It's no secret. Walleye, or more commonly known to us Canucks as Yellow Pickerel, always have been and I would guess always will be the number one sought after gamefish species in Canada. What is it about ol' "Marble-eyes" that makes him so popular? Beside the fact that he inhabits nearly every body of water in Ontario and usually in great numbers, the clearest point remains that your tastebuds are in for a Monterey Rock Festival when it comes "chow-tyme".
It's not surprising that our Walleye are tops on the lists of personal food sources. His closest biological cousin is the perch. Everyone likes perch, don't they? One good thing that this fish does have going for him is the fact that he is the largest member of the perch family growing to a world caught record size of 25 pounds. Every year anglers in Ontario enter fish over 15 pounds in the provincial Molsons Big Fish Contest.
A treat to eat and a treat to catch but how, when and where? Seasonally, the Walleye can be caught with consistency through the entire calender. The only limitations are specific areas that put a season on the fish. Check the free written summary of sportfishing regulations before you go out on any water if you're not sure. In Southwestern Ontario, we have the luxury of a no-closed season which allows us to chase those tasty critters through the four seasons.
More specifically, Walleye are generally easier to catch during the low light periods of the day. The first two hours and last few hours of daylight have always been my best times. Many anglers fold up their tackle boxes at dark and must figure the fish do the same. Many species do go neutral at night, but not this guy. As a matter of fact during the summer months, Mr Walleye much prefers to take his feeding frenzies long after dark.
Walleye are named for their large eyes complete with fixed pupils which allow a maximum amount of light to enter the eye. Because the fish has no way of controlling the amount of light entering his eyes we find that this fish seeks out deep water or thick weeds to compensate the brilliant sunlight encountered during mid-day.
The exceptions to this rule is the effects of a cloudy day or the amount of snow cover on the ice if you are winter fishing. This acts as a barrier from the brightness.
The other time that you may encounter fish feeding heavily at mid-day would be in the late spring as water temperatures are still warming up and the fish are recuperating from their spring spawning rituals. Many times during the month of May on Lake St Clair we catch most of our fish in the early afternoon. If you use a temperature probe, you will find the probability that the water has warmed a few degrees with the intense sunlight. This will trigger the fish to feed as their metabolism depends largely on the temperature of their watery world. Remember, they are cold blooded!
It has been written so many times that if you can find Mr Fish, you can catch him. None is the truer when it comes to this fellow. Where do you even begin to look for the Walleye population in any given lake? Firstly, one must consider the seasonal movements of fish. That's all I say for now in brief.
They spend their summers in water depths 20 - 50 feet depending on the food source of the lake. If smelt are prominent in the lake, then look for the smelt or a favorable temperature around 54 degrees. If shiner minnows are the base forage then turn your attentions to sunken rock islands, mid-lake humps, sand bars and weedlines. A good hydrographic type chart of the lake will point out all the optimum spots.
If you are fishing a river from shore you can expect the fish to be moving along the sharpest drop-off. Some form of structure (weeds, rocks, etc) is extremely beneficial as well.
If you are making your efforts from a boat, some type of underwater eyes in the form of an electronic flasher, LCD, graph or video monitor will help you locate those under water fish houses. I grew up using an electronic flasher and am very comfortable with them now. I presently own both a flasher and an LCD which offers a little more visually. I've seen some good video monitors that work well and it is real hard to beat a top quality graph recorder. Unfortunately, beat is what I would be if I ever spent the $1000 on one of those!
Whatever form of electronic underwater vision you go with, concentrate your efforts on finding good structure not fish. If you can find fish with any of the above, consider it a bonus. They will visually record any fish that may happen to be directly in line with your signal sounding transducer but in most cases you can drive around the lake all day and not mark a single fish.
Next issue we will take a closer look at pin-pointing these fish at various times of the year and lay out a few of the basic techniques used to catch Canada's most popular sportfish.
