Any one ever go after walleye with a fly?
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Any one ever go after walleye with a fly?
Yup, sure have as have a few others on this bulletin board. To date I've caught a grand total of 5 since I began fly fishing several years ago. Not very impressive total I know but I keep on trying.
On a trip to Northern Manitoba few years back we fished for walleye along with pike. We caught them until we got bored. For us California guys on the trip it was quite a novelty as none of us had ever seen a walleye before. Fast sinking lines with streamers: clouser minnows, Blanton's Whistlers, Lefty's Deceivers, and bunny leeches. When we were catching them they were from 10 to 25 feet below the surface. The fact that there was a zillion of them helped, as did having a guide.
Walleyes on a fly have always been a challenge for me. One, we don't have many lakes in Oklahoma where they're stocked and two they're typically deep water fish. I've only caught two, but I remember both of them. One was on a white Clouser in Sooner Lake and the other on a Chartreuse Woolly Grubber in Lake Hefner. I've been to Canada a number of times and caught a ton of smallmouth, largemouth, pike, perch, etc. but not a single walleye. Good Luck!
I'm no expert...
I caught my first Iowa walleye on fly gear while drifting a black microjig from my kayak earlier this year.
Then I went on a fishing trip to Ontario, Canada and caught 5 more on fly gear. Fortunately, the fish were in water only 4'-10' deep, so I could use either floating line or sinking line.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...dWalleye1a.jpg
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...dWalleye2c.jpg
I echo the fly choices mentioned by others above....Clouser Deep Minnows, Bunny Strip Leeches, etc.
Here's a picture of some of the exact flies I caught walleyes on (except the top and bottom patterns, which caught perch and pike, respectively):
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ishOnThese.jpg
I wasn't after walleye, but I got a few on Hex nymphs and buggers a few weeks ago while trying for whitefish.
I was fishing out near Asheville, NC for smallmouth and caught my first walleye on a fly this past Friday.
Here is the fly I was using. Fished it for the first few hours until I got sick of casting a wet sock. I think I need to make them a little thinner next time. Here is the report from another forum.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...s/IMG_6352.jpg
That's a great looking fly and should work great for bass as well. I don't worry too much about the weight of the fly, I just go to a heavier rig. I know there will be some that say its an overkill, but I often use 8 or 9 weight rods for bass, not for the size of the fish, but because of the size flies I often have to use to imitate traditional bass lures or to punch the pattern into these strong Oklahoma winds. I'll use 2 and 3 wts. whenever possible, but sometimes it isn't very practical.
The flies are Iceland Sheep Hair on the top and bottom (Olive and Orange). The Yellow is bucktail and everything else is synthetic. I was throwing them with a 8 wt with 8wt WF line. It cast a little smaller streamers really well. I think I might want to over weight the rod to cast these flies for hours on end.