my X-15 graph moving from the top to the bottom and vice versa. I could see lines moving up and down.

There have been lots of small fish at 12-15-20 feet that show in those areas. Not the clouds of baitfish, but small fish. Along with these (at those depths) are good marks as I would expect to see with the good marks I like to see when I am catching fish.

Sometimes it seems that there are much more of the suspended marks than on the bottom and at those times, fishing is slower.

Could the eyes be coming up and feeding on these fish and somehow be surfacing related to feeding???

Anyone experience or understand what is going on?

Any suggestions on how to target these fish?

I tried one day to pitch a jig and minnow thru them without success. May try a rapala.

Crazy!

[shae1986]

I have also seen walleyes jumping on Long Lake by Vergas, The only way i have caught them is by pulling cranks over them, the best time seems to be at night or just before it. It works, but not as productive as i was hoping it would be, hasn't worked this year but the warm water hurt that. Good luck

Andrew

[musky hunter]

Jumping walleyes are rare but I do believe it occurs. And they certainly feed on the surface. I saw hundreds cleaning up on Mayflies on Winnebigoshis. What ya don't know about fish will skunk ya!

[FI Guide]

They do jump because they are chasing the clouds of baitfish up to the surface. Mostly they just roll on the surface when trying to get a meal. The best way to catch the eyes doing this is to either pull a crank over their heads or throw a spinnerbait with silver willow blades slowly and they fall for it.

[Wish2Fish]

I saw it once last year on Lake Marion in Lakeville. It was close to the boat--in a spot I happened to be looking at, so I saw it very clearly. It was a good sized fish, and 100% walleye. Seeing that convinced me that there are actually fish in that lake; but it turns out that may have been the only one!! After many failed attempts to find a cooperative walleye in that lake, I'm convinced that one I saw was just in town to visit a friend.