Eye to Eye with Summer Walleye by Jerry Carlson

I am always amazed when I read the official reports on walleye angling. The number of angling hours per walleye caught is actually quite astounding. Six hours per fish is not an uncommon outing.

I believe there are a number of reasons why the walleye catch rate is so low in comparison to the number of hours fished. First of all, too many anglers put in time searching for walleye on lakes that have a very low walleye population. If walleye are not a major species on a given lake, anglers may be better off switching species or trying a different body of water.

Another reason walleye anglers often struggle with success has to do with specific location. No matter what skill level a person may have for fishing, if they are fishing where the fish aren’t, they are doomed.

In order to go eye to eye with the crafty walleye, an angler must be able to locate fish holding areas. These structural elements that are attractive to fish are not visible to us on the surface and must be sought out by utilizing maps and sonar as well as general location information.

For summer walleye action, I love to concentrate on mid lake structure. Mid lake humps and bumps are key elements in locating roaming fish. Although anglers rarely find a place that will always have fish, mid lake structures are frequently utilized as a feeding spot for old marble eyes.

The initial process of summer walleye success actually starts before a person ever gets into a boat. Mapping information is available for most walleye lakes and is most certainly available for Midwest lakes that are noted walleye fisheries.

I am astounded when I visit lakes and talk to anglers that have no clue what type of structure a body of water has to offer. Anglers would not attempt a cross county drive expedition without a map yet readily go on a fishing excursion without the latest lake data.

The growing popularity of turn-by-turn GPS navigational systems for a vehicle tells me people like to know where they are going and what to expect along the way. Similar technology is available for someone in a boat.

I was thrilled when I first purchased my Lowrance Green Box years ago. This flasher unit would show me the depth, bottom hardness and occasionally fish. By crisscrossing a lake, I could locate mid lake structure I wanted to fish. It was sometimes frustrating and time consuming, but it did work.

Today, a person can turn on a sonar-GPS unit with a map chip in place and see the structure that is the desired fishing location. Then, it is a matter of watching the screen as the GPS helps you navigate directly to the desired fishing spot.

Rainy Lake is classic example of where the combination of map technology, sonar and GPS can all come together to help anglers find the mid lake structure that is so critical to summer walleye success. This proved to be the case last summer as our group utilized the LakeMaster map chip for Rainy Lake (www.lakemap.com) to hop from spot to spot in our search of walleye. There is no question the mapping technology we utilized put fish in the boat.

Once a mid lake structural element is found, it is not an automatic given it should be fished. Sometimes the most important piece of information our sonar feeds back to us is the absence of bait fish and predator fish. Learning where not to fish allows anglers to spend more time searching for fish holding locations.

It is not uncommon to pull up to a piece of mid lake structure, cruise the top and edges for 15 to 20 minutes and then leave without ever dropping a line. When fish are located, it is usually in one specific section of the structure and not across the entire area.

Another critical part of finding summer walleye on mid lake structure is to concentrate on the edges. Although walleye will be found scattered across the top of structural elements when bait fish are present, they usually prefer to hang on the lip of a hump close to deep water.

Through experience, anglers can learn key information about depth. On small lakes that thermocline, fish may be limited as to how deep they can go. However, on bigger bodies of water, anglers often make the mistake of thinking fish are all going to be relatively shallow. On large lakes, it is not uncommon to find walleye in 30 to 40 during the summer.

There is no hard and fast rule for finding summer walleye on mid lake structure. In order to determine if fish are present on any given piece of structure, anglers have to actually visit that location. However, if a person has no way of locating mid lake structure to begin with, that option is out.

The only given in summer walleye fishing is the need to find fish before you catch them. Utilizing maps, mapping technology, GPS and quality sonar is necessary for consistent success.