Just came out of a 5 full fishing days BWCA trip. First time in mid-summer, all my previous trips were early June focusing on smallmouth. A friend took me, details of where are not mine to share. If that's a problem for anyone, sorry, promised my friend. Suffice it to say it was a large fishy stained lake. But I think what I write below could apply to ANY LAKE with good fish population and decent structure. This wasn't a 'secret lake' by any means.

I also want to emphasize I don't think I am 'right' about the issues below, just reporting my experience on this trip FWIW. Grist for the mill. If you've had exactly the opposite experiences on your 'trip of a lifetime', great, please share and we'll all learn together.

General results: I caught my personal best walleye of 29 inches, measured with tape. It was a monster. In the five days, we had in our canoe 15 walleye over 24 inches. All smallmouth were incidental and I didn't keep a good count, probably over a dozen 'footballs' (over 18 inches, I don't think any went over 20).

So here are some observations, some expected, others not.

1) I alternated rods between 8 lb fireline and 8 lb Berkley mono. No difference at all. And no, I wasn't fishing with two rods at once. I just had both ready, spooled with different line.

2) Tied ball head jig directly to line, no leader. Had a few bite-offs but jig heads are cheap, and pike in canoe are a hassle. Alternated between tipping with 1/3 crawler (not a typo, 3 baits per crawler) and leeches, no difference. Basically bare jig head, with bait, no other plastic or dressing. Jig head color/size didn't matter. Tried black, white, fluorescent green, yellow. 1/8 oz up to 1/2 oz. Didn't matter as long as we kept vertical, six to twelve inches from bottom while anchored, back paddling, or drifting. I would constantly be 'feeling' for the bottom and then raise it up a little. We caught quite a number of fish when we'd first lower the jig to the bottom after rebaiting, gently raise the rod tip, and the fish would be there. Tip: Put a bobber stop knot on your line at desired depth. Depth finder was essential, but this is a good short cut as well to sense when it's getting shallower or dropping off.

3) We generally set hook immediately on tap (or slow tug) like I would crappie fishing. That small a bait seemed to get inhaled immediately. Rarely missed them. Not the way I learned to fish walleye, but there you have it. There was no need to 'give them time'.

4) Did NOT fish the super-early or late evening bite. Caught my big one at 10 a.m. on glassy surface and bright sun. To my surprise, chop/smooth surface didn't matter, nor bright sky or cloudy. Who knows how much better it might have been if we'd fished the "prime times"?

5) depths were 18 feet to 24 feet. There were exceptions, but this was generally the magic window. Points, shelves, mid-lake reefs. Personally I think the deep mid-lake reefs are likely underfished. We found a couple of serious honey holes just by keeping the depth finder on and our eyes open while moving to the places we intended to fish. Keep a marker handy, and if the depth jumps, throw the marker out and check it out! But my lunker was caught near a point, only 40 feet from shore, on a 'shelf' about 20 feet deep.

6) I did experiment a little with slip bobber and bare hook/barrel sinker or just a split shot. Caught fish, but seemed like more of a hassle compared to just a jig.

7) The schools of fish moved. We tried to guard against 'hole sitting' and 'marker fixation. We kept slowly trying different spots on the same structure until we found the fish. When it slowed down, we'd start moving around. Some of the best reefs had large 'empty' areas, but sooner or later we'd find the sweet spot.

I lurk on this board and have learned A LOT from various threads. To repeat, I'm not trying to debunk any ideas of others. Some of the above went against what I would have taken as 'givens'. For example, catching fish midday, glassy surface, bright sun, was WAY outside of my usual way of thinking. And it is possible that this was a total fluke week during which any dummy could have done well. Nor do I know how many more we might have caught if we'd used flourocarbon leaders, fished late evening bite, tried other colors, etc. All I know is that my first fish was caught 30 seconds into first drift, it was 25 inches, and we really never looked back. Why change what was working?

By far and away my best trip ever. I doubt if I'll ever come close again. I might mention that we caught hundreds of smaller fish. The smaller ones were tightly schooled, the larger ones not as much. (There was no 'school' of 29 inchers, ha!) Also, we were with two other less experienced fisherman. They liked to try out different lures, troll, etc., and they caught fish that way but nothing like what I've described. When they'd go to jigging, they did pretty well. Seemed to take them a long time to truly realize you HAVE TO stay in contact with the bottom.

Were I to do another trip in August, I would be confident going in only with a handful of cheap ball-head jigs in varying weights up to 1/2 oz, 3-4 colors, a good depth finder, a bunch of crawlers, and that's all the tackle I'd take in. But then again, I'd possibly get shut out and wish I'd brought the whole tackle box! That's fishing and that's the story of my last week, take it FWIW. (The only thing I would emphasize, try the 1/3 or maybe at most 1/2 crawler on a bare jig head fished straight down. You may be surprised.)

