I am planning on fishing for walleye when the season opens next week here in upstate NY on the Susquehanna River. I have never fished for them on the fly.
Years ago however I did cacth them on white jigs while floating downriver. I was thinking of fishing for them on white and yellow clousers. Am I on the right track?
Any suggestions?
Thank you
Ed
Yes, you’re on the right track! Clousers are THE fly for walleyes IMNSHO…
I’ve taken them earleir on in the season, as you’ll be fishing. Good time! They do best at this time of the year here in MN towards early evening.
Five p.m. or so…Stand out in the river a little, casting parallel to shore. They come in to feed on minnows etc towards evening. You’ll “know” it’s a walleye by their very quick, sharp hit!
Good luck.
Jeremy.
Seems like white works well in our rivers for walleye. Clousers are excellent. White Gill Busters tied with zonker strips. White Bunnies. Main key seems to be scratching the gravel so I use a forward weighted line and a very short leader, maybe a foot to 18 inches depending on water clarity. My favorite sites are below inlet streams coming into the main river. Right now we have very high water so our fishing isn’t the best… My experience shows walleye are a wholly different fish on a fly than with the jig fishing from a boat. Better fighters. Harder hitters. JGW
Up here in Manitoba, Canada, I have had success ffing for them at river mouths and close to the head of rapids in spring and early summer. Closer to dusk, things usually get better. A pattern that has worked for me has olive over yellow crystal flash, yellow estaz body and an orange marabou throat and tail. Think of a perch at Mardi Gras! …TIM
I have had suprising success with crayfish patterns.
What Tim said about timing is true.
I have tied another ‘fly’ I call a leech and Jig that imitates a black leech tied on a pink jig head that the b**t fishers use. Again another suprise result.
Thank you all for your help.
I headed out on opening day with great hope and anticipation. I got a flat tire before reaching the river and then by the time I got it patched etc., the rain started. A total wash out.
Today I got in some fishing. No walleye but I did land (and release) a smallmouth that I caught on one of my new walleye flies.
I will persist.
Thanks again
Ed
Ed,
I now what they say about not having sense to come in outa the rain an’ all but…
…If you have a raincoat, most of my most productive days have been in the rain. Of course, depending on where you live, at this time of the season it could be wiser to stay warm…
Just an FYI.
Walleyes ALWAYS bite better on the drearier/overcast/drizzly days. By far…Unless you factor in wind and midlake rockpiles (which you don’t swinging a fly rod.)
Jeremy…ahh, the memories…
[This message has been edited by Jeremy (edited 07 May 2006).]
As a follow-up to the rain thing, it’s also true that walleye will tend to be in shallower on the windy side of a lake. Once I caught 'em in about five feet of water at mid-day, in August, along a windy shore where the water was a bit muddy…TIM
It was windy, cool, and I guess that I was a bit demoralized by the flat tire. Also, where I was going to fish is below a dam with a swift current and I was concerned that the rocks that I normally stand on could be slick from the rain and any mud that got tracked on them.
I’m planning to give fishing around dusk a try a couple of times later this week.
Ed
Well, I landed my first fly-fished walleye. I worked through more than a few of my recently tied special walleye flies. None of them produced. I was about to give up when I decided to tie on a fly that I tied a couple of years ago and never fished from what happened to be on my fly tying station at the time. It has four glass beads that are mostly clear but have a silver inside that reflects nicely. Red thread, bronze turkey marabou for the body and tail and two strands of pearl flashabou completed the fly. At 17 inches it wasn’t a big walleye but that’s ok. If the image doesn’t show up below, you can view it at:
[url=http://www.edengelman.com/JPGONLY/walleye%20fly%20Number%201.jpg:bb379]http://www.edengelman.com/JPGONLY/walleye%20fly%20Number%201.jpg[/url:bb379]
Good feeling, isn’t it? We talk about the joy of catching fish on the flies we create, and the rods we wrap, and that is simply special. As a warmwater guy, my biggest thrill is still catching a species I never thought I could catch on a fly. Crappie for one. Then carp. Catfish. Walleye was my hardest. A friend and I worked quite hard in a friendly bet, which he won, although I did catch one in conditions spoken of above – windy on the shallow side of the lake, actually right close to weeds. I was angling for bass so he wouldn’t allow that to take the bet! Our breakthrough was using forward weighted line and white flies, with a very short leader. JGW
I am using a full sink line with a short heavy piece of mono. I am concerned about the teeth cutting the mono and I am considering using a section of monel or steel wire. It did feel good cathing that walleye. For me, I enjoy the creative process of tying flies. I especially enjoy the simple but effective flies.
