I posed a similar question to one of our state’s fisheries biologists last year. He told me that when walleye in our eastern Nebraska impoundments finish spawning along the rocky dam faces in the early spring, they move to shallow flats areas to feed on tiny red worms that emerge from the mud about that time. He thought that post-spawn feeding binge would be my best bet for walleye on a fly rod. I’m definitely going to give it a try this year.
I have definitely been interested in targeting Walleye with a fly rod. There is a rabbit fur leech pattern (think it’s in Jack Dennis Tying with Friends) that I believe would be a killer on Walleye.
Only thing that is stopping me is the folks that I work with are too lilly livered to let a fly flinger on their walleye boat. I’m gonna have to try my idea from shore this spring.
I believe the key will be to go after them when they are coming in to spawn and shortly after when they are in shallow water.
If my idea works, I’m gonna get plenty of photo’s to show the Walleye Wimps that I work with a thing or two.
I fly fish for them all the time. The best flies I’ve found for them are Clouser Minnows in Flourescent colors, and weighted Wooley Buggers, also flourescent colors. Best time is in the spring at night or early morning. Use sinking, or sink tip line. Fish along rip-raps and ledges in 15-20’ of water. They hit light, so be ready to set the hook on any line movement
Best Colors are flourescent Orange, Green, Yellow and Red.
Would not even cast for them without a steel leader. Think the shallows right after ice out.
jed
I have fished for walleye for over 40 years with spinning gear and 4#-6# mono. We would never think of using steel leaders that would diminish the action of our baits. Walleye tend to take a bait lightly in their mouth, so a light feel and a quick hookset keep the hook where it’s easily removed, and the line is not near the teeth. Steel leaders are for northern pike who tend to slam a bait from the side, and get it deep in their mouth.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned it so far, but walleye sure are tasty in the 18"-22" length. Longer than that they start to taste “fishy.” Since they are table fare (along with yellow perch), I still fish for them with spin gear, and mostly drift fish with minnow tipped jigs.
Interesting Joe, Not Walleye, but Northerns have bit me off more times than I like. Would expect Walleye to do the same.
jed
Walleyes don’t have as many teeth as a pike, and they are pretty far apart. Your line just slips between them. I have never had a walleye bite through my line, yet.
A wire leader will mess up the action of your fly.
Next to bluegills, walleye are about the tastiest fish in fresh water. They taste sort of like tilapia, only better.
I’ve never lost a walleye because of it biting the leader and/or line. In fact I have never heard of anyone using a wire leader while fishing for walleye. The 2 tastiest fish in my opinion are yellow perch and walleye.
I have caught several while targeting Smallies and Muskies in the Schuylkill.
All on leach patterns 5" to 7" size (olive/brown).
All below dams ,Landingville-Kernsville-washed out dam neer CrossKeys.
Wet
Hi All,
Like some of the others I used to fish for them with a spinning rod. As mentioned earlier, they spawn close to the bank in the spring. Very close to the rocks on the dam of impoundments. You can often see them from above if you shine a flash light down into the water, often only 2 to 3 feet deep and 10 foot or less from the bank. We used to use bait fish plugs.
I have also tied and used jigs that are shad or minnow patterns. Best time of day for us around here historically has been from sunset to midnight. The best time seems to vary from day to day. (I used to give up long before midnight. So my best time was from dark until I usually gave up an hour later.)
Streamers should be good, unweighted…big ones, up to 6" long if you can tie them that big. The walleye around here are big minnow and shad eaters. White, yellow, chartreuse, or shad pattern streamers should work. Yellow is good in the spring. A plug a lot of us used was white and yellow with flash in it, and a red head.
If going after them with a fly rod, I would start with a big steamer, probably a shad pattern made out of maribou and silver flash, again UNWEIGHTED. (I use silver christmas tree icicles for flash…the plastic type…better movement than anything you can find in a fly shop.)
In the spring fish for them close to the dam or rocky areas of the shoreline. I would try to fish from a small boat, kayak, canoe, etc., if possible and make long casts and retreive parallel to the bank from 2’ out to 6 or 8’ out. That is the reason for no weighting…you want to keep the streamer out of the rocks, and running shallow in the shallow water, because the fish are not deep.
If I could make a back cast I would fish for them from the bank, again fishing parallel to the bank as much as possible. (This is to keep the streamer in the prime area of the water as much as possible.)
Don’t use a flash light or lantern…it will drive them off.
This is for the spring only. Once the spawn is over they will vacate those areas. Since I never had a boat to pursue them out in the lake I quit going after them for the year. (Our local lake is very difficult to fish from much of the bank areas.)
Regards,
Gandolf
Gandolf,
That is a very well written and informative reply on walleye fishing. That should help many here. Thank you for sharing…
Gandolf,
Is the local lake you are talking about, Lake Meridith? I live close to Lake Lugart in OK, supose to be a great Walleye lake.
