Walleye Transition: When the Dog Days of Summer Linger
After returning from NY to Michigan, every year is nearly the same. Water temps still linger around 70ish degrees. Fish are still sluggish from a long summer. What is a walleye fisherman to do?
Enter the leech. Leeches have been great transition presentation options for me when you're in the in between phase of the season. I like to fish a leech under a cork as actively as I can. Which means we cast and cast and cast. And we drag our bobbers and we drag them again and we do it again and then we recast.
LIVESCOPE and Bobberscoping
Now that we have FFS, everything is different. We are casting directly to pods of fish, and we are watching the fish come up, take the offering, and then watch systematically as the bobber goes down: the most fun way anyone could ever imagine fishing.
How long does the leech work?
Leeches are great baits until the water temps drop below 60 degrees. The colder water causes these little invertebrates to begin to ball up instead of swimming vigorously to attract a bite.
Top 4 recommendations for slip bobber fishing with leeches:
Use a long rod. Long rods make long casts and sweeping lots of line off the water quickly for a hook set easy. I like the 9’6” ML Douglas XMatrix or LRS Spinning Rod. Amazing tools for slip bobber fishing.
Use a small tungsten jig. I like to put my leech on a Keitech 1/16 oz #1 jighead. Helps get the leech down with lots of great hook ups.
Don’t be a lazy bobber fisherman. I like to lift my bobber 5’ at a time to move the bait and to stir up the leech. I get a lot of bites after lifting the bait.
Must keep leeches fresh: Engel Coolers. Engel makes a great bait cooler. I have a couple and I buy my leeches by the pound - much cheaper. But in order to keep them alive, I have to change the water every day or so. These coolers make this process so much easier.
Want to put more walleyes in the boat during what might be a tough transition window for many people? Put a leech under a cork and get after them!