Top 5 Fall Walleye Fishing Tactics

Autumn is a wonderful time of year with mild temperatures, beautiful scenery and big fish searching for an easy meal before freeze up.  It's the later fact of fall that gets me excited to drop a line in the water.

This past fall was the first time I actually had the chance to dedicate time for some fall fishing.  I had the last week of September and the first week of October off, so we packed up and headed off to Canada.  This had been an unusually warm Fall and I was concerned that I might hit the fall turnover.  This is a period when the water temperature throughout the lake hits around 4 degrees Celsius and it mixes top to bottom.   This occurs because water is most dense at 4 degrees Celsius.  The water during turnover becomes murky and the fish are usually turned off the chew for a few days on either side.  Lucky enough though I didn't have to deal with fall turnover at any of the lakes we visited.

We went after some big pike at other lakes, but we stuck to our home base for a few days and went walleye fishing.  Even though this is a small lake and not really known to hold huge walleye we had fun fishing with great numbers and steady action.

Previously I have come up empty handed when trying for walleye in the fall, so what was the problem? Well here are a few tips I learned this fall that may help you catch more fish.


#1 Spread Thin: In the Fall fish tend to be more spread out since the whole water column is now at a suitable temperature with high oxygen concentration.  Keeping this in mind using a strategy that covers a lot of water will help put you on more fish.  For example; I spent some time drifting with a bottom bouncer and spinner / floater set up that worked really well finding walleye along a drop off in water from 20-30 feet deep.  I find drifting or slow trolling a bottom bouncer in the fall is more effective than a crank bait.  Walleye tend to take the slower moving presentations better with colder water temperatures.

#2 Key Summer Structure: Often the key summer locations like mid lake humps and rocky main lake points will still hold fish in the fall.  These well known spots that are often covered by the weekend warriors are largely forgotten as fall approaches.  The truth is these locations may even become more productive into the fall as fish stack up to feed in these areas.  During the fall weed growth dies off and bait fish are left only to the rocky areas to take cover.  These bait fish are what those larger walleye will be searching out during the fall binge.

#3 Subtle Presentation: When the big flashy summer baits are not working you have to downsize and slow it down.  Remember these fish are exposed to falling temperatures and are sluggish at times with the fluctuating weather patterns of fall.  So go for a slow subtle presentation.  You might consider using a slip float that will hold your presentation in place just like dead sticking on the ice.  This is a highly effective method for fall walleye.

#4 The Minnow:  A top fall fish magnet is the jig and minnow.  It is simple, has been around for a long time and still produces catches of large numbers of fish.  When you find them drop this presentation down and you might be into some non stop action.  Don't forget that simple works!

#5 Big Bait = Big Fish:  In the fall this is especially true for walleye.  If you want to catch a big one and you're fishing a lake where they roam then GO BIG!  A great fall presentation is working large swimbaits 5-6 inches in length slowly through the water column.  Give it a few cranks and let it fall, crank it a few and repeat.  This slow retrieve with that tantalizing tail flicker will have some huge walleye going crazy this fall.  Give it a try with a Big Hammer swim bait.  These soft baits can't be beat for fall fishing!

Hope these few tips will help you put more walleye in the boat this next fall.  Go give it a try.

Till next time, Tight Lines!

The Fishing Doctor

Trophies of the Past - Fishing Seibert Lake

The sun was just cresting over the horizon as dawn promised a beautiful day. I was in the back seat of my uncles Chevy listening to the stories of old exchanged between my uncle and his father in law. We were headed off ice fishing and spotting dear in the never ending glistening snowy fields of northern Alberta. Now this may have been over 20 years ago, but I still remember the stories they told about fishing Seibert Lake. That famed Trophy Lake where you weren’t allowed to use bait and the monstrosities of fish would just cruise on by.

Over the years I’ve fished Pinehurst and Spencer, but never stopped to see if the fish were biting at Seibert Lake. That is until this summer.

We were visiting family in Canada and were fortunate enough to have a neighbor lend his fishing boat to us for a few days. I had been researching all the lakes north of Edmonton and decided that the one I’d most like to explore was Seibert. I’d never been there and the chance to keep a walleye for dinner had me excited to go.

Now considering I have a 6 month pregnant wife, a daughter who’s a few months from two, a 15 year old brother and the parents along I wasn’t expecting to leave at the crack of dawn. So we got a late start and headed out to Seibert Lake. If you’ve never been there the last 20 km of road is a sandy forest road. We pulled a 16 foot aluminum Lund behind my Dad’s Escalade and needless to say it was a little muddier than when we started.

The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and the fish awaited us. We launched and headed up to the north side of the lake where I hoped to find some structure. We trolled a drop off with deep diving crankbaits in 20 to 30 feet of water. The fish finder was marking some very nice arches. The only problem was that all these arches (sonar fish) were right on the bottom and were refusing to take our offerings of Rapala and Reef Runner. There didn’t appear to be any suspended fish either which are usually more likely to hit trolled crankbaits.

This predicament required a change in attack, so we sped around to the other side of the lake and found some weed beds. My Dad was the first to hook up. It seemed to be a pike on the line and dragged him right down into the thick of the weeds. We had to position the boat against the wind in order to try and pull the fish out. When we finally got the line free there was only a fishless crankbait covered in weeds at the end of the line.

Nearby a gentle point on this very featureless lake beckoned me to give it a try. I decided there must be some walleye hanging around, so we stopped and anchored off the point in 20 feet of water. We selected lures and started casting. I went with a personal favorite to use on bait ban lakes, the chrome and glow Cicada blade bait.

I started my fan casting pattern to cover the water by tossing it as far out as I could. Let the lure free fall to the bottom with a semi taught line. Using this technique you can tell when your bait hits bottom or a fish takes it on the drop. When the lure contacts bottom pull the rod tip 1-4 feet and let it flutter back to the bottom under light tension. This method may imitate a feeding or wounded baitfish.

It wasn’t long before one of those pops off the bottom led to a subtle tap. Without hesitation I loaded up the
rod and sunk those barbless hooks into a nice fish. After a short battle a fat walleye was in the boat. It measured over the 50cm size limit and went into the ice chest for dinner. After the success my dad and brother switched over to the Cicada and started catching walleye as well.

Soon the afternoon sky darkened as large rain clouds headed our way. We thought they might miss us, but then the down pour came rapidly. We pulled the anchor and headed straight for shore to hide under some trees until it passed. We weren’t even under the trees for 5 minutes when the rain subsided. You have to love Alberta afternoon showers! The sun came out and the lake was glass calm.

We decided to have a little shore lunch since we were already on solid ground. After finding some dry wood we started our fire, dried off and ate some yummy hot dogs before heading back out on the water.

The rest of the evening was spectacular and we continued to cast blade baits for a walleye here and there. It wasn’t fast and furious action, but we did manage to release a bunch and take home a couple for dinner. Good fishing considering we were exploring a new lake in August. What a great way to spend the day with family.

Another great adventure, creating my own story fishing the Trophy Lake of Old.