Hi Crappiecat,
Yep, Lake Meridith. The lake is way low now, and it might be possible to fly fish there now. The way it was the banks were really steep and you didn’t hardly have room for a back cast. Tough to fish from the bank. I haven’t fished there in some time, and now mostly bluegill fish at a local pond, when I can.
I hope to do some bluegill, crappie, and white bass fishing out there this summer though. My walleye fishing used to be while white bass fishing. The white bass would usually quit about dark, and my fishing partner and I would stay there an hour or so, and try to run into a walleye. We caught a few, but never really killed them. The best we probably ever did was 5 or 6 one evening, but maybe 1 was more typical.
I should have added this to the walleye fishing thoughts.
Years ago, back in about 1970, I used to spin fish a lot, as I could get time to go. I was in college at the time, and that summer worked for a guy that was an extremely good walleye fisherman, and he fished exclusively with a fly rod. He took me with him one time, and I learned the method he used to catch walleye with his fly rod.
He tied jigs, and used them on his fly rod. The jigs that he used had about 2 or 3 times as much marabou on them as you could buy at a sporting goods shop. The main thing was to use marabou that was as long as possible. He told me to use yellow in the spring, and after the spawn was over to use white. (I have since found that chartreuse was also good, as is the shad pattern I tie.)
He used to sell the jigs, and the best fishermen from our county would buy them. He sold them for 50 cents or a dollar each, which was pretty darn pricey back in 1970 for a jig. He bought marabou from Herters back then, and bought it in I think 1 lbs bags. He showed me how he tied them, and said that the first thing to do with the bag of marabou is sort through it and throw 75 to 90 % of it away. He only kept the best and longest marabou. If you used the average stuff, the jig was too short.
He used only the fluff, that was trimmed off the side of the stem. He NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER tied in an entire feather that had a stem in it, only the trimmed off fluff. (I think that he would use a full blood marabou feather that did not have ANY stem in it, but would trim away any part of the feather that was stiff and not totally fluffy and flexible.) He wanted the maximum movement possible for the tail on the jig, IE: NO STEMS.
Tie in the longest plumage possible near the back of the hook, as this made for a longer jig. Size and length, as well as a lot of bulk to the jig, were critical in his veiw. (I remember guys coming in to buy the jigs from him, and saying things like “they sure work a lot better than any other jig you can buy.” Only pretty good fishermen were willing to give that much for a jig.)
He took me fishing with him one time, and his good friend, who also worked for him went with him too. (They were regular fishing partners.)
We went out and got to the lake well before dark. We waded out into the lake until about waist deep on me. (I was about 5’9" or so back then.) We waded out into the inlet end of the lake, but it was probably a mile from the actual inlet. The bottom was a hard clay bottom, and this was probably late July, but it could have been earlier in the year, as it has been so long that I don’t remember well. The lake was relatively shallow, so we waded out probably a hundred yards or so. We were on a flat, and you could see carp swimming around some. I think this was, again, well into the summer, because I waded without waders, and did not get cold until we had fished at least 3 hours or so. Both of the older fellows wore waders.
This part of the lake was in a wildlife sanctuary area so you could not have a boat in it, nor could you drive in, you had to walk, and if I remember that may have been somewhat important, but I don’t remember for sure.
At any rate his technique was simple, he just used his fly rod to cast the jig hour after hour. We didn’t even move around, we just stayed in one spot the whole time. It wasn’t a great evening, we all caught white bass, but not much in the way of walleye. He made me swear never to take anyone there, and I agreed to the deal.
The key was fishing the mud flats in about that depth of water from a little before dark until you wanted to quit, and I think he always fished for at least 3 hours, and often much more.
I believe steamers would work, but he tied the jigs. I didn’t know enough to ask if he ever tried a streamer.
(He was a died in the wool trout fisherman, and lived to steam fish, but there wasn’t any stream fishing for trout in Kansas, so the vast majority of his fishing was for walleye in the lakes of western Kansas. As always you caught a lot more white bass than walleye, but he did catch walleye. He was fairly well known as a walleye fisherman, and we ate walleye at his house, so I know he caught plenty of them, as his friend advised me.)
Whether a jig was needed to sink the big marabou jigs he tied, or he never thought about tying a marabou streamer, I do not know. Back then bead heads weren’t around.
I believe his technique would work as well today as it did back then.
Regards,
Gandolf
I catch them often using a craw fly fished on the bottom in rivers. If a body of water has craws fish craw flies everything eats craws.
Thanks for all the replies guys.
Gandolf, thanks for the story. I always enjoy going for a ride down memory lane, even when it’s not my memories.
I recall reading this tidbit from an earlier thread in FAOL: as I understand it, walleye teeth are like nails - rounded, all the way up to the pointed tip, while the sides of pike teeth have sharp edges from the base to the tip.
Whatever the anatomical realities, if pike are in the area, I don’t fish without a steel or a kevlar tippet. Tried 30# flourocarbon once but had two bite-offs in one morning, so that experiment was canned. Can’t recall a walleye bite-off, though. …TIM.