5 Top Walleye Strategies for the Summer-to-Fall Transition

Just the other day I was roasting during the Dog Days bite. Temps, mid 90s. Wind? Nonexistent. Midday sun straight overhead.

This is the time of year when fishing mythology suggests we shouldn’t bother fishing mid-day. But I caught lots of eater walleyes along a weedline in a sheltered bay before I snapped out of it and went searching and covering water. A couple miles from those eaters, on a long, flat point jutting a few hundred yards out into the lake, it happened. Big fish marks! And they cooperated. One tipped my scale to 9.4 pounds, and the next was just under 5 pounds. More on this in a bit. Other than wake-surf boats and pontoons pulling kids on tubes my boat was the only boat one on the lake. Nobody fishes in those conditions!

But really, it’s the season of plenty. Not only is the family garden ripening produce at a rapid rate, the lakes and rivers in walleye country are also at high productivity. But beware: today’s red ripe tomatoes are tomorrow’s moldy culls. While young-of-the-year minnows swarm in the green weedbeds, other weeds are already turning brown or cutting loose from bottom to float on the surface, fouling lines and lures. Rivers are running at the weediest sludge level of the year. Late summer heat waves make fishing less pleasant. Fish are feeding, but the environment isn’t all fun and games.

Walleye seem to stay in nomad mode, roaming widely and almost constantly. They don’t seem to stay on any particular spot or respond to any one presentation. What’s a walleye angler to do?

This is not finesse season. The fish are at their metabolic peak. It’s generally best to spend less time on any given structure. Hit quickly, find feeding fish and move on! Sonar marks that don’t respond are irrelevant. Keep moving to find the active feeders.

This is when I tend to switch to bigger plastics – 4 ½-inch YUM Pulse paddle tails and 4-inch YUM FFS Minnows – and I fish them aggressively. I also like casting shad baits like the Bandit Walleye Shad this time of year because I can quickly work a point, a reef or a weed edge and move on. If walleyes are deep, get out the Heddon Sonars or Cordell CC Spoons, but don’t linger. Hit hotspots and go! The season for slowly dragging live minnows is months away.

As some of the weeds begin to wane, the importance of green healthy weeds increases. This is even more important as the minnow schools get concentrated into less and less “perfect” weedbeds.

In keeping with the “fish faster” theme, you may find it works better to fish over the weeds where you can. That lets you fish more quickly than when you work right in the weeds. Stickbaits and jerkbaits like the Smithwick Rattlin’ Rogue, Bomber Long A, Cordell Ripplin’ Red Fin and BOOYAH Flash Point do a ton of damage this time of year. It’s the opposite of the bass game, where jerkbaits are primarily cold-water lures.

Underspin jigs with plastic trailers too have a dedicated following with late summer weed experts. Try the Sneaky Underspin from Great Lakes Finesse.

The more they move, the more you need to catch them in predictable situations. As walleyes move up or down the lake, they are susceptible when passing through narrows, on saddles between structures and at mouths of bays and tributaries. Again, fishing fast is the ticket when contacting nomads. You are out to bump into them as they move through.

One exception to the “fish fast” rule is if you have a productive spot with fish actively moving through. It might be worth anchoring and letting the fish come to you. I know that violates the “fish fast” ethic, but this is an alternative way to contact roaming walleyes. Those lunkers I caught in the heat a few days ago came to me anchored and waiting.

This is another method for intercepting nomadic fish. You can’t always find narrows or a saddle or other “pinch point,” so just start moving until you bump them. This is the “long drag” method the old timers were so good at.

Tie on a mid-depth crankbait like a Cordell Wally Diver or Bomber Deep Flat A (if the drifting weeds will allow it) or run a Lindy Crawler Harness or baited Lil’ Guy action float behind either a bottom bouncer sinker or a big bell sinker on a three-way swivel.

Modern forward facing sonar guys make fun of old school dragging like this, but there’s no denying the decades of success this approach has to its credit. Whenever you don’t have a specific location dialed in, and when the walleyes appear to be movers not sitters, running a crawler rig and covering miles can save the day.

The reason Community Holes exist is because those spots produce consistently. After Labor Day, angling pressure drops off. That overfished bumper-boats area suddenly has very little pressure. I tend to avoid community holes during peak bites, but I’m known to swallow my pride and sneak into those spots when the rest of the boaters are gone.

As the season transitions toward fall the fish can be challenging to pattern. The old Community Hole is almost a pattern in itself. Whether it’s a jigging spot or a trolling pass – a small spot or a long stretch – when you are struggling to find fish in transition, fall back on the old spots everyone knows about.

Take what you learn there and apply it elsewhere in the system. Maybe you’ll figure out a specific lure or depth. Perhaps you’ll figure out a crankbait approach? The tougher the fishing outside the Community Hole, the more important that you learn a few tidbits from it.

Final Thoughts: As challenging as the transition from late summer to early fall walleye fishing can be, it’s still a time of major feeding and abundance. Don’t let the myths about hot calm days keep you home. Bring extra water. Bring some iced fresh veggies from the garden, and don’t be shy about it. Rip around the lake and aggressively go, go, go!