weedline walleyes?

[walleyefisher0990]

I was just curious at how some people fish the weedlines. I have never tried fishing one and was wondering if you look for a certain type of weeds or really what your looking for. And is there certain techniques that work better than others? Im sure it all depends on the lake that you fish. But any ideas on how to fish it? Thanks!

[Team Otter]

Tall cabbage weeds or thick mats of weed are typically the best from what I've experienced. The fish may either be on the outside or inside edge of the weedline, which is dependent on where the baitfish are located on the weedline or where the shade/cover is. This can vary by the hour or even minute depending on light condition. I like to pitch jigs and leeches or plastic to weed pockets, troll lindy rigs/Phelps floaters or bottom bouncers and spinners tipped with leeches or crawlers on the outside and inside edges and for fast searching, casting cranks over the whole spectrum is tough to beat.

[bgreen82]

i mentioned this in another thread yesterday, but if youre really interested, you could look into picking up the latest article of field and stream. there is a good article on bass fishing. probably 10 to 15 pages long with presentations, locations, baits etc.

[eyepatrol]

Team Otter pretty much said it. Early in the season I like to pitch a jig and minnow mostly. Many times I'm pitching it parallel to the weedline, but I'll also pitch it perpendicular or diagonal. I've also found walleyes to be moving through sparse weeds adjacent to thicker weed cover, but usually during low light periods or windy/wavey days. There's been a few times that I've caught walleyes in weed pockets, but I haven't tried this technique to it's fullest potential. If you can find a good weed pocket, one that has sand, gravel or some other harder bottom within the weeds, there's a good chance they'll be there.

As the water warms I'll pull a lindy rig or spinner rig along the weedline. I've fished primarily the outside edge, but on TO's advice, I'll be trying different locations in and around the weeds more often this year.

Weedy walleyes can really pay off if you keep after them. I've caught my heaviest walleye fishing the weedline (walleye in my avatar) and have taken many other fish holding to weeds.

Good luck and good fishin'!

[Tony Boshold]

What I'm looking for when weed fishing is something different than the rest of the area. Any mix of weeds with bottom transitions like soft to hard or rock and sand will be a good bet. If I see mayflys I'm looking for mud transitions.

Basically, I'm looking for a holding place, something that can "house" many fish within the weeds.

Where does the deepest part of the break hit the shallower part? A likely highway.

Could be a huge weed flat with fish spread all over that they are using at times.

More often than not its "EDGES" that fish use as highways. Turns and changes can concentrate and hold them.

I have some good early season shallow coontail weed edge and flat bites (8-15') that I hit first thing in the morning. If there is any cabbage available that is usually a sweet spot. After the breakfast bite dies on them I move to a deep sand grass pattern in 18-23'. Sand grass is tougher to locate but the stuff is full of life. If you snag some with a jig it will be kind of stringy and you'll likely see snails and crayfish and other bugs nesting in it. Perch love it (they will be spitting crayfish up) and walleyes follow. It appears on the LCD screen as a low lying mat of "something" about 6" - 1' tall carpeting the bottom at the base of the break.

When the eyes are done spawning, the weed fish will follow the spawning perch moving upto the shallow weed flats to spawn. If you see stringy looking strands of eggs attached to the shallow weeds, those are from the perch. Walleyes are not far away.

When looking at a map I look for the biggest weed flats I can see. Then I check the wind to see where I'm going to get my best drifts for that day. I start out shallow and check the drop offs next.

When the fish are in 10-15' coon edges many tactics will take them. Trolling #7 + #5 shad raps behind the boat from 2-3.5mph (probably the fastest ( and my fav.) way to locate a sweet spot), spinner rigs w/ bouncers and crawlers/leeches/minnows, jigs and plastics and jigs and minnows/crawlers/leeches.

Most of all cover water!!!until you locate that sweet spot.

Hope this helps.

[Borch]

When fishing weeds I like using jigs paired with plastics tipped with a little meat. If the weed edge is defined I'll work spinner rigs on bouncers or livebait rigs. Trolling or casting cranks works well. If I'm fishing a weed flat with smaller weedbeds or clumps I like to troll cranks around and over the clumps. This has really been very effective for me over the years.

[walleyewacker]

Trolling cranks on the bottom edege is definatly my favorite way to do this. With the lakes I am used to fishing we are normally talking 10' weedline or so without much structure and generally shallow breaks so no 5s and such are pretty much what I use. This is where Tony makes a good point with covering water. There could be miles of weed lines and you need to cover water to find sweet spots that for some reason or another are holding more fish. Honestly, it seems like these spots change year to year within the same lakes for me. I have done well running spinners right over the tops of beds as well, just enough so the weight is ticking the tops but your hook stays clean. If you fish a lake with a deeper weedline that has a bunch of ups and downs trolling is probably not an option and a slow bait rig or jigging has worked for me here to allow you to precisly work the edges and contours, backtrolling or whatever you like to do.

[james_walleye]

Well i'll add another tactic too the mix. I like too slip bobber fish weedlines. I like real defined weedlines the best for this. I guess i always figured the active eyes are cruising that edge feeding so i go over the weedline and toss a black marker buoy so as not too draw too much attention. I drop it right on the edge and then we throw our slip bobbers right up on the edge. That leech or minnow is now constantly bobbing around in the strike zone. Since i've started doing this we've had days and nights where we've absolutley crushed the walleyes. And we also get some bonus slabber crappies mixed in too.

On a little bit of a seperate note too anyone reading this, more like a question i guess. When i fish lighted bobbers at night i've started too notice something. I have a really bright boat light and at first it bugged me, i thought it would spook the fish. But after a while of fishing the weedline or rockpile we are on, it almost always gets too a point where the only place we get bites anymore is right in back of the boat in that boatlight. Whether its 7' of water or 12' it doesnt matter, crappies and walleyes. The baitfish must really pile into that bright light. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this when night fishing? Its pretty amazing too drop your slip bobber next too your motor in 7' of water and catch nice walleyes.

[walleyefisher0990]

thats awesome! big walleyes right next to the boat. thanks for all of the good info guys. Im also curios does the weedline bite work better at certain parts of the season? our can you fish it year round?

[james_walleye]

I usually do it the first month of the season, after that i go too other tactics.

[Team Otter]

I've found the best months for a steady weedline bite to be June, July, and August.

[Borch]

Quote:

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thats awesome! big walleyes right next to the boat. thanks for all of the good info guys. Im also curios does the weedline bite work better at certain parts of the season? our can you fish it year round?

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It's a year round bite on the lakes I fish. Although it really gets intense early and late in the year.