Now I just have to get back to the river with a re-stocked fly box and try to do it again!
Ed
Ed,
Walleyes have a “conical” shape to their teeth. They wont cut your mono.
Pike, on the other hand, have triangulated shaped teeth. They will!
Jeremy.
Ed,
While fishing the inlaws lake in MI, we were fishing for bass and pike. I was stripping my usual retrieve of a blue over white clouser when I saw something following it. Something big! This lake was recently stalked with walleye about 7 years ago and they are very hard to catch. Low and behold a 5 lb walleye on the fly! It was the talk of the lake last year. If I was to go back and fish for walleye again a clouser would be my first choice.
Seege
I have had luck with Walleyes using yellow over white and blue over white clousers and I also have had luck using purple leech patterns tied with zonker strips. All where creeks dump into the river.
McQueen
17-incher?!? Thats fryin pan material!
I too caught my first walleye this year on the fly, 12-inches, but all the more exciting because it was on the fly! (Olive/white clouser)
Joining the club and the celebration after over two years of trying, I was fortunate enough to land my first eight walleye on the fly recently below Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma. At times, there were hits, hook ups, and fish landed on successive casts. (Hats off to Jesse King of Three Rivers Fly Shop for kindly sharing intell with strangers.)
The landed fish ranged in size from 15 1/2 to over 20 inches with multiple long line, short line, and from-the-hand releases. A few fish were gratefully retained for culinary celebration.
A fly that worked well in the spillway the first night (and, oddly, not at all the second) is this size four crawfish pattern:
There were indeed crawdads hanging out on the topsides of the rock ledges. All hits were within three feet of the bank with one walleye nearly beaching himself to chase and take the craw fly in just inches of water.
Another effective fly there was a dumbbell eye pattern with a jack rabbit tail and jack rabbit fur dubbed body, essentially a lead eye, hackleless bugger variant (Sadly, the rocks soon claimed that glory fly.)
The next night, all the action was in the shallow river/spillway confluence in a waist deep hole that is somewhat illuminated by lights in the area. (I wonder if that explains the effectiveness of all-white patterns ? Clousers and buggers ? since black is the conventional wisdom for night fishing?)
For all the fly talk, though, I think being on accessible fish must be far more important than specific fly selection. After all, I’ve had good flies for years, but these are my first walleye caught on them.
The gear was a five weight rod with a sink tip line tipped with four to five feet of of 12 pound test fluorocarbon.
Hits ranged from multiple sharp taps, to a single tap, to totally undetected with a hung-on-the-grass feel to follow. However, the fights far exceeded my expectations (which were low based on what I’ve read about walleye sporting qualities.) Most fish plowed doggedly and repeatedly for the bottom. Several did some surface head shaking, and one made a short but blisteringly fast run when he spotted the wade fisherman who had ahold of him via the fly line. I’ll say that standing thigh deep in a river at night with a five weight that bordered on being bent double is a mighty fine, intimate way to experience these fish.
For me, selectively harvesting some members of unthreatened species is honourable when we can utilize them in a way that makes the sacrifice worthwhile. To that end, I’ve savoured walleye baked in a fresh dill/roasted garlic/lime/jalape?o aioli and a delicious, down home version of zuppa di pesce, tasty Italian seafood stew. Heads and bones were simmered in a tall pot to make walleye stock, and all remaining scraps have become organic tomato food.
For those researching walleye on the fly, here are a few more threads (and there are others): http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=18729, http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=14310, and http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=9043.
Ed,
I just revisited this thread and noticed this fly of yours. (Sometimes my system doesn’t show pics…I get the red “x” thing!!)
Anyway, good on you! While maybe not totally new, this is an innovative design that you can be pleased with. My congrats man! You did well indeed. I’d be quite pleased if I’d come up with this concept, fished it and had your success.
You just reminded me of why I love this sport so much.
Jeremy…who just had a nice muskie toss his fly last night.Aaarghhh!
Believe it or not, on the upper Missippi I caught a 29" walleye on a Dahlberg Diver while smallie fishing. Crazy surprise! Anything can happen when flinging flies!
Chugger
Whoah! That’s HUGE!! 
![http://www.edengelman.com/JPGONLY/walleye%20fly%20Number%201.jpg[/url:bb379]](http://www.edengelman.com/JPGONLY/walleye%20fly%20Number%201.jpg%5B/url:bb379%5D){kind=link}