Sounds like a terrific short week/long weekend!

So much useful info. Thanks so much!

Very sweet. You hit it perfect.

I love it when someone challenges the walleye "orthodoxy" and wins. Reminds me of fishing a well known BWCA walleye lake one hot July to find out that any walleye were only taken in 3-4 ft of water on bass spinners.

I have a trip coming in a few weeks. My mantra for this trip is to keep it simple. I was gonna either focus on jigging, or slip bobber set up. But you have
Made my decision for me! Great to hear of your success! Sounds like an awesome trip!

Thanks for sharing your report. How were water levels?

BTW....Welcome to the message board!

quote QueticoMike: "Thanks for sharing your report. How were water levels?"

As per my friend, pretty normal.

quote barehook: "Just came out of a 5 full fishing days BWCA trip. First time in mid-summer, all my previous trips were early June focusing on smallmouth. A friend took me, details of where are not mine to share. If that's a problem for anyone, sorry, promised my friend. Suffice it to say it was a large fishy stained lake. But I think what I write below could apply to ANY LAKE with good fish population and decent structure. This wasn't a 'secret lake' by any means.

I also want to emphasize I don't think I am 'right' about the issues below, just reporting my experience on this trip FWIW. Grist for the mill. If you've had exactly the opposite experiences on your 'trip of a lifetime', great, please share and we'll all learn together.

General results: I caught my personal best walleye of 29 inches, measured with tape. It was a monster. In the five days, we had in our canoe 15 walleye over 24 inches. All smallmouth were incidental and I didn't keep a good count, probably over a dozen 'footballs' (over 18 inches, I don't think any went over 20).

So here are some observations, some expected, others not.

1) I alternated rods between 8 lb fireline and 8 lb Berkley mono. No difference at all. And no, I wasn't fishing with two rods at once. I just had both ready, spooled with different line.

2) Tied ball head jig directly to line, no leader. Had a few bite-offs but jig heads are cheap, and pike in canoe are a hassle. Alternated between tipping with 1/3 crawler (not a typo, 3 baits per crawler) and leeches, no difference. Basically bare jig head, with bait, no other plastic or dressing. Jig head color/size didn't matter. Tried black, white, fluorescent green, yellow. 1/8 oz up to 1/2 oz. Didn't matter as long as we kept vertical, six to twelve inches from bottom while anchored, back paddling, or drifting. I would constantly be 'feeling' for the bottom and then raise it up a little. We caught quite a number of fish when we'd first lower the jig to the bottom after rebaiting, gently raise the rod tip, and the fish would be there. Tip: Put a bobber stop knot on your line at desired depth. Depth finder was essential, but this is a good short cut as well to sense when it's getting shallower or dropping off.

3) We generally set hook immediately on tap (or slow tug) like I would crappie fishing. That small a bait seemed to get inhaled immediately. Rarely missed them. Not the way I learned to fish walleye, but there you have it. There was no need to 'give them time'.

4) Did NOT fish the super-early or late evening bite. Caught my big one at 10 a.m. on glassy surface and bright sun. To my surprise, chop/smooth surface didn't matter, nor bright sky or cloudy. Who knows how much better it might have been if we'd fished the "prime times"?

5) depths were 18 feet to 24 feet. There were exceptions, but this was generally the magic window. Points, shelves, mid-lake reefs. Personally I think the deep mid-lake reefs are likely underfished. We found a couple of serious honey holes just by keeping the depth finder on and our eyes open while moving to the places we intended to fish. Keep a marker handy, and if the depth jumps, throw the marker out and check it out! But my lunker was caught near a point, only 40 feet from shore, on a 'shelf' about 20 feet deep.

6) I did experiment a little with slip bobber and bare hook/barrel sinker or just a split shot. Caught fish, but seemed like more of a hassle compared to just a jig.

7) The schools of fish moved. We tried to guard against 'hole sitting' and 'marker fixation. We kept slowly trying different spots on the same structure until we found the fish. When it slowed down, we'd start moving around. Some of the best reefs had large 'empty' areas, but sooner or later we'd find the sweet spot.

I lurk on this board and have learned A LOT from various threads. To repeat, I'm not trying to debunk any ideas of others. Some of the above went against what I would have taken as 'givens'. For example, catching fish midday, glassy surface, bright sun, was WAY outside of my usual way of thinking. And it is possible that this was a total fluke week during which any dummy could have done well. Nor do I know how many more we might have caught if we'd used flourocarbon leaders, fished late evening bite, tried other colors, etc. All I know is that my first fish was caught 30 seconds into first drift, it was 25 inches, and we really never looked back. Why change what was working?

