Post Spawn Walleyes - Cracking the code
There’s nothing more frustrating that setting out on an adventure to catch post spawn, cold water walleyes and striking out. I know we have been frustrated about just how scattered fish can be early in the season. So what can you do to increase the odds of success? Here are a couple things we are learning right now:
Don’t think structure. Fish are spread out and you just need to cover ground. Shallow, warming featureless bays can be great areas to look.
Think about choosing good search baits. Jerkbaits and rattle baits can be excellent lures to cover lots of water. Cast and cast and cast.
The key is contacting fish. You have to find them. Consider spending more time searching and less time picking apart structure. What we have found is that when you put the bait in front of the fish, they eat it. The bites we got were vicious. We had walleyes chasing and snapping, but we didn’t see nearly as many as we hoped to catch.
Yesterday we hunted post spawn walleyes (water temps started at 47 and ended at 50). We caught a fish right away and then struggled, catching one here and one there. Then the wind completely died and we struggled to catch anything. We ended our time realizing that the fish were really scattered and we really just needed to move and cover ground.