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Listed below are articles written by professional angler Ted
Takasaki and Scott Richardson.
walleyes and weather Early season Eye's walleye nights Need for speed Designing a boat
Walleye pro Mark Martin
spends hours studying a few walleyes he keeps in an aquarium
at home. "They’ll eat when the lights
are on once in a while," Martin said recently at the Masters
Walleye Institute in suburban Chicago. "But it sounds like a
washing machine after dark."
For the 1990 Professional Walleye Trail champion, his
captives’ tendency toward nocturnal feedings confirm something
he learned from his grandfather years ago - nighttime is a
great time to hunt walleye. Experience shows big walleye
become more vulnerable after dark because they may feel more
secure when they can take advantage of their exceptional
eyesight to prowl their watery world for prey.
And, chasing walleyes under the stars may be
better for anglers, too - it’s a good way to escape the crowds
on heavily-used lakes.
But when is the best time to learn where to look for
nighttime walleye? "In the daytime,"
said Martin. "You’re going to learn far more about night
fishing when the sun is shining than you ever will at night.
"If you think you are going out after dark and use your
electronics and a map to find fish, good luck, ‘cause that’s
not going to happen. It’s in the daytime you can best learn
all the idiosyncrasies of the structure - the points, the
sunken islands, the inside turns, the rip rap and how it’s
laid in there."
Nighttime fishing is shallow fishing. You are going to be
working in 15 feet or less. It’s a dangerous time to learn
about submerged hazards. Consider using glow in the dark
marker buoys or ones with lights attached to help follow
contours when you return later.
Homework done, the real fun begins when the sun goes down.
Begin at main lake points that go all the way from the
shoreline to deep water. If there are fish on them during the
day, even more will be there at night. And, the bigger the
structure, the better. Bigger structure holds more fish.
Use your sonar to look for fish. If you don’t see any, move
to your second spot, then your third. Keep moving and looking
until you find a concentration of walleyes.
"I could have the best spot where I caught 30
fish the night before and go the next night and not see any
fish. Most people I know would just go right on fishing it.
They fish memories for two or three hours. But I have enough
spots that I can keep going ‘til I find them."
Keep your lure 1- to 3- feet off the bottom to detect
strikes better. Walleyes bite extremely light at night. If
always running your bait right on the bottom or through weeds,
you’d set the hook on everything or become complacent and
never set the hook at all. But when you know your bait is
running free above most obstructions, the slightest tick
brings a solid hookset. It’s an instinctive reaction. The rod
comes forward even before his brain registers the strike.
Good electronics and the first few fish tell you what depth
most walleye are holding. Usually, they are part of what
Martin terms a "breakline pileup." "You
have fish coming out of the deep, you have fish coming out of
the shallows all night long. Fish coming from the deep hit the
breakline and meander along it a little ways before they go
shallow. Same goes for shallow fish which pause at the
breakline before moving on. That goes for walleye, bass, musky
or pike, any kind of predator fish. They are stopping there
going either way."
When you reach the end of a structure, continue on a short
distance, letting your bait travel out to fish which may
suspend nearby. With a transducer on the bowmounted electric
to trace breaklines precisely, troll
about 1 mph whether fishing a shallow-lipped crankbait or deep
diver. If you feel your lure wobbling, slow down. It should be
your arm moving forward and back, forward and back, that
imparts the look of a dying minnow. Forget planer boards or
snap-on weights - you’ll miss light biters.
A #13 Rapala is the standard; a #18 is the largest. Martin
doctors his lures with prism tape on the sides and glow in the
dark eyes. It’s a trick learned from hours sitting with the
lights turned out watching the action in his aquarium tank.
Even his human eyes - far less sensitive than a walleye’s -
can detect the faint flicker of dim light reflecting from the
sides of a minnow.
Other good crankbaits are Rebel #030 Fast-Tracs or Bomber
long model A’s. Attach hard baits to
the line with a cross-locked snap to achieve the best action
with the exception of short-lipped lures, which he ties on
directly. Use two #5 split shot or three #7s split shot a
couple feet in front of the lure to achieve maximum depth.
Don’t be afraid to use heavy line. It won’t spook the fish and
you can pull most snags free without break offs.
When’s the best time to catch nighttime walleye? All night
long. But it’s going to peak when the moon is rising or
setting. "If you aren’t catching fish when you see that
happening, go back to where you caught your last one. Then,
they are really going to be popping." Martin’s grandpa taught
him that. Must be so.
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