By far and away my best trip ever. I doubt if I'll ever come close again. I might mention that we caught hundreds of smaller fish. The smaller ones were tightly schooled, the larger ones not as much. (There was no 'school' of 29 inchers, ha!) Also, we were with two other less experienced fisherman. They liked to try out different lures, troll, etc., and they caught fish that way but nothing like what I've described. When they'd go to jigging, they did pretty well. Seemed to take them a long time to truly realize you HAVE TO stay in contact with the bottom.

Were I to do another trip in August, I would be confident going in only with a handful of cheap ball-head jigs in varying weights up to 1/2 oz, 3-4 colors, a good depth finder, a bunch of crawlers, and that's all the tackle I'd take in. But then again, I'd possibly get shut out and wish I'd brought the whole tackle box! That's fishing and that's the story of my last week, take it FWIW. (The only thing I would emphasize, try the 1/3 or maybe at most 1/2 crawler on a bare jig head fished straight down. You may be surprised.)

"

I would like to add one point, and ask a question. IMHO, the statements I made about bright sunny skies not affecting our fishing may have been dependent on the fact we were fishing on a stained water lake. Thus my question: Does anyone have experience or an (informed) opinion that would lend insight on this? Specifically, I'm wondering whether the popular wisdom that says fish early/late might not in fact be more true if fishing non-stained waters.

I think stained water makes the bite better at dusk and dawn more so than clear water. On a stained lake, the walleyes don't feed much at night because they don't have the same advantage they do on a clear lake. Due to that evening fast and that they have a bit of an advantage during dusk and dawn, the bite is better. On a clear lake, they feast all night long. This is why people fish Mille Lacs all night long and do not on Lake of the Woods.

I second what wharrier said. I have noticed a good walleye bite on Agnes, LLC, Iron, or any other bog stained water lake sometimes, incredibly, shuts down at sunset. We were on a medium sized lake this past mid July with moderate bog stain. It was 80 degrees, humid, and bright and the bite of 1-2 pounders was wonderful for us old farts who don't like fishing early or late.

Awesome report and an honest insight to fishing. One of the better reports I have read in awhile. Appreciate the intell, I don't know why others withhold "secrets" as if the same fish will be there next time around. I'm heading up north over Labor Day. Your info may not guarantee me any fish, but your willingness to share gives me hope!! Thanks

barehook:

Great report. I appreciate you sharing your experience.

I was on a week long Ontario fly-in trip for walleye from August 5 -12th . It was the best week of walleye fishing our group of 4 ever experienced ... and we have been going the 2nd week of August for over 30 years.

We caught 58 walleye 25 inches or larger for the week. We usually only average 13 walleye 25 inches or longer for the week.



I attribute our excellent and better than normal fishing success on 2 major factors:

1) stable weather all week. The barometer was steady for all 7 days. No storm fronts coming in and out. No high pressure days and followed by low pressure. We were in shorts all week. Winds were light 2 to 7 mph all week. In fact, I always like walleye fishing with a "walleye chop" but we were catching big fish with no real wind to speak of on many days all week. It is also very noteworthy that there was a nice steady fair weather pattern the whole week before we arrived ... which is a real plus.

2) the biggest factor was that we were fishing during a FULL MOON period (August 7th) . I never used to be a believer in fishing Moon Phases but I have become a real believer ... more Master Angler Big fish are caught the 3 days after, on or the 3 days before a FULL MOON or NEW Moon. I talked to a few others who were fishing during this week as well and they experienced the same large and numbers fishing success. Six buds of mine who only fish for big northerns about 2 hours north east of Sioux Lookout caught 46 Pike over 40 inches the same week I had my success on big walleye.

I grew up out east in Connecticut and we always fish for striped bass on Long Island Sound with the rising and falling TIDES ... caused by the moon. Guess it makes sense that inland lakes are affected by solunar events as well.

Joe Bucher, a noteworthy guide wrote an article that inspired me about Moon Phase fishing. Its a good read:

Joe Bucher: The Real Scoop on Moon Phases

I now try to plan my annual 10 day Quetico trip over the 4th of July and week long Ontario Fly-in trip the 2nd week of August over a New Moon or Full Moon period if at all possible. I try to put big fish possibilities in my favor with these fishing times.

My 4th of July 2017 trip to Sturgeon and Pickerel Lakes was "very short" on numbers and big fish caught. We experienced big storms and a rising and falling unstable barometer all 10 days. In fact, there was below average fishing had the week before we got there, as there were low fronts and east winds and cold fronts coming in and out. I still had a lot of fun but fishing was sub par to say the least.